The Principle of Least Power (2007)

> I chose HTML not to be a programming language because I wanted different programs to do different things with it: present it differently, extract tables of contents, index it, and so on.

This is very well put. And it provides a nice counterpoint to the recurrent sentiment about "we need to redesign the web for applications".

"This was later codified in a more formal W3C document, The Rule of Least Power. I propose a corollary to this rule, which in the spirit of recent memes, I'll call Atwood's Law: any application that can be written in JavaScript, will eventually be written in JavaScript."

Should he also make Coding Horrors' Claim: People will often do a wrong thing.

JavaScript is hardly a language of least power...

Evokes "The Birth and Death of Javascript" (2014) https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/the-birth-and-death...