4 ms·

A "pageless document that lives online" is also known as... a web page. Instead of creating web pages in html, css, and js, people will now create them using f

by cs702 5y ago

A "pageless document that lives online" is also known as... a web page. Instead of creating web pages in html, css, and js, people will now create them using familiar "word processing" and "spreadsheet" apps on Google Drive. And these web pages come with nice fine-grained access controls -- authors can specify who is able to view, comment on, and edit their documents with a few clicks. Makes perfect sense.

da39a3ee 5y ago
Yes. Html/css/js is to a first approximation only usable by professionals anyway. It makes no sense to require normal people to employ professionals to simply make web pages.
deanebarker 5y ago
This is exactly what I was thinking. I read that page, and at the end, I thought "...so HTML then?"
- raldi 5y ago
  How do three nontechnical writers collaborate on an HTML document?
  - wongarsu 5y ago
    In the real world typically with Wordpress if the target group is outside the company or Confluence if the target group is inside the company.
    - monkeybutton 5y ago
      I prefer the process of writing up a short document describing a feature proposal or small project using Google docs over confluence. Its self contained, limited (focused) in scope and the highlighting/commenting/editing feedback loop between multiple authors is way better.
prepend 5y ago
This is Frontpage for 2022.
yoz-y 5y ago
That is a weird criticism. A document is clearly not a webpage, main use of Google docs is easy collaboration and that’s not really a thing with html. Most people would not set up something like a git repo to track changes and comment on the content for example.
- cs702 5y ago
  My comment was not meant as criticism. I'm not sure why anyone would interpret it as such.
  - phreack 5y ago
    The way you laid out the beats of your original comment made it sound sarcastic if you read it expecting the usual off-hand snark that's prevalent on the internet, so "makes perfect sense" would turn into "makes no sense at all" - therefore seeming like the product is useless or a step back when web pages already exist.
    - cs702 5y ago
      Thank you. Your feedback is helpful: In hindsight, I can now see my comment could be misinterpreted as sarcastic, even if that wasn't my intention. (If anything, I think giving people more/better tools for creating online content is great -- with the obvious caveat that all this content will reside in "private webs of documents" controlled by a single company.)
  - raldi 5y ago
    Your opening sentence came off to me as sarcastic opining that this is an inferior reinvention of a 30-year-old wheel.
    - cs702 5y ago
      Thank you. That's what phreack said too. See my response to him here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30555760 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30555760
ivansavz 5y ago
Speaking of editing web pages using gdocs, I implemented this approach[1] on a recent project to make an easy-to-use CMS. The server acts as a proxy to get the HTML from google docs and does some cleanup[2]. It's pretty good for simple info pages that don't require any special CSS or layout. [1] https://github.com/rocdata/rocserver/blob/main/website/views.py#L68-L88 https://github.com/rocdata/rocserver/blob/main/website/views... [2] https://github.com/rocdata/rocserver/blob/main/website/views.py#L16-L47 https://github.com/rocdata/rocserver/blob/main/website/views...
elcomet 5y ago
What ? This is not a web page, this is a text editor with no page layout. It has nothing to do with a webpage. You have the implication backward (all web documents are pageless but not all pageless documents are web pages..) Edit: I also thought your comment was sarcastic, my bad

by cs702 5y ago

da39a3ee 5y ago

Yes. Html/css/js is to a first approximation only usable by professionals anyway. It makes no sense to require normal people to employ professionals to simply make web pages.

deanebarker 5y ago

This is exactly what I was thinking. I read that page, and at the end, I thought "...so HTML then?"

raldi 5y ago
How do three nontechnical writers collaborate on an HTML document?
- wongarsu 5y ago
  In the real world typically with Wordpress if the target group is outside the company or Confluence if the target group is inside the company.
  - monkeybutton 5y ago
    I prefer the process of writing up a short document describing a feature proposal or small project using Google docs over confluence. Its self contained, limited (focused) in scope and the highlighting/commenting/editing feedback loop between multiple authors is way better.

prepend 5y ago

This is Frontpage for 2022.

yoz-y 5y ago

That is a weird criticism. A document is clearly not a webpage, main use of Google docs is easy collaboration and that’s not really a thing with html. Most people would not set up something like a git repo to track changes and comment on the content for example.

cs702 5y ago
My comment was not meant as criticism. I'm not sure why anyone would interpret it as such.
- phreack 5y ago
  The way you laid out the beats of your original comment made it sound sarcastic if you read it expecting the usual off-hand snark that's prevalent on the internet, so "makes perfect sense" would turn into "makes no sense at all" - therefore seeming like the product is useless or a step back when web pages already exist.
  - cs702 5y ago
    Thank you. Your feedback is helpful: In hindsight, I can now see my comment could be misinterpreted as sarcastic, even if that wasn't my intention. (If anything, I think giving people more/better tools for creating online content is great -- with the obvious caveat that all this content will reside in "private webs of documents" controlled by a single company.)
- raldi 5y ago
  Your opening sentence came off to me as sarcastic opining that this is an inferior reinvention of a 30-year-old wheel.
  - cs702 5y ago
    Thank you. That's what phreack said too. See my response to him here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30555760 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30555760

ivansavz 5y ago

Speaking of editing web pages using gdocs, I implemented this approach[1] on a recent project to make an easy-to-use CMS. The server acts as a proxy to get the HTML from google docs and does some cleanup[2]. It's pretty good for simple info pages that don't require any special CSS or layout. [1] https://github.com/rocdata/rocserver/blob/main/website/views.py#L68-L88 https://github.com/rocdata/rocserver/blob/main/website/views... [2] https://github.com/rocdata/rocserver/blob/main/website/views.py#L16-L47 https://github.com/rocdata/rocserver/blob/main/website/views...

elcomet 5y ago

What ? This is not a web page, this is a text editor with no page layout. It has nothing to do with a webpage. You have the implication backward (all web documents are pageless but not all pageless documents are web pages..) Edit: I also thought your comment was sarcastic, my bad