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hexasquidtoday at 5:56 AM2 repliesview on HN

So many complaints about web technology, where is the replacement? I'd be interested to know if there was the one true layout system that everyone agrees on


Replies

bazoom42today at 8:27 AM

Not which works under the same constraints as the web.

But for simpler scenarios (like fixed-sized paper, desktop displays before super-wide screens), you can have both simpler and more precise layout systems.

gucci-on-fleektoday at 6:10 AM

TeX [0] is in some sense "the one true layout system", but it's designed for printed documents, so it doesn't work on the web [1]. And in some ways, it's much simpler than CSS (you can build nearly everything from only a dozen typesetting primitives or so), but in other ways it's much more complex (since TeX is itself a fairly complex programming language). It's typesetting quality is still unbeaten by any of its competitors though, even 50 years after its first release.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX

[1]: But it does work on WEB :) [2]

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_(programming_system)

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