finxol.io
1---
2title: Picking the right tool for the job
3description: There's always a consistent host of people screaming "Just fucking use HTML", while that is valid, there's some nuance to be said.
4date: 2025-06-02
5authors:
6 - name: finxol
7tags:
8 - opinion
9 - tooling
10published: false
11---
12
13All the ["Just Fucking use HTML"](https://justfuckingusehtml.com/) noise is quite aggressive and hard to ignore.
14I think they've got a point, but that point also lacks nuance.
15There's a reason more complex tools were built and are as popular as they are.
16
17Let's dive into simplicity, complexity and tooling.
18
19## The case for plain HTML
20
21<!-- introduce things better please -->
22
23Originally, web browsers were built to display simple text files with a special kind of markup called HTML,
24that would place things in a certain way.
25The browser would ask a server for a specific file, the server would send it back, and the browser would parse and diplay it.
26It still works the same way nowadays, but we've added so many things on top that the possibilities are endless.
27
28The next evolution that came along was CSS.
29This allowed us to control the way the displayed HTML looked.
30
31Javacript only came in a couple years later to do a few very simple client-side manipulations on the page.
32The web
33
34
35In a lot of cases such as a portfolio, blog, landing page, or any static website,
36there's really no need to introduce unnecessary overhead.
37
38<!--
39simpler is often better, if it can get the job done.
40no need to introduce complexity when it's not actually needed.
41
42increased overhead can easily lead to worse perf.
43
44simple things keep things simple.
45no need for build steps or complex deployments.
46-->
47
48## The case for more complex tooling
49
50<!--
51plain html is ugly.
52css is hard.
53
54dx is also important.
55-->
56
57## Exceptions
58
59Now, if you're a nerd like me—which you probably are if you're reading this—there's some tools you want to use just because they seem cool,
60not necessarily because they're needed.
61
62I think that's a valid exception to the "pick the right tool for the job" rule.
63For our little projects no one else will realistically ever use or contribute to, who cares if you're massively over-engineering
64or bringing in useless complexity?
65
66But then ultimately, just use whatever makes your life easier to make a good user experience,
67because that's what really matters in the end.