Hello! I’ll try to explain what I’m looking for: I sometimes have to write simple web pages (not just text, also buttons and video players and so on), but I really really hate writing html code. What I’m used to is QML, which I like a lot, because of the ease of placing objects exactly where I need using the anchors and the Layout objects. What I’m looking for is a language or something with a similar syntax, that can then be “built” to plain HTML/CSS/JS. Is there something like this? I know I can compile Qt/QML for webassembly, but I’m having huge amounts of problems, and also I’d like to have the possibility to have a plain HTML result, not necessary bind to the server side.
thanks in advance!!
There are libraries like Vaadin that are clearly written for backend developers who want to throw together a frontend. They’re designed around making interactivity easy, but I don’t see why you couldn’t leave out the interactivity and just program a simple document.
Most HTML generating tools I know will have you write pseudo-HTML as an intermediate step. The few tools that don’t, don’t produce much in the way it a document, opting instead to generate a Javascript/WebAssembly renderer that treats a canvas element as a regular screen.
As for writing simple web pages: many non-code tools will let you design a web page and export the HTML, be it from Adobe, Microsoft, or LibreOffice. You could probably even use Scribus for some more advanced layouts if basic word processors don’t do it for you.
There are a whole lot of “templating” libraries which do what you’re asking for. I have used Hiccup for Clojure and Giraffe for F# successfully, and you can probably find others for languages you already know.
What about a WYSIWYG editor app like Dreamweaver? I don’t know if there’s any good free ones any more though, now that FrontPage Express is gone.
Otherwise, a headless CMS with a nice editor could work too. Something like WordPress except it outputs static HTML rather than doing it dynamically
Ever heard of wix or squarespace? I think there is your reason these apps don’t exist anymore.
Those platforms aren’t ideal because you’re locked in to the respective service. Something standalone (or even a CMS like WordPress) is good since you’re not locked in - you can move to a different hosting provider, self-host it, more easily migrate to a different platform, etc.
We’ve always had similar platforms - in the 2000s we had Geocities, Angelfire, Tripod, etc. There’s still a lot of value in actually owning your site.
Note that Wix is under boycott because it uses coercion against its employees to get them to publicly side with Israel
What about a WYSIWYG editor app like Dreamweaver? I don’t know if there’s any good free ones any more though, now that FrontPage Express is gone.
So weirdly enough, I posted about this earlier today in a different community. My use-case is different to OP’s, so I don’t think any of the options I’m investigating now would suit them, but the long and short of it is free, standalone WYSIWYG editors are really few and far between now.
Yeah I think headless CMSes are where it’s at these days. A ‘headless’ CMS is one where editing and presentation are split into two parts, as opposed to it being used for editing and presentation (which is what traditional CMSes like WordPress, Joomla, CMSMS, etc do).
Usually you use the CMS to edit the site, but it just produces plain HTML so you don’t need the CMS to serve the live site. The CMS could publish to a static file host like S3, Github Pages, etc.
There are even some that integrate into WordPress, meaning you use the WordPress admin section to write posts, but they then output plain HTML. Basically WordPress but without any potential security concerns since your users aren’t actually hitting the WordPress server.
Having said that… 40%+ of the internet is powered by regular WordPress, so it’s not going away any time soon.
Exactly what I feel about HTML after using QML.
Although there are already comments with good libs, you could also look into services like Weebly.
I’m not 100% on what you’re after. But in a past life I set up an XSL stylesheet to transform an XML file into a website via Php. it’s feasible you could set something similar up. XSL/XPath as a query language is really slick and similar to CSS, as templating language it’s not amazing but might suit your case.
Somehow it’s still going so it really shows that technical debt is forever.
What kind of page are you trying to write? Blog? Single Page App? Landing page?
If you’re already trying to tackle QML, you might as well learn Slint. It’s much easier IMO and can be compiled from Rust or C++. They even have a live editor. Check out their demos.
Make keep an eye out for MakePad. They’re not yet ready for public use I think, but their demo is incredible, IMO.
Why is there a license at the bottom of you amazing comment?
AI training
First search result I got was https://github.com/pureqml/qmlcore Never used it, but seems good.
Libreoffice has an HTML mode and also you can take any document and save as HTML.
Another way is use Markdown.
Another is to use a template editor like Bluefish. This is coding HTML but more easily.
