If there was a text-based UI for Photoshop, I doubt it would be better at most things than how Photoshop works now, which involves direct manipulation of an ima

If there was a text-based UI for Photoshop, I doubt it would be better at most things than how Photoshop works now, which involves direct manipulation of an image with essentially real time feedback of each action as you do it. The OP is also talking about editing the visual side of things, and I think if a well-done editor that also output good CSS and HTML existed, it would be embraced by many. Of course, I'm someone who enjoys using Xcode's interface builder tools to edit GUIs, rather than laying out controls in code, because I get instant feedback with Xcode's interface builder. As others have mentioned, something similar for Web work seems like it could be very powerful.