I'd say the problem isn't "this is not JSX", but that the syntax just looks awful: div [] [ div [] [ button [ onClick Increment ] [ text "+" ] ]

I'd say the problem isn't "this is not JSX", but that the syntax just looks awful: div [] [ div [] [ button [ onClick Increment ] [ text "+" ] ] , div [] [ text <| toString model.counter ] , div [] [ button [ onClick Decrement ] [ text "-" ] ] ] JSX isn't the only syntax that took off, there are for example indentation based syntaxes for HTML, theoretically: div div button onClick: Increment text "+" div text <| toString model.counter div button onClick: Decrement text "-" already much nicer (and if it was all wrapped in parens it wouldn't make much of a difference). Given that Elm is "just" for making HTML apps, this does seem like something the language should focus on.