Re:HTML is object code
by jacquesm on Saturday August 01, 2009 @08:45PM
(#736903)
> if you embrace the fact that HTML/JS/CSS will at best represent an approximation of the interface you intend to create
-- start rant --
Why embrace it ? I see this as a major shortcoming.
It's like it is 1986 again, everybody and their brother coding new and exciting user interfaces on their EGA screens.
Every website works differently. It's a UI nightmare. Throw in the 'approximation' factor and it is understandable why efficiency/productivity goes down the drain.
Because there is no standard menu structure, because there are no standard form validation methods you need to re-implement these basic features, and it seems that there are endless ways to do so.
The software wheel has not been re-invented as many times in the past as it has been on the web.
What should really be embraced is the resilience of the USER, not of the web technologies. End users are the people that have to put up with the messy environment that the architects of the web produce, and they do so admirably.
Take HN as an example. It's hard to even improve the slightest bit over the austere user interface that it offers. A few minor nitpicks, that's about it. And yet, I'm sure if I asked some art director to do a 'makeover' that he'd manage to run it right in to the ground. It would take 10 seconds per page to load and you wouldn't be able to make heads or tales of it. It would look positively fabulous though...
-- start rant --
Why embrace it ? I see this as a major shortcoming.
It's like it is 1986 again, everybody and their brother coding new and exciting user interfaces on their EGA screens.
Every website works differently. It's a UI nightmare. Throw in the 'approximation' factor and it is understandable why efficiency/productivity goes down the drain.
Because there is no standard menu structure, because there are no standard form validation methods you need to re-implement these basic features, and it seems that there are endless ways to do so.
The software wheel has not been re-invented as many times in the past as it has been on the web.
What should really be embraced is the resilience of the USER, not of the web technologies. End users are the people that have to put up with the messy environment that the architects of the web produce, and they do so admirably.
Take HN as an example. It's hard to even improve the slightest bit over the austere user interface that it offers. A few minor nitpicks, that's about it. And yet, I'm sure if I asked some art director to do a 'makeover' that he'd manage to run it right in to the ground. It would take 10 seconds per page to load and you wouldn't be able to make heads or tales of it. It would look positively fabulous though...
Rigidity is not always a bad thing.
-- end rant --