25

Is there any existing in-use, or even just conceptual attempts at creating a markup or programmatic expressions for designing the layouts of websites other than HTML/CSS?

If there are others out there and they do not appear to be in heavy use. Why is this?

gnat
  • 21,442
  • 29
  • 112
  • 288
Incognito
  • 3,458
  • 2
  • 25
  • 38
  • 3
    Are you asking for a non-HTML web browser? How would that work? – S.Lott Mar 01 '11 at 20:23
  • @S.Lott I'm asking for an approach to put graphics on the screen that aren't heavily reliant on HTML/CSS. For example, Flash (as Martin answered) has been used widely to do this. In theory, we could do something with SVG, or have a middle layer (server or client side) that generates the HTML/CSS from a separate set of instructions (similar to galador's answer, but I believe HAML and SASS are for HTML templates and CSS, not entire websites in general). Etc. Perhaps a different MIME type that allows interactivity. Things that were just in theory, or things that are reality. – Incognito Mar 01 '11 at 20:37
  • 1
    "aren't heavily reliant on HTML/CSS"? Please **update** the question to specify what you're talking about. "alternative" and "not heavily reliant" seem like very different things. – S.Lott Mar 02 '11 at 00:08
  • What is the reason you are asking this? This kinda seems like just idle curiosity, rather than addressing an actual problem that you are facing. – jhocking Jan 27 '12 at 17:08
  • @jhocking That is the problem: What else is there? Right now we only work with HTML. – Incognito Jan 27 '12 at 17:21
  • um, why is that a problem? Unless there is some problem with HTML then why are you looking for alternatives? I can see what your question is; I'm wondering why ask it? – jhocking Jan 27 '12 at 17:23
  • 1
    @jhocking Why not ask it? Why bother thinking of other ways to do things when one exists? Once upon a time there were other proposals for style sheets and document formats. – Incognito Jan 27 '12 at 18:19
  • `Why not ask it?` Because the FAQ specifically states "You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face." – jhocking Jan 27 '12 at 18:47
  • 3
    @jhocking It's practical (people have done prior work here), it's answerable(there's lots of answers already), and it's an actual problem I'm facing: alternative means to describe web documents than using HTML parsers and CSS layout engines. I want to find prior work before creating something else. – Incognito Jan 27 '12 at 18:59
  • how about those that are built on top of HTML/Javascript but completely abstract away that layer so you only code in higher-level constructs? I came across http://cappuccino.org/ recently, and it appears to be very interesting. Does that fit the list? – DXM Jan 29 '12 at 00:23

2 Answers2

16

Moderator note: this is intended to be a canonical list; please check to see if your suggestion has already been added to the answer. If it hasn't, edit the answer to add yours preferably with an explanation or reason why you're suggesting it.

Possible alternatives:

Community
  • 1
Pier Paolo Ramon
  • 146
  • 2
  • 3
7

HAML and SASS are not alternatives to HTML. They are server-side languages that create HTML output. AXR is an alternative to HTML in the making. The AXR site says if you want to help out you can http://axr.vg. GRML is also an alternative to HTML, although I am not advocating to use it or not to use it. I am merely stating a fact. It hasn't been updated in 8 years and doesn't support any browsers but it's own. http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/3486/An-alternative-to-HTML-and-current-web-browsers

Ryan
  • 71
  • 1
  • 2