[kazinator]

HTML and XML for describing documents also never took off; they are largely generated from something else rather than hand-edited.

Thus, no structural, recursive syntax for document editing has "taken off".

Word processing is still done in Microsoft Word by most of the planet. HTML e-mails are written in some WYSIWYG client program. Web forums use variations on markdown (with raw HTML only as an escape hatch).

People do work with *ML by hand, but largely reluctantly.

If you do have to roll up your sleeves and work with the serialized syntax, you're far better off it its is S-expresions.

[allover]

HTML and XML took off for web. That's what the vast majority of devs write and that's how all devtools display the DOM.

> If you do have to roll up your sleeves and work with the serialized syntax, you're far better off it its is S-expresions.

Convince the masses, because they don't seem to agree.