A defense of keeping HTML, CSS, and JavaScript as separate languages on the web platform, responding to a proposal to merge them into one. The argument centers on user needs: semantic HTML enables screen readers, reader mode, and autofill; separate CSS allows high contrast modes, responsive design, and user style overrides; and separated JavaScript ensures graceful degradation for users on low bandwidth, old devices, or with JS disabled. The post also acknowledges that abstractions (Sass, Tailwind, TypeScript, Vue, etc.) are fine as long as they ultimately output well-structured HTML and CSS that users depend on.
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