@cstross

lmao, I remember starting web programming back in those days, as a teen, and wanting to add all sorts of silly stuff to my website. GIFs, a few JS and CSS tricks, etc. Then I learned PHP, and more stuff followed.

We take a lot of that for granted when we say we miss the simplicity. From the backend, it wasn't quite as simple.

Nowadays vanilla languages can do a lot more. I do wish we dropped some frameworks, though.

@cstross the silver lining of the world running entirely on web apps is Linux support for most things ends up a small step, or even automatic. though seeing something use a fraction of resources and being dead simple is very satisfying

@cstross that's funny, because that's how I made my website in 1996! And it's still up to this day. No ads, no monetization.

@cstross Honestly kinda sounds like #Reticulum #NomadNet https://reticulum.network/manual/software.html#nomad-network

@cstross @jwz And rss

@cstross I'd like to replace JPG and PNG with webp. But other than that, agreed.

@cstross those do seem to be the lines.

Let's avoid time traveling back to <flash> though.

We need to retain our dignity. 🤣

@cstross

I've been working on an HTML-first web app framework.

It was basically working, and then I broke it and then I got sidetracked multiple times. The Web Gods clearly hate me.

@cstross I did this for my website recently. The whole thing fits in about 30kB, 45kB if you count the web service itself.

@cstross
Is main 1996 feature/aspect
- a particular form or
- a power distribution, aka no monopolies in 96, simpler relationships, etc.?

@cstross - sounds like my website.

@cstross

Doing that. Here's a handy sticker for your smol website.

@cstross I eventually got to like JavaScript, by which I mean 2009 ES5. ES6 et seq. can suck my BigInt64Array.

@cstross I miss that internet too. I remember being cranky when people started using fonts and background images.

But it was mostly full of white dudes like me and I enjoy the variety of people I get to see now.

@cstross

a/s/l

@cstross

Cookies were a mistake.

@cstross [in her best #ReplyGuy voice] PNG didn't exist in 1996. you could only have transparencies with GIF, and you liked it 😠

@cstross @juergen_hubert Why Markdown instead of HTML?

@cstross, interesting idea. I would not mind

@cstross plain text files on an open ftp server. Anything more is hedonism.

@cstross "Markdown for text" totally agree, some kind of human readable standard inspired in Markdown. Gemtext markup language (Gemini) is great for people that publish essays, tales, personal journals or links. Sucks at the rest. Colored text, emphasis and image support are very basic or nonexistent.

Gemtext is simple = Great
Gemtext is also VERY simple = Bad

https://gemtext.hexdocs.pm/Gemtext.html

@cstross @alice 1996 took so many tables to create an acceptable design. It needed all to be rewritten when resolutions scaled from 640 to 800 pixels.

@cstross and forms! We need a drop dead simple standardized way to create and fill in forms, that works online or in a local file, without having to deal with PDFs. Make the appearance non customizable, except by the end user, for their accessibility needs.

@cstross

@cstross I don't remember Markdown being much of a thing in 1996.

I'd quite like it if everything was HTML1. No frames, no stylesheets. And preferably no fonts either. Font selection and colour scheme should be down to the user to set in their browser.

@cstross

@cstross

Requirement for each web page of a commercial site back then was max. 10 kByte per page INCLUDING images.

Multiple web sites had to fit on a 1.2 MB floppy.

@cstross

Quick question, genuinly wondering: why no webp and/or avif?

@cstross
I think we probably don't have any other chance, anymore, considering the way shit is going

@cstross Maybe something like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(protocol) ?

@cstross That sounds so much like #GeminiProtocol.

https://geminiprotocol.net/

@cstross
2027-01-01: MiniWeb deployed
2027-01-13: Arguments on best added markup to indicate BLINK peak on MiniReddit
2027-01-15: Markdown Dialect Wars begin
2027-02-03: MarkdownAI closes $273 billion funding round
2027-02-19: Advocates for a simpler TextWeb recommend returning to Usenet markup in USASCII
2027-02-21: UKASCII partisans invade TextWeb discussion forum and £ people they disagree with
...

(1/2)

@cstross it’s always been there. CSS and JavaScript are both good things when *used suitably*.

Fuck bullshit nostalgia.

@cstross ...and you could sell a second edition of "The Web architect's handbook"?

<Moose hides in nuclear bunker for fear of massive retaliation>

@cstross can we keep gifs at least. and club penguin

@cstross

Grumpy man grumpies.

@cstross

See https://modernmotherfuckingwebsite.dreamstation.systems

I'm not sure about Markdown. It still needs to be compiled, and it's not a well-defined standard.

@cstross
I'm probably one of the few people who can still code an html website. I began doing it text only in the late 90s, but now use a very old piece of software called Kompozer (Mozilla). Yes, I still have a website like that.

@cstross In 1996, I could copy-paste vector graphics, sounds, animations and even 3D models…

https://wiesmann.codiferes.net/wordpress/archives/41198

@cstross looking at how many people are starting to publish their sites in gopher or gemini... yeah, a lot of us. a *lot* of us yearn for that ^_^

@cstross I wouldn't even complain if that mean <marquee> came back

@cstross Is this a subtoot of https://modernmotherfuckingwebsite.dreamstation.systems/
?