>Sort of, but React is not a language. It's a runtime lib. JSX is not really helpful - still writing HTML and CSS. TypeScript has been very useful and successful but it hasn't touched the UI stuff.
That's my point. The main thing that JSX does is address that you can't do conditional rendering or interpolation with HTML. It's the same with literally all of these other templating languages. Blade, Jade, Handlebars, Mustache, the list goes on and on. Typescript literally exists to address a deficiency in JS.
I don't think reinventing the wheel is the answer - it should taking these clear improvements and adding them to the core product. A big part of why technologies become popular is because of how accessible they are to newer or less knowledgable developers. I don't think some new idea would work, we should work with what's already there. I don't think there's any fundamental flaw in HTML, CSS or JS that necessitates a complete replacement. Just adjustments.
HTML's purpose is to semantically describe content. I don't see how that is at odds with describing the user interface for software vs. a web page.
CSS can lay things out great. It used to be a pain, but flexbox/grids have made it easy now.
JS is the most popular language in the world. If we added a "types" mode that just adds the typescript syntax and lets you set a flag for it, it'd be even better. We don't need a new programming language for people to learn.
See, that's where we differ. I think HTML and CSS are great. They just need to be improved.
>This isn't web specific. Desktop UI APIs change frequently too. UI is hard, and only higher level of abstractions can simplify things.
Yeah, and if you look at the popularity of electron apps it's pretty clear that people prefer doing this stuff in HTML/CSS/JS, even with all the hacks than trying to learn platform specific stuff. I'm arguing with tweaks, we could do it AND have it be performant and not a pain in the ass.