I know that JSX and HTML aren't XML, but they practically are. Yes, there are template engines, and markdown, but they both transpile to HTML, and because of that they're forced or at least limited by it's basic "isms" of structure. Or have I not been using the right ones??<p>Sorry, I'm tired of closing <div> tags.
Plenty of alternatives for you to use:<p>1. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gopher_(protocol)</a><p>2. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_area_information_server" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wide_area_information_server</a><p>3. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Xanadu</a><p>4. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperCard</a><p>5. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_applet" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_applet</a><p>6. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeWS" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NeWS</a><p>And so on...<p>Upon further consideration, maybe just closing the <div> tags isn't so bad after all...
The question is, why are you writing <div> tags? Between the wide variety of semantic elements now in HTML, and the ability to create your own via custom elements, the number of times you actually need to use divs—especially "div tag soup" that we unfortunately see all too often out in the wild—has dropped to nearly nil.<p>Viva la semantic and expressive HTML code!
If you're worried that HTML is too verbose and therefore inefficient, that's not really an issue since it's going to be compressed in transit anyways. So then the question is, assuming that the compressed representation has the maximum information density, "what format should the decompressed web page be in". I think HTML is a pretty logical format to view the structure of the page.<p>There are definitely plugins for auto-closing your HTML tags that will make your life easier, though.
So, what would you suggest as an alternative?<p>XML fell out of SGML - trust me, you don't want to go there. So did HTML.<p>Also too: the IDEs I use always form closed tags. No effort needed.
HTML over the wire, but feel free to use YAML.<p>JSX may have solidified the XML markup style in the developer's toolbox though. Especially with server side rendering too.
A better question is why Javascript is still being used:<p><a href="https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat" rel="nofollow">https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat</a><p><a href="https://youtu.be/D5xh0ZIEUOE" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/D5xh0ZIEUOE</a><p>Can't we just get WASM browser APIs and then do the web in whatever programming language we want?