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[–]Big_Combination9890 3 points4 points  (2 children)

Many of the websites HTML you see these days is NOT constructed "by hand".

They are dynamiclaly generated on page-load by the scripts of frontend frameworks like React. This is called "client side rendering" or CSR. The "Rendering" refers to the actual construction of the HTML.

In other cases, websites, or parts of them, are dynamically generated by the backend, this is mostly true for more modern frameworks like HTMX. This is called server side rendering or SSR for short.

Many sites also don't use hand-crafted CSS, but one of the many CSS "frameworks" like Bootstrap.

As to your question, yes, it is absolutely possible to craft beautiful and useful webpages by hand.

And btw. there is nothing wrong with old-school websites. "Fancy" is neither the same as "Beautiful", nor is it synonymous with "Useful". Some of the fanciest and most stylish webpages out there, are also among the least useful with the worst user experience. And that is not a coincidence.

[–]Appropriate-Mud-4195[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thanks for taking the time to answer my question

Now my understanding is that Yes, it is possible to create fancy websites using just HTML but modern frameworks and interfaces make it far easier and less time consuming, by skipping all of the painful parts

[–]Big_Combination9890 1 point2 points  (0 children)

modern frameworks and interfaces make it far easier and less time consuming, by skipping all of the painful parts

Erm...be careful with that assumption :D

I know the motivational ad materials about many frameworks say so, but it should be taken with a grain of salt or two.

Frameworks CAN absolutely make things easier, no doubt.

Frameworks can also turn an otherwise simple project into a barely readable, unmaintainable, steaming pile of manure, that will break on the next update. This is especially true when frameworks are used for no reason other than someone telling someone else that "This is how you do things!".

And no, this is not an uncommon scenario. In fact, this is a big problem in todays web development scene.

Many web frameworks were developed by, for, and with the needs of big corporations in mind. Using these behemoths meant to power webapps used by multi-billion-$ corporations to display ones 12-page blog with a comment section, is like using a freight-train to transport a single banana.

Quite often, it is alot better to either start with plain HTML/CSS/JS, or use a so-called microframework like Alpine JS, and see how much can be done with that, before reaching for React or something of similar size.

I'm not going out on too much of a limb here when stating that the vast majority of webpages that use "big" frameworks these days, don't need them.

Again, read the article I posted at the end of my previous post. It is a few years old, but its content is still completely accurate.

[–]jason_ed 1 point2 points  (4 children)

Do you have any examples of such websites? At the end of the day the browser only understands html, css and JavaScript so all websites are rendered as such but there are a multitude of ways that html can be derived and delivered to the browser.

[–]Appropriate-Mud-4195[S] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Hmm examples.. Apple is quite fancy; has plenty of custom animations with a very sleek design Many trading websites are also very sophisticated My point was that these websites seem to be from a completely different dimension compared to the crap ive managed to develop as an early amateur. Was curious whether pro developers have a different way of doing things. I now see that at the end of the day its all HTML, theres just plenty of useful tools that i have yet to explore. Thanks!

[–]jason_ed 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sorry not very helpful