notes.billmill.org / link_blog / 2023 / 12 /

Luxury of Simplicity

Dec 31, 2023

https://macwright.com/2023/12/31/luxury-of-simplicity.html

Writing a blog engine, with one customer, yourself, is the most luxuriously simple web application possible.

HTML-maximalists arguing that it’s the best way probably haven’t worked on a hard enough problem to notice how insufficient SELECT boxes are. Or how the dialog element just doesn’t help much. Complaining about ARIA accessibility based on out-of-date notions when the accessibility of modern UI libraries is nothing short of fantastic. And what about dealing with complex state? Keybindings with different behaviors based on UI state. Actions that re-render parts of the page - if you update “units” from miles to meters and you want the map scale, the title element, and the measuring tools to all update seamlessly. HTML has no native solution for client-side state management, and some applications genuinely require it.

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