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Then we'll promptly forget about a11y.

There are many shortcomings to HTML, yes. "Just replace it" is not the right answer. It has never been, for the same reasons that you don't "just rewrite" an old code base. There's more value than the naked eye can see.

(Oddly, the web has just the example for that - Netscape 6.0. That was a from-scratch-rewrite, and oh my, was it painful)




a11y?


Accessibility. Simply by using canvas is like throwing away all human-machine interface support stuff which your OS/browser provide and reminds me times of arty Flash pages with awkward navigation.


Accessibility


Got it.

Kinda wish we'd stop with this whole "replace the middle of the word with a number" trend, but oh well.


I think that ship has sailed long ago. It dates back at least to the late 80s, when IBM(?) or X11(?) manuals referred to l10n and i18n tools.

a11y seems to be slightly later. My memory whispers something about mid-90s.

So, maybe not quite as much a "trend" as you assume :)


I mean, back in the 80's we had limited RAM and maximum filename lengths and stuff, so maybe there was a practical benefit.

By "trend", I more mean the trend of continuing to use these sorts of weird numeric contractions of words instead of just saying "localization" or "internationalization" or "accessibility" now that we have computers that can handle big words without breaking a sweat.

I m2n, w2t is t2s, t1e o3n d2s of t2t m5es?


There was a much bigger benefit. Try writing those words on a whiteboard, repeatedly, and see what that gets you :)

You can argue till you're blue in the face, it's an established shorthand by now. And shorthand has a point - I don't see you writing "random access memory" instead of RAM either.


Once upon a time, RAM was called "core". We should go back to that. I digress...

I'll concede it's easier to write on a whiteboard, but for other situations, it seems rather silly (and very different from the concept of an acronym or initialism).


I agree, but u11y n7ms are here to stay.




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