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Comment by mapreduce | Hacker News Reader

> "It still is."

It still is but you are missing the point of the thread. HTML still is hypertext, some links, some images, some tables. No doubt about that. But HTML is also so much more than that. The spec is a beast. Anyone who wants to implement an HTML based reader has a mammoth task in front of them. It's like "go implement a new browser" like someone said in this thread above.

> "Styling is not handled by HTML. It's a separate concern assigned to CSS."

Missing the point again. We know styling is not handled by HTML. The point of the thread was to tell how big of a task it is to create your own HTML based reader. If you want to create your reader like it or not you have to implement support for CSS too and that too is a mammoth spec.

So our only options are: A. Go implement a new browser. B. Use something like Webkit. C. Implement a small subset of the HTML and CSS specs.

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> The spec is a beast. Anyone who wants to implement an HTML based reader has a mammoth task in front of them.

That's true for basically any non-trivial document rendering format. For example, take a look at the PDF spec. Even basic things like parsing the document format is a formidable task. HTML in comparison is a trivial format. The same goes for technologies like TeX or even Microsoft's own Word format, which Microsoft famously had lots of problems supporting. It is a hard problem for all formats, not just HTML.

> The point of the thread was to tell how big of a task it is to create your own HTML based reader.

You're confusing some things. A document format is one thing, but a renderer with specific capabilities is an entirely different thing. You're commenting on the document format and the styling and layout system, and now you're shifting the conversation to what it takes to implement a renderer.

Debates on document formats are entirely separate and orthogonal to debates on how to implement renderers. Renderers for the most trivial things are tremendously complex. There are a myriad of good reasons why we're seeing GUI frameworks built on top of webviews in spite of all the complains about the formats that webviews support, and in spite of the myriad low-level rendering frameworks already available.

To understand the poiny, try to think through the requirements list to implement a renderer for Markdown. It's a document format with a half dozen of features. Would you call it trivial?

> You're confusing some things. A document format is one thing, but a renderer with specific capabilities is an entirely different thing. You're commenting on the document format and the styling and layout system, and now you're shifting the conversation to what it takes to implement a renderer.

If you follow the comment you replied to the discussion was about implementing a renderer. So no, I am not shifting the conversation to implement a renderer. The conversation is about implementing a renderer. That it is incredibly difficult to do today with the modern specs is the point.

What about option D. Use a WebView. This is exactly what the author did. The point of the proposal is identify which features of a WebView can be used (and which must not) if the goal is to produce nice text layouts in multiple form factors. But the rendering of HTML and CSS, and the execution of Javascript are solved problem.

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