Hear hear! As wonderful as it is that we can build applications on top of the open web platform, we must never forget that the web's greatest strength is that i

Hear hear! As wonderful as it is that we can build applications on top of the open web platform, we must never forget that the web's greatest strength is that is is a universal network of documents — readable by cross-platform document viewers (aka browsers). The interactivity on top of those documents is what makes the concept so unique, so powerful. No other application platform or format by any vendor can claim anything close to this. That's why we need to treasure HTML, CSS, etc. These standards enable universal understanding and sharing of web documents. I can "view source" this very Hacker News page I'm writing on, and I can see why there's a text box here and a button below that and comments below that. I can find out why the Hacker News nav bar at the top is orange, and why there's a beige background color underneath. Never, ever underestimate the importance of that. Front-end development isn't some crappy bag of hurt we need to minimize. It's a glorious exploration of all that is possible on the web.