Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yep. I also can't wrap my head around the fact that we are now constructing buttons, drop-down boxes, tagged text boxes using dozens of nested layers instead of a native widget that writes directly to the screen. My 486 rendered UIs with nearly imperceptible lag. Google Docs takes a good 2-3 seconds to spin up a UI on my i7.
I don't get this criticism. HTML/CSS is the closest we have to a universally understood syntax for designing interfaces. Why invent a new standard? HTML is fine, CSS is fine. Most importantly, everyone understands it and can work immediately with it. Any issues with performance is due to the implementation of the platform that renders this HTML/CSS interface. It's much more likely Google Docs feels sluggish due to th…
> everyone understands it and can work immediately with it.
Only if by "understands" you mean "everyone is capable to throw things at the wall and seeing what sticks". I have seen a lot o HTML and CSS and let's just say, only a small fraction looked like it was done by someone with understanding "what" and "why". Otherwise it was just tortured to the point "somehow works unless someone changes something".