JavaScript-free (X)HTML Includes
(spoiler: its XSLT) I've been working on a little demo for how to avoid copy-pasting header/footer boilerplate on a simple static webpage. My goal is to approximate the experience of Jekyll/Hugo but eliminate the need for a build step before publishing. This demo shows how to get basic templating features with XSL so you could write a blog post which looks like My Article some content hello hello Some properties which set this approach apart from other methods: - no build step (no need to setup Jekyll on the client or configure Github/Gitlab actions) - works on any webserver…
In plain words
JavaScript-free (X)HTML Includes is a templating solution that uses XSLT to reduce boilerplate code on static websites. It eliminates the need for build tools like Jekyll or Hugo by processing XML files with XSL stylesheets directly on any web server. Developers write content as simple XML with a stylesheet reference, and the server renders it as HTML. This approach works without build steps, server-side includes, or special configuration, making it suitable for anyone maintaining static sites who wants templating features with minimal setup.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
(spoiler: its XSLT) I've been working on a little demo for how to avoid copy-pasting header/footer boilerplate on a simple static webpage. My goal is to approximate the experience of Jekyll/Hugo but eliminate the need for a build step before publishing. This demo shows how to get basic templating features with XSL so you could write a blog post which looks like <?xml version="1.0"?> <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="/template.xsl"?> <page> <title>My Article</title> <content> some content <ul> <li>hello</li> <li>hello</li> </ul> </content> </page> Some properties which set this approach apart from other methods: - no build step (no need to setup Jekyll on the client or configure Github/Gitlab actions) - works on any webserver (e.g. as opposed to server-side includes, actions) - normal looking URLs (e.g. `example.com/foobar` as opposed to `example.com/#page=foobar`) There's been some talk about removing XSLT support from the HTML spec [0], so I figured I would show this proof of concept while it still works. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44952185 See also: grug-brain XSLT https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44393817
More dev tools this month
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Dev tools · 29d ago · gtmcofounder.com
OpenTrailPaper is open-source bike computer firmware for the LilyGO T5S3 4.7" E-Paper PRO. It supports offline maps, GPX routes, FIT recording and Bluetooth sensors.
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Launched alongside, August 2025
the whole month →
- IS
I built the world's most impractical 1000-pixel display and anyone in the world can draw on it. It draws a single pixel at a time and takes 30-60 minutes to complete a single image. Anyone can participate in the project by voting for the next image to be drawn, and submitting images. https://kilopx.com/
Work · 2025 · benholmen.com
- KT
Kitten TTS is an open-source series of tiny and expressive text-to-speech models for on-device applications. We are excited to launch a preview of our smallest model, which is less than 25 MB. This model has 15M parameters. This release supports English text-to-speech applications in eight voices: four male and four female. The model is quantized to int8 + fp16, and it uses onnx for runtime. The model is designed to run literally anywhere eg. raspberry pi, low-end smartphones, wearables, browsers etc. No GPU required! We're releasing this to give early users a sense of the latency and voices…
Dev tools · 2025 · github.com
- IW
I was wondering how I can arrange objects along a spherical helix path, and read some articles on it. I ended up learning about parametric equations again, and make this visualization to document what I learned: https://visualrambling.space/moving-objects-in-3d/ feel free to visit and let me know what you think!
Life & fun · 2025 · visualrambling.space
- TC
For HTML Day 2025 [1], I made a web service that displays the current sky at your approximate location as a CSS gradient. Colours are simulated on-demand using atmospheric absorption and scattering coefficients. Updates every minute, without the use of client-side JavaScript. Source code and additional information is available on GitHub: https://github.com/dnlzro/horizon [1] https://html.energy/html-day/2025/index.html
Dev tools · 2025 · sky.dlazaro.ca