The trouble is that the preprocessor isn't referenced anywhere, and it's going to confuse many web developers.
It isn't in the file extension, the extension is just .html.
"include" by itself is the tenth result on google. "include virtual" and "include file" (without quotes) have SSI in the top results. But not everyone is going to google that.
With C most knows there's a preprocessor. That could be true with HTML and Server Side Includes, but it isn't.
That's right, files might be named shtml. Hadn't thought about that. But if the file isn't an index, that detail makes it to the client side, confusing users, doesn't it?
The phrase "server side includes" doesn't appear anywhere in the "#include" directive. I'm talking about what could be gleaned from the code alone. And again, if they put file or virtual in their search term, they get the result. I just don't expect all web developers to do that.
To address your last point: the #include language seems simple but it doesn't explain why it's happening. It would seem like black magic to someone who thought their host was just sending files to the client and didn't know about SSI.
It isn't in the file extension, the extension is just .html.
"include" by itself is the tenth result on google. "include virtual" and "include file" (without quotes) have SSI in the top results. But not everyone is going to google that.
With C most knows there's a preprocessor. That could be true with HTML and Server Side Includes, but it isn't.