SSMPL : A Wishful Thinking HTML Replacement Proposal.
Part 1 of …
Subject to Change
I’ve read a lot of articles the past two decades of folks complaining about how “bad” HTML is. Sadly in most cases it seems to be those complaining loudest are those who never grasped the point of semantic markup. They either think of semantics as how it is for other languages, or don’t think it serves any legitimate purpose.
There s a reek of willfully ignorant excuses being spouted to say that HTML semantics doesn’t even matter, and frankly most people are so poorly educated on using HTML, even most ALLEGED “experts” are telling non-sighted users to piss off.
As someone who works in accessibility, I have an entirely different view of what’s needed. We need to embrace semantic markup but clean up odd inconsistencies in how HTML works. The idea of the tags having meanings for all user-agents — not just screen media browsers — needs to be moved front-and center as the core focus. Just as the nesting rules need to be more clearly explained. It is thus I propose the idea of SSMPL — Simplified Semantic Markup Practices Language — as a someday replacement for HTML.
This first article in what I hope will become an ongoing series is going to focus on what I personally see wrong with HTML as it sits, and put together a list of what I think needs to be done. Actual syntax…
