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You take for granted that delivering the user value of a web application needs to be in the form of dealing with "HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML, SGML, SVG, etc. An entire runtime environment with garbage collector." There is nothing inevitable about that.

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No, I'm saying the web browser itself is an incredibly complex piece of software that has to deal with a lot more than what The Witness does.

I actually said nothing about web applications themselves.

Don't mistake flash for substance. The Witness may be pretty, but it gets to throw away a lot of complexity. Even as a game, it's not terribly complex.

The only point of the web browser is to achieve the user value accomplished by web pages and web applications. My point is there's nothing about that problem which inevitably requires "incredibly complex" software.

If "achieve(s) the user value" by being an entire execution platform. Without the browser there is nothing for those pages or applications to run on.

Try writing a web browser that can render even simple, static pages. Then realize you haven't even started writing anything close to modern browsers.

You have a remarkably closed mind.

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