4 ms·

You Don't Need HTML

105 points by edent 4y ago

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
Minor49er 4y ago
Pretty funny, though I would hesitate to call Salma Alam-Naylor's fruitless article "excellent"
newbieuser 4y ago
someone should make a javascript version of this
- mesozoic 4y ago
  And a webgl one.
- timeon 4y ago
  const newDiv = document.createElement("div"); const newContent = document.createTextNode("You Don't Need HTML!"); newDiv.appendChild(newContent);
theflyingelvis 4y ago
HTML can be easier to read though.
- Finnucane 4y ago
  And more accessible too. I mean, I appreciate that this is intended as a joke, but imagine trying to use read-aloud software on this page.
zzo38computer 4y ago
I think that Unicode is bad. Furthermore, Unicode does not have everything. EBCDIC is no good either, though. Also, the linked file still has HTML, although only a character encoding declaration and a <plaintext> command.
yrds96 4y ago
I've heard that you don't need JS neither CSS, now this is next level. Jokes apart, I think this is a readable page, despite the lack of centering.
- zzo38computer 4y ago
  It depends on what you are making, specifically. I do think that usually you should not need JS nor CSS. Often HTML is not needed either and plain text will do (even, without Unicode), but HTML can help sometimes.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
imilk 4y ago
Well I see 6 HTML tag on the site
goto11 4y ago
This is still HTML though. Can't you serve plain unicode using the text/plain content type?
- dundarious 4y ago
  `content-type: text/html` but first line is just `<!doctype UNICODE><meta charset="UTF-8"><plaintext>` then no more tags, even to close.
  - edent 4y ago
    It is impossible to close a <plaintext> element.
    - cedilla 4y ago
      I thought this would be another weird new tag, but on the contrary: <plaintext> is deprecated since HTML 2 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/plaintext https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/pl...
    - dundarious 4y ago
      Absolutely, was just implying it was served as HTML but about as little as you can get, just a tiny preamble.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
mdp2021 4y ago
Don't miss a very probable context, that in the frontpage we currently have an older submission "HTML is all you need to make a website"
- Minor49er 4y ago
  The bottom of the page already mentions that it's a direct response to that article
thepostman0 4y ago
If you can't say it in plain text, it isn't worth saying.
dang 4y ago
Related ongoing thread: HTML is all you need to make a website - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33642490 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33642490 - Nov 2022 (91 comments)
jamesgreenleaf 4y ago
I'll eagerly await the ASCII-only "You Don't Need Unicode"
eterm 4y ago
Damn it unicode: https://imgur.com/a/W1jQSZM https://imgur.com/a/W1jQSZM
- kedean 4y ago
  The whole thing is wonky as hell on mobile. The title looks somehow italicized, but in slightly different ways depending on the browser choice.
- Mr_Modulo 4y ago
  The author should have used a monospace font or a pre html element. Dang, they can't do that!
csande17 4y ago
I disagree with the flowchart. Surely, since UTF-8 is backwards-compatible with ASCII, your writing should be encoded in ASCII if it was written by an American.
ajuc 4y ago
Long ago there were pure ASCII text files with tutorials about computer graphics written by some guy from South Africa. There were ASCII diagrams and everything :)
butz 4y ago
Time to go back to BBS. Or teletext.
someweirdperson 4y ago
The opposite of sucks isn't rocks but rules, isn't it?
- edent 4y ago
  This was my (weak) attempt at referencing the venerable https://www.html5rocks.com/en/index https://www.html5rocks.com/en/index
singularity2001 4y ago
It does raise some valid points: does color encoding belong into unicode? should we roll back bold and cursive alphabet unicode sections and relay these to fonts? or should we extend unicode to include horizontal and vertical mirroring of characters?
- jhanschoo 4y ago
  The bold and cursive Unicode have a "proper" use in display for mathematical symbols. You can't roll back these assignments anyway, and these are probably most dominantly used in math homework etc. produced in MS Word.
- CRConrad 4y ago
  I thought Unicode already has mirrored characters?
  - singularity2001 4y ago
    There is a Unicode control code to change text direction[0] (arab etc). But no control codes to mirror individual characters or words vertically or horizontally. Nor are there general stand-alone mirrored letters, only a few select exceptions [1] U+202E "OVERRIDE, RIGHT-TO-LEFT" 0x0F3B 3899 TIBETAN MARK GUG RTAGS GYAS ༻ 0x0F3A 3898 TIBETAN MARK GUG RTAGS GYON ༺ And some funny trickery mapping roman letters to … whatever looks similar: https://fontvilla.com/mirror-text-generator/ https://fontvilla.com/mirror-text-generator/

You Don't Need HTML

105 points by edent 4y ago

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Minor49er 4y ago

Pretty funny, though I would hesitate to call Salma Alam-Naylor's fruitless article "excellent"

newbieuser 4y ago

someone should make a javascript version of this

mesozoic 4y ago
And a webgl one.
timeon 4y ago
const newDiv = document.createElement("div"); const newContent = document.createTextNode("You Don't Need HTML!"); newDiv.appendChild(newContent);

theflyingelvis 4y ago

HTML can be easier to read though.

Finnucane 4y ago
And more accessible too. I mean, I appreciate that this is intended as a joke, but imagine trying to use read-aloud software on this page.

zzo38computer 4y ago

I think that Unicode is bad. Furthermore, Unicode does not have everything. EBCDIC is no good either, though. Also, the linked file still has HTML, although only a character encoding declaration and a <plaintext> command.

yrds96 4y ago

I've heard that you don't need JS neither CSS, now this is next level. Jokes apart, I think this is a readable page, despite the lack of centering.

zzo38computer 4y ago
It depends on what you are making, specifically. I do think that usually you should not need JS nor CSS. Often HTML is not needed either and plain text will do (even, without Unicode), but HTML can help sometimes.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

imilk 4y ago

Well I see 6 HTML tag on the site

goto11 4y ago

This is still HTML though. Can't you serve plain unicode using the text/plain content type?

dundarious 4y ago
`content-type: text/html` but first line is just `<!doctype UNICODE><meta charset="UTF-8"><plaintext>` then no more tags, even to close.
- edent 4y ago
  It is impossible to close a <plaintext> element.
  - cedilla 4y ago
    I thought this would be another weird new tag, but on the contrary: <plaintext> is deprecated since HTML 2 https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/plaintext https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTML/Element/pl...
  - dundarious 4y ago
    Absolutely, was just implying it was served as HTML but about as little as you can get, just a tiny preamble.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

mdp2021 4y ago

Don't miss a very probable context, that in the frontpage we currently have an older submission "HTML is all you need to make a website"

Minor49er 4y ago
The bottom of the page already mentions that it's a direct response to that article

thepostman0 4y ago

If you can't say it in plain text, it isn't worth saying.

dang 4y ago

Related ongoing thread: HTML is all you need to make a website - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33642490 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33642490 - Nov 2022 (91 comments)

jamesgreenleaf 4y ago

I'll eagerly await the ASCII-only "You Don't Need Unicode"

eterm 4y ago

Damn it unicode: https://imgur.com/a/W1jQSZM https://imgur.com/a/W1jQSZM

kedean 4y ago
The whole thing is wonky as hell on mobile. The title looks somehow italicized, but in slightly different ways depending on the browser choice.
Mr_Modulo 4y ago
The author should have used a monospace font or a pre html element. Dang, they can't do that!

csande17 4y ago

I disagree with the flowchart. Surely, since UTF-8 is backwards-compatible with ASCII, your writing should be encoded in ASCII if it was written by an American.

ajuc 4y ago

Long ago there were pure ASCII text files with tutorials about computer graphics written by some guy from South Africa. There were ASCII diagrams and everything :)

butz 4y ago

Time to go back to BBS. Or teletext.

someweirdperson 4y ago

The opposite of sucks isn't rocks but rules, isn't it?

edent 4y ago
This was my (weak) attempt at referencing the venerable https://www.html5rocks.com/en/index https://www.html5rocks.com/en/index

singularity2001 4y ago

It does raise some valid points: does color encoding belong into unicode? should we roll back bold and cursive alphabet unicode sections and relay these to fonts? or should we extend unicode to include horizontal and vertical mirroring of characters?

jhanschoo 4y ago
The bold and cursive Unicode have a "proper" use in display for mathematical symbols. You can't roll back these assignments anyway, and these are probably most dominantly used in math homework etc. produced in MS Word.
CRConrad 4y ago
I thought Unicode already has mirrored characters?
- singularity2001 4y ago
  There is a Unicode control code to change text direction[0] (arab etc). But no control codes to mirror individual characters or words vertically or horizontally. Nor are there general stand-alone mirrored letters, only a few select exceptions [1] U+202E "OVERRIDE, RIGHT-TO-LEFT" 0x0F3B 3899 TIBETAN MARK GUG RTAGS GYAS ༻ 0x0F3A 3898 TIBETAN MARK GUG RTAGS GYON ༺ And some funny trickery mapping roman letters to … whatever looks similar: https://fontvilla.com/mirror-text-generator/ https://fontvilla.com/mirror-text-generator/