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A web page.

A word processor or a web publishing framework are more complex and less tractable than HTML and CSS written in a text editor. Even if you manage to export something it will be mangled and you haven't learnt the tools or produced the result that you set out to.

Learning HTML and publishing something on the web is a uniquely technically empowering feeling.




HTML and CSS are probably the absolute worst thing for document creation and management. HTML/CSS are in fact complex, and suffer major issues with export, long-term backup, sharing/collaboration, revision control, review-workflows, printing, security (encryption and password access) and consistent presentation. This is why you want government documents stored in PDF, ODF, or DOCX and not in HTML/CSS.


AFAIU, (there's probably better insight out there)— but governments seem to love XML.


Sure. There's a reason why ODF and DOCX are both xml-based formats in a zip container.


Right right! I don't have to work with them often, if ever, so I always forget that's the case.

Then again, it's the same in the inDesign/inCopy world as well.


I loved when I worked on a project where the product documention was based on Docbook.

We could use Oxygen and generate all necessary documentation in multiple formats, without needing any Tex typesetting macro magic.


I get that it's empowering, as a hobby I spend a lot of time on it! But much like building a ship in a bottle, mastering the unicycle, or running your own enterprise-grade server rack at home, I can't justify such a painstaking and intricate craft with proportional utility.

Platforms like wordpress, squarespace, and wix all make a killing by providing a 'good enough' experience with a WYSIWYG interface, and I think that's empowering a large set of people who neither want nor need to learn CSS syntax.

(I do suppose understanding the basics of the DOM is helpful for any internet user, but you don't even need to publish anything for that info to be valuable!)




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