[panphora]

Yes, there's definitely philosophical alignment with the hypermedia approach: keeping things simple and leveraging HTML's native capabilities. In fact, I use hypermedia-oriented techniques on all the dashboard pages in the Hyperclay web app.

But in Hyperclay apps, the DOM is the source of truth -- there's nothing else. So there's no need for more than a single AJAX call (to save the page). HTMX is built to support a more traditional multi-page stack, whereas Hyperclay is built around single-file HTML apps.

The idea is that every HTML file is its own visual tool for modifying its own UI/data. For instance, you could build a page layout editor that lets users drag-and-drop components, and the editor itself would be part of the saved HTML file. An infinite variety of visual tools can (and will) be built on top of this structure.

As for essays about this vision, I'd recommend "Local-first software" [0] and "Malleable software" [1]

[0] https://www.inkandswitch.com/essay/local-first/

[1] https://www.inkandswitch.com/malleable-software/

[ramses0]

I'm a little experienced with TiddlyWiki, from memory: `rclone serve webdav` in the directory with TiddlyWiki will let you "write in place".

My use case was a home maintenance wiki/manual, the incredible benefits of something like TiddlyWiki in this use case is the ultimate survivability of it.

Open `HomeManual.html` in any browser and you can read it (and modify it!) and literally File -> Save As... `HomeManual-2025-07-18.html`. For more convenience: `rclone serve webdav` and the "(*) Save..." button works to save in place.

Ultimate survivability. Self-contained, it works on mobile, pairs great with SyncThing, devolves into read only, has a "normie-understandable" option for modifications.

Really, what I'd prefer is a bit less complexity of the wiki itself, and some slightly better integration between `exportAllPages("*.md")` and "AllTogether.html". I'd love to be able to pop open vim 90% of the time and somehow "merge things" as expected (conflict-aware, diff-ish integration).

Take a look at the use cases I've described and it'd be amazing to have a framework "Quine.html" (that can self-reproduce) that was less complicated than all the cruft that's built up in TiddlyWiki.

[adolph]

Like RedBean?

redbean is an open source webserver in a single-file that runs natively on six OSes for both AMD64 and ARM64. Basic idea is if you want to build a web app that runs anywhere, then you download the redbean.com file, put your .html and .lua files inside it using the zip command, and you've got a hermetic app you deploy and share.

https://redbean.dev/

[ramses0]

I'd forgotten about that one... cosmo/ape (and *.zip) opens up a few interesting use cases for portability, but the in-place editing with web-dav and ability to use the browser as an IDE (file->save) would have to be built-out with something like redbean.

Seriously, if you haven't, go check out the "zen" of tiddlywiki: https://tiddlywiki.com/#GettingStarted

You download "blank.html", make changes, then save it as "mine.html" and you're off to the races. It's pretty wild!