Writing HTML in HTML

I’ve just finished the final rewrite of my website. I’m
not lying: this is the last time I’m ever going to do it.
This website has gone through countless rewrites – from
PHP to WordPress to Jekyll to multiple static site
generators of my own – but this is the final one. I know
so, because I’ve found the ultimate method for writing
webpages: pure HTML.

It sounds obvious, but when you think about how many
static site generators are being released every day – the list is
practically endless – it’s far from obvious. Drew DeVault
recently challanged
people to create their own blog, and he didn’t even
mention the fact that one could write it in pure HTML:

If you want a hosted platform, I recommend write.as. If
you’re technical, you could build your own blog with
Jekyll or Hugo. GitHub offers free hosting for
Jekyll-based blogs.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with Jekyll or Hugo; it’s just
interesting that HTML doesn’t even get a mention. And of
course, I’m not criticizing Drew; I think the work he’s
doing is great. But, just like me and you, he is a child
of his time.

That’s why I’m writing this blog post – to turn the tide
just a little bit.

So what are the benefits of writing HTML in HTML?

There’s one less level of
indirection.

This point is simple, but hugely important.

Using a static site generator means that you have to
keep track of two sources: the actual Markdown source and
the resulting HTML source. This may not sound too
difficult, but always having to make sure that these two
sources are in line with each other takes a mental toll.
Now, when I write in HTML, I only have to keep track of one
source.

Further, you actually need to have your static site
generator installed. Again, not a huge thing, but if you
often switch between different operating systems, this is
yet another chore. With HTML, you just need a web browser
– which, if you’re creating a website, you need anyway!

Finally, you constantly have to work around the
limitations of your static site generator. Let’s say you
want your site to have a specific directory structure,
where pages are sorted under various categories. With
Jekyll, this is practically impossible, and even though
you technically can get it working if you really
try, it is only through much effort and with a source code
that is organized much more unintuitively than if you just
wrote it directly in HTML.

These seemingly small things tend to add up, and when you
know that there are three or four extra things you have to
think about before you write another blog post, there’s a
higher threshold to start writing.

And that’s something that I’ve noticed: with nothing but
pure HTML, there’s is no threshold. When I used
a static site generated, I always had to do a dozen small
things – start the auto-refresh server, research how to do
something – before I was ready to do anything. Now,
creating a new theme, a new post, a new page or even a new
site requires no setup – I just open up a HTML document
and start writing!

So what’s the catch? There has be some
reason why people don’t write their personal websites in
pure HTML. Well, it’s simple:

HTML is unpleasant to write.

This is the only real reason. And it’s true – HTML is
a pain to write! But the solution, I argue, isn’t to use
other languages that are then trans­lated to HTML (we’ve
seen above how many problems that causes); the solution is
to use better editors.

The best HTML editor I’ve found is actually the WYSIWYG Composer
part of Seamonkey.
As long as the source is HTML 4.01 (which, for a personal
blog, is surely sufficient), it can edit any HTML
document. It’s what I’m using right now to write this
post, and despite its age and a couple of quirks, it works
really well.

If you don’t want a WYSIWYG editor, I’m sure that modern
IDEs have reasonable support for HTML.

In any case, once you start writing a post, you’ll notice
that it actually isn’t so bad, as long as you have an
editor that is more modern than vi (no offense to
vi users – I use it as my main editor myself).

Doesn’t this mean that I have to type a bunch of
boilerplate every time I create a new blog post?

My simple answer is: just copy it. My more advanced
answer is this:

1. Make blog posts and pages self-contained – in
   other words, have each post or page reside in its own
   folder, with its own scripts and stylesheets.
2. When you want to write another post or page, copy the
   folder of an already existing post or page and edit it.
3. If you find the previous step too much work, write a
   shell script that copies the directory and removes the
   old content for you.

But how can I then keep the style and layout of all my
posts and pages in sync?

Simple: don’t! It’s more fun that way. Look at this
website: if you read any previous blog post, you’ll notice
that they have a different stylesheet. This is because
they were written at different times. As such, they’re
like time capsules.

In summary, I don’t think this post will convince
everyone – and it’s not written for everyone. It’s written
for those who have found themselves in the same situation
as me: regularly rewriting their website, fighting with
their static site generator. For these people, I think
pure HTML is the best choice.

Response

I got a great deal of response on Lobste.rs,
and I thought I could include some of it here. Thanks for
all your comments!

j11g:

One benefit of using a CMS or site generator is an
automatic RSS feed. Hint: this blog currently has no RSS
feed 😉

As a response to this, I’ve cobbled together a PHP script
that automatically generates an RSS feed from my index
page (I chose RSS specifically because it is less strict
than Atom). As such, I now have an RSS

feed, and I still don’t have to worry about
generating anything myself.

hyperpape:

Case in point about the downsides, the cv link is
correct on the author’s homepage. It is not correct on
this page. That’s an easy mistake to make, and I’ve
definitely made versions of it. However, it’s much more
pleasant to fix when you can fix it everywhere by
updating a template.

I fixed this with a simple sed command:

$ sed -i 's,href="cv",href="http://john.ankarstrom.se/cv",' */*.html

jzp:

I love this. It’s sort of opposite to my own view
where all of my writings are in plain text files,
allowing me to do things that would otherwise be crushed
by the layout. I think the “copy and alter”-method of
authoring is genius in a world where everything is
anxiously polished and uniform. To let the progression
be a part of the published material is just beautiful.
And exceedingly rare.

Apart from being really nice, this comment summarizes my
final point perfectly. Thank you!