Think Vitamin: Web Development is Moving On - Are you?
JFenton
· 10 months ago
Really interesting article. I am primarily a designer and have found Frameworks and SDKs really helpfull in allowing me to create much richer sites than I would have been able to completely on my own.
I have also used them a great deal when creating prototypes/wireframes, I can then share these with developers, who more often than not find even better ways to achieve what I was attempting to demonstrate
Chris Parsons
· 10 months ago
Hi there, great article. I run a web development company and we're definitely moving to productize our services as much as possible, and develop standalone products.
> Nowadays, things look different. First of all, for the most part it’s impossible to develop offline ‐ this is because we use hosted services, APIs and most likely you’ll write something that uses some data stored elsewhere on the web.
I disagree -- if you're doing things properly you should be stubbing that API in your test and using git locally, allowing you to work anywhere. Testing the integrated whole must usually be done online, but full integration tests can be always be run later when you've done your piece of work and you're back on the grid.
Chris
Zorfling
· 10 months ago
Nice post! You've inspired me to get out there and check out some more hosted services and frameworks!
Kasper Sorensen
· 10 months ago
Absolutely worth the long read. I'm not a developer, but I might be one of those for which the 'Helloe World' systems out there, have enabled me to at least act like one. I don't necessarily think this is the end of coming up with something entirely new. But I think that the definitions of what can be regarded as new are shifting.
Because of the sheer volume and talent, people are no longer impressed by new cutting edge technologies. The competition is fierce and speed and efficiency is the most important. It's therefore often just small changes and tweaks that will make an application worthwhile for users.
Developers can do the initial heavy lifting, but only the end-users know what they really want. This will lead non-developers to build upon existing technologies to make them fit their optimal requirements
Flavio Copes
· 10 months ago
You've inspired me, too :-) I always say "one day I'll try it.." thinking about Flickr, GMaps, Facebook APIs.. got to move on!
danrubin
· 10 months ago
Excellent article Christian! I'm going to add this to the required reading list I hand out when people ask what they should be learning :)
Tim Kadlec
· 10 months ago
Why not help with turning these systems into a working network of systems. Open Social is a great idea but suffers from too many people shouting ‘FAIL’ at it instead of helping to fix it.
So very true! Ideas like OpenId and OpenSocial, despite current drawbacks, have great promise. However, while people are quick to point out the issues with these technologies, many of these same people are not nearly as quick to work to improve on those issues.
John Resig recently had a post about this idea, that all web developers have a responsibility to work to improve the technologies we make use of. While his post was aimed largely at submitting bug reports for browsers, the concept applies for other web technologies as well.
Trypnotik
· 10 months ago
This is a great article! I was recently laid off from a job that didn't employ my WebDev skills as much as it could have. Now that I am once again in the job market, I have begun to look into the amazing amount of progress the craft has made in the last number of years. The use of SDK and CMS has really taken all of the drudge work out of development. The same scripts that I wrote five years ago, and kept recycling over and over have been re-written, or trashed all together, to make way for new, open source solutions.
The new generation of WebDev practices is making life much easier.
voodootikigod
· 10 months ago
I agree that the web development sphere is moving forward some of the technologies not mentioned as part of the APIs/SDKs are things like Cappuccino http://cappuccino.org/ or SproutCore http://www.sproutcore.com/ which use a more verbose middle language to describe and define the structure, content, and interaction. These more robust frameworks (and the whole Compass/SASS framework included) represent, to me, the next generation of Web beyond packaged libraries like YUI, jQuery, and Prototype. This discussion is one that we are drawing people together in Washington DC at JSConf 2009 to have in person dialogs and collaboration to define the next generation web, which is not necessarily confined to the "standard browser" experience (SSBs, WebKit engines, etc) as well.
This is why i come here for posts like this. No where else can i get information like this. Thnak you
MTB Rider
· 10 months ago
Great post thanks
http://www.abid.in
· 10 months ago
Make $1000 Every Day from Google Adsense...
Jen
· 10 months ago
Thanks for the mention :) The website is written from Pluto, it's a very quiet place nowadays and you wouldn't believe the speed of the internet connection. Who said that being a planet matters..
Lauren
· 10 months ago
The technical side of the web can be very intimidating. I've always felt envious of the people who create scripts to be more efficient or change code to suit their needs never releasing that I could learn more about the technical side if I put my mind to it. 2009 is when I take to the technical side.
Scott Weaver
· 10 months ago
At this point, API's and SDK's are essentially optional but you're right -- they're moving toward being a standard part of coding, just to avoid redundancy overall (why reinvent the wheel, etc.). Besides that, the sheer volume of features you can add to your application with the simple addition of a single API is astounding.
I don't fear it, I welcome it.
Best Slimming Centres
· 10 months ago
Beside whitehat methods which I implement to my sites, I research on some greyhat to keep up to the competition. It is not to say to do evil, but sometime it difficult to draw a clear line between the right and wrong way of marketing online, except spamming.
Bill
· 10 months ago
I'm always trying to move forward and give customers the information they want. But it seems technology advances much faster then my budget. :)
Taylor Thompson
· 10 months ago
I also agree.
Gary
· 10 months ago
Great post.
Thanks, GD
Lyn
· 10 months ago
As someone else mentioned, I don't fear change I welcome it. Change is envitable so it's best to embrace it rather than feel inferior.
John
· 10 months ago
Great read Christian! Time to dust off those API books that have been sitting in my shelf! :)
Two frameworks have made a huge difference in our development in the last few years - CodeIgniter and jQuery - especially jQuery. The great thing about jQuery (or any other JavaScript library/framework you like to use) is that your focus shifts to the user interface very early on in the development.
And that's what makes the future of the web so exciting - sleek, efficient interfaces. At the end of the day our web applications are generally just front ends for a database, so by focusing on the UI so early on in modern development a better end product is produced.
Gurcay
· 10 months ago
I also agree.
adriaan
· 10 months ago
Good Article!
As a freelancer, I visit a lot of small to medium companies and see how they are struggling with adapting to new technologies or best practices. I think because it's difficult to change workflow (time/money/stress) and they made a choice in their SDK 3 years ago and don't want to throw it overboard, yet.
On the other hand...I work with some great designers. And like you said, the web is becoming familiar for users because of great apps, you need people/designers to think about it this way. I build everything that moves...so I don't really think about design or requirements...they just hand it over to me. Just like I want it.
Ghillie Suits
· 10 months ago
Nice article. I'm struggling with these same development issues as I get more sites up and running.
John Wright
· 10 months ago
I think you nailed some points on the head. I've been developing for a while now, and I've seen the attitude of some developers about which language is better which approach is better this and that bla bla. We get caught up in so many of the technical details. But at the end of the day, it's the user's experience of your app that really matters. The faster you can build a bigger better more useful and easy to use app for the user, the more people your work will reach. (that's not to say quality doesn't matter though :)
Adam
· 10 months ago
The freedom that web developers have these days is amazing and inspiring. Anyone, can create a website with tools that are provided online and sometimes for free. The internet is an amazing tool and I'm excited to see how information sharing and communication will develop over the next few years. Not to mention, more awesome websites!
Although web development has definately moved on, for some people it is still as remote as ever. For example I kow a lot of people who would not even consider making their own website, although like you point out, development is a lot more entertianing these days.
One positive to come out of this is that you can actually get a good quality website developed for quite cheap these days.
Rakim
· 10 months ago
>What do you think? Is it time to live in the now and help build a good web 2.0,3.0,4.3212 and so on or have we lost the battle for a beautiful, valid and semantically rich web already?
The answer. Yes. It's over. You lay out the facts very well in your article. Web development/design is a commodity. There are sites now that will give me valid XHTML and CSS when handed photoshop or Illustrator layouts. I don't know if they are in India, Romania or just a bunch of free lancers in the states. Who cares.
I've written an essay on a very similar topic - how the web is just a mechanism to get working applications to a user. Technologies like CSS have actually raised the bar and made it more difficult.
I will be very honest here. I'm a software engineer who works for a very large ecommerce site. We are top 10 revenue producing in the US. When we need HTML and CSS we hand it off to a few guys who are good with it. Then we get it back and write the real application. Because software is big and messy and web developers do not have the software engineering chops to pull it off.
I realize this may incite hatred. I'm really not trying to start a flame war here. I'm agreeing with the author and pointing out that very large operations who make billions on the web do not really care about web development. Sounds odd right? We want to use frameworks that spit out HTML that is valid in whatever the browsers are nowadays. We don't necessarily need some guy tweaking pixels in IE6 - it's cheaper to make that page design simpler. Use less CSS or do whatever it takes. Companies don't want to pay web developers/designers. They are a pain. Right now, we just have to.
sichristie
· 10 months ago
I love this article. I agree totally. Anyone can build a website using any number of free SDK's and CMS's. It is up to us developers to harness them, improve them and tweak them.
Matt Sherborne
· 10 months ago
Yeah I remember the days of paying per minute for dial up service. Now I'm getting into Facebook and Myspace App development, it's amazing how everything is rapidly changing. Now there's tons of support groups and information available to help anyone get started with little effort.
Ghillie Suit
· 10 months ago
Some of these comments really got me thinking about the old days, I remember paying 4 dollars a minute to AOL for the first MMORPG game, netherwind nights i think it was called.
And splatterball, who remembers that!
Owen
· 10 months ago
Great article. Thanks!
Bensan George
· 10 months ago
Great article Christian. Keep up the good work.
Clinical research studies
· 10 months ago
Wow... That was quite a reading... But excellent article ! Because I am quite new, I have never thought about how "easy" it is nowadays to do web development as opposed to only 10 years ago, when it takes just a click of the mouse to find information about anything.
Daniel Stevens
· 10 months ago
I love "Aiming Higher and Wider" post. I agree on this totally. Good one
Guillermo Rauch
· 10 months ago
"This is quite commonplace in South East Asia already." = "It's big in Japan already"
Carlton05
· 10 months ago
Very inspiring article. Thank you for these valuable information!
Facebook User
· 10 months ago
great article. 100% on point
Mobility
· 10 months ago
Somehow, i feel i can relate to this story ... Good thing i now work for myself :)
Ty
· 9 months ago
Very Nice Post. As mentioned the web is becoming more and more a part of our lives. I see eventually the merging of TV and Internet and then a further connection between all of our devices and the internet. This movement, whether we call it 3.0 or whatever is very real.
Ten years from now a lot of how we go about our daily lives will be changed as communication will grow to the point where the web is not just cyber space but literal space.
Bill from Austin Divorce Help
· 9 months ago
Reminiscing the past.. lols I'm just glad that that this evolution have make Web Designing easier for developers.
koowii
· 9 months ago
Since the internet has been a great business and marketing tools, web development also had step up into a higher level these days. Many offers has been made with a great variable deals.
Norm
· 9 months ago
Christian is so right, I was a web developer till 2002, worked on database design and server programming as well as front end connection, we don't even know or care about ranking. All worked offline. Fastforward to 2009, I spent a week to develop my website sbWebCentral.com, mostly on writing content and figure out the quarks of the CMS. 18 days later, it's alexa ranking is 2.9 mil. not great, but not bad for it's age. The ranking is pretty much all I cared about nowadays.
Greg
· 9 months ago
TIme to live in the now and help make it everything it can be and not something terrible.
simon
· 9 months ago
nice story. i think that (like a lot technology) just as web tools are becoming more accessible and easy for the average joe to use, the latest developments and features will always need hard to get or scarce skills. can't see much to worry about.
Jovia Weg Studio
· 9 months ago
Thanks for the article. It is easy to get frustrated with the changes that are occurring in today's webosphere. I often wonder if I am spending all of this time and money to learn systems that will be obsolete in two weeks thanks to a fancy new WYSIWYG thingamajig. It is good to remember that certain skills as a developer will never change, just the tools.
T de M
· 9 months ago
Thanks for this inspiring piece. As a freelancer (first site in 94, occasionaly taught web development for some time, then followed different interests), I'm on the verge of getting back to web development. Because it's the platform of the time and it outlines my deep interests in life : architecture (brick, metal, sound, words, bytes, whatever), and transmission (of knowledge, culture, you name it).
As you may think the shift rises questions in me. What the job, craft, market, became in the meantime? I'm spontaneously as reluctant to SDKs and frameworks as one can be. After a while, in an attemp to think it open-minded, I agreed to build my own Lego out of other's basic material. Ok.
I'd like to stress one point: not only legitimate craftsmaship pride is involved in getting things the "clean" way. Sharing is the genetics of the Net. Sooner, later, all contents will "collaborate" in some way.
Search engines show that in a (very) primitive form. Tomorrow, when they become smarter, they (and others) will drill deeper into content to do their job. Maybe then only the coherence of code will be a competitive advantage. But a huge one. In a way you cannot automate. In a way it can hamper or glorify your online visibility. Life and digital death.
Maybe not today yet. But soon, I guess. (And sorry for the long post, english is not my native tongue.) - T -
puppylove81
· 9 months ago
Really interesting article, gives hope at the end of the tunnel. I have been exploring the new areas of the social netowrks myself, they are new and consume time in learning them.
This article is very true, often times we judge new SDKs without using them first. After reading this I will surely follow one of you new year's resolution:
"# Take time to have a look at the SDKs, hosted services and frameworks out there and write about them instead of showing yet another proof of concept."
SparkBB
· 9 months ago
Nice article! It has a very rich content. It helped a lot! Thanks!
Eric
· 9 months ago
This is true! That's why we all should just go visit emagid.com Cool site!
spycamuser
· 9 months ago
Very interesting article, it is surely worth the long read. there is so much out there in the web world that is left unexplored. Be quick to make the most of the world today.
Interesting post. It's still the wild wild west out there with web platforms.
Simon Hamp
· 9 months ago
My twopence worth: I think the problem is that so many developers (like myself) have got fed up of the corporate nagging that they've ended up working for themselves and in a lot of cases working on open source systems that average Joe User can set up with a few instructions.
Now I'm not saying it's wrong to empower people-who-aren't-technically-developers in this way OR that the software that has been developed is bad. It's just that it really doesn't suit every use case. Frameworks and SDKs are a little better as their scope is generally more generic, but they're more difficult for Joe User to understand.
Plus, the more generic you get, the more bloated you get, having to cater for possible eventualities that simply might never be. For some of us, that's a factor that we're prepared to negotiate. For others, a competitive solution is the only way to go.
For the past two years I believed I could do it better. The solution I've come up with could be classed as a web app framework/CMS. I guess it's along the lines of Drupal. The key issue for me though is that it's tighter, it does what I need it to, which means it's leaner. It's faster.
You could argue that trimming back is better than building up, but in this case there was also a deep personal development incentive. Will I release the solution as open source? Maybe one day. Will I make people pay through the nose for it? No!
It is a way for me to develop web applications faster and in a way that is extensible as far as existing and future technologies suggest it needs to be. So efficiency is the key for me, without a lack of quality. It's not so much being a control freak, but just being 100% sure that everything I develop with this will be effective in all areas that I need it to be.
If you can get that same sense of satisfaction from another piece of software that already exists... great! If you're not bothered about it... then you should probably be worried...
Brad
· 9 months ago
Goodbye White Canvas, Hello Lego Bricks
Insightful.
Rex Steel
· 9 months ago
Great article...even for someone fairly new there was some great information
Facebok
· 9 months ago
I'm trying to become more of a techie...this helps me see where things are going
andre
· 9 months ago
What about those that are not even aware of this stuff? They're more than obsolete!
I think that web development has come on in leaps and bounds in the last years, not because of top‐down decisions and empowerment of the folks on the ground, but by geeks just doing the right thing without asking for permission first. We should follow standards and build solid code to make our own life easier
Ecommerce Web Design
· 8 months ago
SDKs and APIs that I have direct access to. There is nothing worse than a bad example being replicated million fold as people copy+paste instead of reading docs.Ask non-developers how real people use systems and what they like most about them.
lida diyet zayıflama r10seoogl
· 8 months ago
Nice post! You've inspired me to get out there and check out some more hosted services and frameworks!
Ajax
· 7 months ago
You still can write your OWN code, but it is much easier to use API and Frameworks - it's just saves time. The things, that would take you days to do back then, now we can do in minutes, not even talking about some huge things. For example I needed to create search in website - I just use Lucene. with Zend Framework it took few minutes to setup everything. Ten years ago that task would took days, if not weeks, to implement, not even talking about efficiency and error-proof.
lidadiyetzayflamar10seoogle
· 4 months ago
What about those that are not even aware of this stuff? They're more than obsolete!
lida diyet zayıflama
· 4 months ago
Interesting post. It's still the wild wild west out there with web platforms.
lida diyet zayiflamar10seoogle
· 4 months ago
If you can get that same sense of satisfaction from another piece of software that already exists... great! If you're not bothered about it... then you should probably be worried...
lida diyet zayiflamar10seoogle
· 4 months ago
For example I needed to create search in website - I just use Lucene. with Zend Framework it took few minutes to setup everything.
All Comments
I have also used them a great deal when creating prototypes/wireframes, I can then share these with developers, who more often than not find even better ways to achieve what I was attempting to demonstrate
> Nowadays, things look different. First of all, for the most part it’s impossible to develop offline ‐ this is because we use hosted services, APIs and most likely you’ll write something that uses some data stored elsewhere on the web.
I disagree -- if you're doing things properly you should be stubbing that API in your test and using git locally, allowing you to work anywhere. Testing the integrated whole must usually be done online, but full integration tests can be always be run later when you've done your piece of work and you're back on the grid.
Chris
You've inspired me to get out there and check out some more hosted services and frameworks!
Because of the sheer volume and talent, people are no longer impressed by new cutting edge technologies. The competition is fierce and speed and efficiency is the most important. It's therefore often just small changes and tweaks that will make an application worthwhile for users.
Developers can do the initial heavy lifting, but only the end-users know what they really want. This will lead non-developers to build upon existing technologies to make them fit their optimal requirements
So very true! Ideas like OpenId and OpenSocial, despite current drawbacks, have great promise. However, while people are quick to point out the issues with these technologies, many of these same people are not nearly as quick to work to improve on those issues.
John Resig recently had a post about this idea, that all web developers have a responsibility to work to improve the technologies we make use of. While his post was aimed largely at submitting bug reports for browsers, the concept applies for other web technologies as well.
The new generation of WebDev practices is making life much easier.
http://jsconf2009.com/
I don't fear it, I welcome it.
Thanks,
GD
Scarface Blog
warhammer online video
And that's what makes the future of the web so exciting - sleek, efficient interfaces. At the end of the day our web applications are generally just front ends for a database, so by focusing on the UI so early on in modern development a better end product is produced.
As a freelancer, I visit a lot of small to medium companies and see how they are struggling with adapting to new technologies or best practices. I think because it's difficult to change workflow (time/money/stress) and they made a choice in their SDK 3 years ago and don't want to throw it overboard, yet.
On the other hand...I work with some great designers. And like you said, the web is becoming familiar for users because of great apps, you need people/designers to think about it this way. I build everything that moves...so I don't really think about design or requirements...they just hand it over to me. Just like I want it.
We get caught up in so many of the technical details. But at the end of the day, it's the user's experience of your app that really matters. The faster you can build a bigger better more useful and easy to use app for the user, the more people your work will reach. (that's not to say quality doesn't matter though :)
teach me how to rap
Although web development has definately moved on, for some people it is still as remote as ever. For example I kow a lot of people who would not even consider making their own website, although like you point out, development is a lot more entertianing these days.
One positive to come out of this is that you can actually get a good quality website developed for quite cheap these days.
The answer. Yes. It's over. You lay out the facts very well in your article. Web development/design is a commodity. There are sites now that will give me valid XHTML and CSS when handed photoshop or Illustrator layouts. I don't know if they are in India, Romania or just a bunch of free lancers in the states. Who cares.
I've written an essay on a very similar topic - how the web is just a mechanism to get working applications to a user. Technologies like CSS have actually raised the bar and made it more difficult.
I will be very honest here. I'm a software engineer who works for a very large ecommerce site. We are top 10 revenue producing in the US. When we need HTML and CSS we hand it off to a few guys who are good with it. Then we get it back and write the real application. Because software is big and messy and web developers do not have the software engineering chops to pull it off.
I realize this may incite hatred. I'm really not trying to start a flame war here. I'm agreeing with the author and pointing out that very large operations who make billions on the web do not really care about web development. Sounds odd right? We want to use frameworks that spit out HTML that is valid in whatever the browsers are nowadays. We don't necessarily need some guy tweaking pixels in IE6 - it's cheaper to make that page design simpler. Use less CSS or do whatever it takes. Companies don't want to pay web developers/designers. They are a pain. Right now, we just have to.
And splatterball, who remembers that!
Ten years from now a lot of how we go about our daily lives will be changed as communication will grow to the point where the web is not just cyber space but literal space.
As a freelancer (first site in 94, occasionaly taught web development for some time, then followed different interests), I'm on the verge of getting back to web development. Because it's the platform of the time and it outlines my deep interests in life : architecture (brick, metal, sound, words, bytes, whatever), and transmission (of knowledge, culture, you name it).
As you may think the shift rises questions in me. What the job, craft, market, became in the meantime? I'm spontaneously as reluctant to SDKs and frameworks as one can be. After a while, in an attemp to think it open-minded, I agreed to build my own Lego out of other's basic material. Ok.
I'd like to stress one point: not only legitimate craftsmaship pride is involved in getting things the "clean" way. Sharing is the genetics of the Net. Sooner, later, all contents will "collaborate" in some way.
Search engines show that in a (very) primitive form. Tomorrow, when they become smarter, they (and others) will drill deeper into content to do their job. Maybe then only the coherence of code will be a competitive advantage. But a huge one. In a way you cannot automate. In a way it can hamper or glorify your online visibility. Life and digital death.
Maybe not today yet. But soon, I guess.
(And sorry for the long post, english is not my native tongue.)
- T -
dog clothes
"# Take time to have a look at the SDKs, hosted services and frameworks out there and write about them instead of showing yet another proof of concept."
Cool site!
posted by a spycams freak.
I think the problem is that so many developers (like myself) have got fed up of the corporate nagging that they've ended up working for themselves and in a lot of cases working on open source systems that average Joe User can set up with a few instructions.
Now I'm not saying it's wrong to empower people-who-aren't-technically-developers in this way OR that the software that has been developed is bad. It's just that it really doesn't suit every use case. Frameworks and SDKs are a little better as their scope is generally more generic, but they're more difficult for Joe User to understand.
Plus, the more generic you get, the more bloated you get, having to cater for possible eventualities that simply might never be. For some of us, that's a factor that we're prepared to negotiate. For others, a competitive solution is the only way to go.
For the past two years I believed I could do it better. The solution I've come up with could be classed as a web app framework/CMS. I guess it's along the lines of Drupal. The key issue for me though is that it's tighter, it does what I need it to, which means it's leaner. It's faster.
You could argue that trimming back is better than building up, but in this case there was also a deep personal development incentive. Will I release the solution as open source? Maybe one day. Will I make people pay through the nose for it? No!
It is a way for me to develop web applications faster and in a way that is extensible as far as existing and future technologies suggest it needs to be. So efficiency is the key for me, without a lack of quality. It's not so much being a control freak, but just being 100% sure that everything I develop with this will be effective in all areas that I need it to be.
If you can get that same sense of satisfaction from another piece of software that already exists... great! If you're not bothered about it... then you should probably be worried...
Insightful.
You've inspired me to get out there and check out some more hosted services and frameworks!