I’m not suggesting to slavishly copy InDesign and I’m not saying it’s easy. InDesign would be absolutely horrible for web design. I’m merely suggesting that WYSIWYG for HTML and CSS is not impossible.
Being able to flexibly test (e.g. different fonts, different resolutions, different browsers) would certainly be one of the requirements, as would be the implicit assumption that pixel perfect designs are not possible.
As for style and content? InDesign does actually separate them to a degree. It’s not perfect but neither is HTML at that task. The concept of character, paragraph, list and table styles is central to InDesign. It’s what makes InDesign so great. It even has a bare bones text input mode where all you do is type completely unstyled text. It’s then easy to apply all the different styles you made to your text.
I think a truly powerful WYSIWYG HTML editor is eminently possible, someone has only dare to do it.
Being able to flexibly test (e.g. different fonts, different resolutions, different browsers) would certainly be one of the requirements, as would be the implicit assumption that pixel perfect designs are not possible.
As for style and content? InDesign does actually separate them to a degree. It’s not perfect but neither is HTML at that task. The concept of character, paragraph, list and table styles is central to InDesign. It’s what makes InDesign so great. It even has a bare bones text input mode where all you do is type completely unstyled text. It’s then easy to apply all the different styles you made to your text.
I think a truly powerful WYSIWYG HTML editor is eminently possible, someone has only dare to do it.