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.
We're different 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).
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.
1. https://github.com/vscode-neovim/vscode-neovim
div.thing {tab} <div class="thing">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 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 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.