Alternative formats to (x)HTML ?

patrick295767 · 10-01-2016, 07:09 AM

Hello,

I read that there is not only HTML which can make webpages. There are many other text languages which can compile the plain text code to HTML back.

HTML, TeX, Wiki,... are just the same more or less way to format the text.

You can do this as well in Wiki format, TeX, ...
WIKI is an example, i.e. "==" will produce like into html: <h1> <h1> , \section{ } would be in TeX,.. .and so on.

You can visit the wiki syntax:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Formatting
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/...aph_Formatting
http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_formatting.asp
http://www.biblioscape.com/rtf15_spec.htm

more formats: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...rmats#Document

they are different, have different purposes, but in some maneer, they produce the formating/processing of text.

All is just plain text and a given language for a word processing/viewing !

TeX is pretty long to type.
(x)HTML is kinda ugly. xml is really ugly to read if you want to read lot of text.
Wiki is rather unclear to read

HTML is rather prone to mistakes in the syntax. You can easily forget '>' or '<', or <body>, and who know what's going to produce the browser.

What's the nicest, structured, syntax?

Best regards

ondoho · 10-01-2016, 09:10 AM

you can have a plain text file, just

Quote:

hello world

and your browser will display - surprise - an empty page with the words hello world on it.
but you can't do a lot with it.
HTML is what it has to come out in the end.
and JS.
because that is what your browser at home needs.
but there's many ways to GENERATE HTML output.
one is php. it's called server-side scripting, iirc.

i suggest to just read more on the subject, history common practices, and always use F12 and View Source.

patrick295767 · 10-01-2016, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ondoho

you can have a plain text file, just
and your browser will display - surprise - an empty page with the words hello world on it.
but you can't do a lot with it.
HTML is what it has to come out in the end.
and JS.
because that is what your browser at home needs.
but there's many ways to GENERATE HTML output.
one is php. it's called server-side scripting, iirc.

i suggest to just read more on the subject, history common practices, and always use F12 and View Source.

the point is that you ascii will define:
- bold, header1, 2, ... bullets, lists,...

You can do this as well in Wiki format, TeX, ...

WIKI is an example, i.e. "==" will produce like into html: <h1> <h1> , \section{ } would be in TeX,.. .and so one

All is just plain text and a given language for a word processing

!

dugan · 10-01-2016, 10:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrick295767

HTML is rather prone to mistakes in the syntax. You can easily forget '>' or '<', or <body>, and who know what's going to produce the browser.

http://validator.w3.org/

If you're not already using it, start.

EDIT: and this goes doubly, triply, quadruply so if cross-browser compatibility is at all a concern.

Myk267 · 10-01-2016, 12:47 PM

I like Markdown fine enough. Ain't nobody got time to write HTML by hand!

ondoho · 10-02-2016, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myk267

I like Markdown fine enough. Ain't nobody got time to write HTML by hand!

this.
like i said, server side scripting.
fwiw, i'm using grav, and it allows me to use markdown for composing content.
also pages aren't written from scratch - there's so much that just repeats, it would be hell.
it's called a content management system, or blogging engine or whatever.

dugan · 10-02-2016, 01:50 PM

I use pandoc to convert Markdown to HTML.

patrick295767 · 10-03-2016, 03:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dugan

I use pandoc to convert Markdown to HTML.

Markdown is a pretty cool one, indeed. It is nicer to read and simpler to work with.
https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/

I remember there was another one similar, as cool as markdown, but I cant find its name.

hydrurga · 10-03-2016, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myk267

I like Markdown fine enough. Ain't nobody got time to write HTML by hand!

I must have plenty of time then. Just call me old-fashioned.

dugan · 10-03-2016, 09:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by patrick295767

I remember there was another one similar, as cool as markdown, but I cant find its name.

Restructured Text/RST/Sphinx?

ondoho · 10-05-2016, 12:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Myk267

Ain't nobody got time to write HTML by hand!

otoh, my favorite lightweight IDE has a neat automatic html formatting feature - it automatically closes tags.
so if i write "<caption>", and then "<" it automatically adds "/caption>" and places the cursor between the tags.
that, and automatic indentation, and html writes almost like plaintext.

still, a dedicated cms (*) + markdown is better imho.

(*) well, at least something that automatically adds the topmost & bottommost parts of a html document.