Is `HTMLDivElement` really that different from `class Rectangle`?
Yes, extremely.
A div element is a node in a tree which will be rendered by a very opiniated rendering engine adhering to a fairly strict set of standards, and which can be manipulated using a limited subset of technologies which are themselves fairly opinionated.
A class Rectangle can be pretty much whatever you want.
> A class Rectangle can be pretty much whatever you want
- Both are rectilinear
- Both have width, height
- Both can have borders, backgrounds
- Both can be positioned in various grid/layout systems
- Both can contain child instances
- Both can contain a variety of child nodes like `Text`
- Both can be clipped and masked
- Both can be layered
A class Rectangle can be whatever you want. You can overload it. You can change everything including how it’s rendered. It doesn’t have to be any of the things you list.
A div element is a node in a tree which will be rendered by your browser in the way specified by the spec. You absolutely can’t freely do most of the actions you list to a div. There are severe limitations.
A div doesn’t at all emulate a class. Its semantically something completely different.
> A Rectangle component is a node in a component tree which will be rendered by your OS graphics library in the way specified by the spec. You absolutely can’t freely do most of the actions you list to a div. There are severe limitations.
It seems like you're just talking about a `Rectangle` in the abstract rather than the real limitation that even `class Rectangle` is subject to the rules of the runtime engine that renders said `Rectangle`...in a component tree...with the restrictions of the OS/GUI framework...
> No?
No.
Rendering outside of a web browser gives you a lot more freedom when it comes to how you layout and render. Rendering engines don’t necessarily use components tree by the way.
Even gui frameworks (which is what I think you are talking about with OS graphic library) have layout engines which are a lot more powerful than css. Flexbox is a step in the right direction but still inferior to what some frameworks could do 20 years ago.
So instead of standardized element that works pretty much the same on every browser, that can be inspected and controlled by virtually every tool that works with web I, as a user, get a binary blob, correct?