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You can have WYSIWYG with HTML. You just have to use pixel values for everything and assume some fixed pixel width of your application. Flash can rescale also, but it runs into the same layout/rescaling problems as you do with HTML.

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This is just not true. you did not have to specify fixed width in flash any more than you do with HTML. Flash's approach used something like a constraint solver to allow some areas to grow and some areas to have anchor points. It was reactive by design.

I think the key is that what the browser (client) gets should be coordinates. If the server side wants to use some wazoo auto-layout engine, that's fine. And that gives one a wide choice of layout engines/algorithms, unlike browsers.

Yes, browsers do have different layout engines available, but they all go through buggy and inconsistent JavaScript and CSS in the end: the chain is as strong as the weakest link.

Doesn't work well for text in my experience. Perhaps a bounding box can be defined as pixel coordinates, but there's no guarantee the text will fit right across browser brands or versions.

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