PDF is an insanely complex spec (I’ve spent more time reading it than most because I need to know bits of it for my job and I just generally find it fascinating). But a lot of devs just need to put some content on the screen to match a template they were given. In my experience, a complete enough markup language allows you to bang out and maintain those templates better than code.
I know it doesn’t suit every need, but it’s just a way of representing the data so it’s closer to the final output than imperative code is. Definitely take your point though about the limitations becoming dealbreakers.
What if the code resembles the markup language in terms of readability, but still gives you access to more advanced features? Surely, there is space for various approaches, it all depends on your task and requirements
PDF is an insanely complex spec (I’ve spent more time reading it than most because I need to know bits of it for my job and I just generally find it fascinating). But a lot of devs just need to put some content on the screen to match a template they were given. In my experience, a complete enough markup language allows you to bang out and maintain those templates better than code.
I know it doesn’t suit every need, but it’s just a way of representing the data so it’s closer to the final output than imperative code is. Definitely take your point though about the limitations becoming dealbreakers.