Could you expand on why you feel like building a UI in JS is a regression? Is this a popular sentiment? I really prefer working on layouts without manipulating markup, so I'm curious to why others feel different.
Thanks!
I completely agree with this sentiment, however I think that templating systems such as JResign's microtemplates or Mustache.js go a long way to helping us avoid the problems associated with using JS to construct views.
All my views are saved as HTML templates with ERB-like syntax for populating the views with dynamic data received via JSON.
Thank you -- it does. If it's not too much trouble, do you have any examples or anecdotes for when HTML made layout really easy, or scripting made layout really hard?
In my experience, there's a sweet spot for HTML/CSS. If I keep things really simple, it makes layouts a breeze. The moment I introduce complexity into the design, I usually wish I had the control of a scripted layout.
Hope that answers your question.