No HTML needed

99 45 13 years ago

dutchbrit• 13 years ago

Besides the HTML to include the CSS... Nonetheless, still cool!

emilv• 13 years ago

The title/header is from HTML. The nicest thing is not the lack of HTML but the lack of an image. The picture is entirely painted by CSS.

martin-adams• 13 years ago

What I find interesting is that the <title> attribute is styled and visible in the page, but not technically in the body. I didn't even know that was possible. I'm guessing it's because it's not inside a <head> tag.

cheeaun• 13 years ago

The browser will still render it inside a <head> tag. Just need to display:block both <head> and <title> (by default display:none I suppose)

kevincennis• 13 years ago

Yeah, the first time I saw something like that I was pretty surprised.

You can actually display:block script elements, too. Kinda cool if you need to put a code example on a page and also have that same code actually execute.

emhart• 13 years ago

Mind blown. That's phenomenally cool. Thanks for the tip.

lnanek2• 13 years ago

Yeah, browser must be assuming everything is body since there is no proper html, head, or body elements. This makes title an unknown tag since it is only defined in the head. Standard for unknown tags is to show the content. Thus why you can put something to show up for someone with no JavaScript in script tags.

flomo3• 13 years ago

The head tag is actually optional (under most conditions) -- supposedly because Netscape patented it. The title shows up because it's set to display:block.

mathias3• 13 years ago

See http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/css-hidden-elements

brazzy• 13 years ago

Page title directly contradicts the HN title: "I drew a camera in HTML and CSS".

pdjstone2• 13 years ago

It's actually possible to do away with the HTML altogether (or rather have a 0-byte HTML file) by using the Link HTTP header to specify the stylesheet - http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/present/styles.html#h-14.6

There was a fun demo that showed exactly this, but I can't seem to find it now. This page - http://annevankesteren.nl/test/html-element/style-header.php - uses Link header but also uses some HTML.

[edit - fixed second link]

mathias3• 13 years ago

Any chance you were you thinking of http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/css-without-html?

pdjstone2• 13 years ago

That's the one

arcatek• 13 years ago

There is an invisible character at the end of your link which breaks it.

nobodyshere• 13 years ago

Netrenderer shows that IE9 hangs after loading this page... IE10 however seems to work fine.

tpainton• 13 years ago

HTML is primitive. I'll take an internet application any day over a browser. I long for the day when my desktop is filled with application shortcuts, instead of browser shortcuts. I'm already there with android, where developers have learned that more rich, interactive and controlled experience can be had with an application instead of a webpage. I'm sure this burns with HTML developers, but it's only a matter of time before HTML is only a vehicle to direct the user to the app download link.

hvidgaard• 13 years ago

HTML apps do have a major advantage, namely cross platform compatibility and access anywhere - you don't need to install anything, it just runs. I vastly prefer the native app, or even just one that target a managed environment like .net or Java over a "webapp", but the they're not clear-cut better than a native app and for some applications it makes perfect sense.

Gigablah• 13 years ago

On the contrary, it's only a matter of time before HTML/CSS/JS reaches the same performance as a native app.

eksith• 13 years ago

I think we're mostly there already. Firefox OS is, by default, hosting applications written in HTML/JS/CSS.

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Mozilla/Firefox_OS

electrichead• 13 years ago

I am of the opposite mindset. I think there are just way too many apps out there and apps lack many things that HTML has - discoverability, cross-platform deploys, reusability and other things. HTML is not for every use case, and native is definitely not the hammer for all use cases. Every time I go to a forum and see the giant display to download a whole app just to see their forum, it makes me throw up a little.

unknownian• 13 years ago

I think the main problem for this decade is that HTML/HTTP aren't realtime (if I worded that correctly) like IRC or something.

negativity2• 13 years ago

Oh god. What awful, awful ideas you have. Where to begin?

Okay, let's start with: How on earth will you ever know what your machine is actually doing?

Do you just run around downloading random .sh and .bat files and say FTW and run them without considering what they might contain? I mean, it's not like the app market actually tells you what an app really does.

All you're ever informed of is those broad, vague categories of behavior an app might engage in. GPS, Camera, Microphone, Intercept phone calls, Storage access... give them all away and run the app. Millions, if not billions of operations frittered away, on your dime, for someone elses benefit.

Sounds like a great idea. Just let everyone hijack your system, and do whatever they want, and don't stop to think about who or why.

...but the EXPERIENCE, man. Just think about the EXPERIENCE!

...or you could just read some words on a page, and look at some pictures, and it stops there. You get to retain a degree of control over your machine. You pretty much know it's only doing a few simple things, and you get to use the rest of your machine for your own purposes, why not?

astrodust• 13 years ago

Have you heard of sandboxing? I guess not.

PhasmaFelis• 13 years ago

Funny how most of Android site apps are basically just the website with a different skin and with the annoying-ass "try our app today!" popups on every page removed.

sebkomianos• 13 years ago

How about Web OS though?

noisewaterphd• 13 years ago

WebOS was by far the best mobile OS available. Unfortunately for all of us, it's just not going to survive. It did so many things right, not only with the UX, but for developers as well. So sad.

mathias3• 13 years ago

This is http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/css-hidden-elements all over again :)

Here’s an even more extreme version with no HTML at all: http://mathiasbynens.be/notes/css-without-html (read it + try the demo in Firefox)

anizan• 13 years ago

how did he implement favicon.ico ?

jaredmcateer• 13 years ago

The browser will attempt to retrieve a favicon.ico file from the root of the url.

http://kojika17.com/favicon.ico

TazeTSchnitzel• 13 years ago

Oh, and here's another hack. Re-interpreting HTML as JS:

http://ajf.me/hacks/js_html/

jlebrech• 13 years ago

that could be useful for a markupless gui system.

qu4z-2• 13 years ago

That reminds me of this (from HN a while back):

http://daeken.com/superpacking-js-demos

An html/png hybrid (among other hacks)

vivin• 13 years ago

I don't know... just because it can be done, doesn't mean it should be done.

recursive3• 13 years ago

No one's suggesting this should be done. Only that it can be.

barking2• 13 years ago

Off Topic(sorry): there was a thread here a few months ago about a simple webpage with just html and words. It inspired a whole raft of me-too jokey threads. I'm trying to find it but can't. Does anyone have a link please?

spand• 13 years ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5913381

barking2• 13 years ago

Brilliant! Thank you.

No HTML needed

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