So, HTML was too cumbersome to write because of the </> symbols so instead you created an entire toolchain to compile it, based off some arbitrary HTML like language. That isn’t cumbersome…? Just write HTML my man.
I agree. I don't like writing HTML either. That being said ....
> It gives me pain in my hand muscles to have to hold Shift and write those symbols all the time. It also bores me and annoys me.
I use vim, and with some macros and vimscript in my config, tags are not hard to write (especially if you're willing to make a ftplugin abusing the leader key + first letter of tag to automatically write the common tags).
Even without vim, I was pleasantly surprised at how VSCode (using some HTML plugin) handled raw HTML editing.
You don't need to ever hit the shift key if using vim, and you get pretty similar autocomplete in VSCode (and I assume other editors too).
Unfortunately I did not start with vim, and when I tried to learn vim (and a few years after, kakoune), I had already created a strong muscle memory for Sublime Text and it was frustrating to start from scratch.
I agree that there are editor solutions for this, but I also write and edit websites on my iPhone sometimes. As you can imagine, it's a day and night difference between editing Plim and editing HTML on a phone.
I see everyone keeps reminding me of Emmet. I know about it, but it does not exist on a phone or iPad where I sometimes need to do small changes while on the go.
I frequently travel for days without my laptop, and need to maybe add an FAQ entry or clarify a feature. Doing that with Plim is a breeze.
I'll throw in that I love the look of plim, and if I were doing a lot of html authoring I would probably use it too.
I really like low-symbol languages for day to day stuff. It's why, as much as I deeply despise it, I still often use yaml.
If I need safety in some form, yeah - lots of symbols allow a lot more information density, and that helps resist misunderstandings. That's hardly necessary in a personal blog though.
It's less cumbersome for them to write their content, yes. There's initial upfront effort, but their subjective experience of actually using the system to do what they want to do is better.
It's the same reason why people invest dozens or hundreds of hours in configuring their editor - yes, the defaults work fine, but you can make them work better for you. And yes, you're probably not going to make that time back... but if the actual experience of using it is better, it's still a net win for the author.
They probably write a lot more html than setup code. And reducing friction while authoring is a big deal for many people - often the difference between things being written at all vs not.
