What is it be a web developer?
This piece is not about the history of the web, more about how the web grows and how new technologies constantly change the nature of what it means to be a web developer.
The Internet is growing (nothing new there with that statement). When a new idea or piece of technology springs up, developers are needed to be able to write software for it so that the new innovation gains ground and popularity.
The term 'web developer' came about because the web became the most sought after use for the Internet. When this happened people wanted to access information quickly and reliably. As a result web developers started programming on systems and servers that could dish out this information in a better way. With the integration of databases and server side coding, it allowed websites to move on from the stateless nature of HTML that is when Tim Berners-Lee developed it.
As time has moved on the web has gone from strength to strength. The other huge leap forward was advent of Javascript, a programming language that allowed coders to manipulate the pages that users saw in their browsers. This allowed websites to start behaving more the more traditional applications that ran on PCs and other computers. Of course it was only matter of time when the two started to inter mingle to give us even better applications and lo and behold Ajax sprang up when Microsoft created the XMLHttpRequest Object which allowed developers to send asynchronous requests to servers without the page reloading, thus enhancing even further the web experience. Ajax was designed to work with both XHTML and XML so that information could be injected and updated quickly and using less resources. Why reload the whole page when you only need to change the information in a single element? XML and the many web services created to use it allowed people to integrate information from website to another in a standardised way and crossed the divides that sprung up from the use of different systems.
The web didn't stop there over time, newer ideas and innovations continued to spring up all over the shop and applications became more and more complex. Social Media started to come in to the main stream and integration between web sites and applications became more and more common. MySpace and Facebook started to come to fruition and the web continued to make new ground with many people that had considered the web to be a fad with those 'young people'.
With the advent of Ajax it allowed applications to be made and resemble desktop programs, but there was a problem that became apparent as time went on. As with most javaScript functionality it had its problems with the numerous browsers that were available in the market. It was also quite code intensive and lots of testing was usually needed to make sure code with all browsers. That is where my topic pops up and that topic is jQuery. jQuery is a javaScript framework and has ironed out many of the problems that made javaScript such a pain to work with in the first place. DOM traversal, Ajax calls and element selection was made easier and standardised, no more cross compatibility testing to make sure things worked in firefox and IE. Debugging and development time has become vastly decreased, something of which, if you are a business can be passed on when you quote your customers for work.
So what is the future for the web. Well in my opinion, the future is becoming smaller. Well it is terms of the web. Mobile technology is becoming more and more common and I think that is where a lot of the future innovations will lie. Apple and Google have both moved into the mobile phone market and making a lot of people think about using their mobile device as the primary device for accessing the Internet. I myself have bought a mac mini to develop applications for iPhone as I want to keep with up with how the market is changing. I haven't actually created an app yet as I have too many commitments in other areas but the area between desktop applications and web applications are coming together quicker than ever, something of which I think will change the web and the Internet forever.
The Internet is growing (nothing new there with that statement). When a new idea or piece of technology springs up, developers are needed to be able to write software for it so that the new innovation gains ground and popularity.
The term 'web developer' came about because the web became the most sought after use for the Internet. When this happened people wanted to access information quickly and reliably. As a result web developers started programming on systems and servers that could dish out this information in a better way. With the integration of databases and server side coding, it allowed websites to move on from the stateless nature of HTML that is when Tim Berners-Lee developed it.
As time has moved on the web has gone from strength to strength. The other huge leap forward was advent of Javascript, a programming language that allowed coders to manipulate the pages that users saw in their browsers. This allowed websites to start behaving more the more traditional applications that ran on PCs and other computers. Of course it was only matter of time when the two started to inter mingle to give us even better applications and lo and behold Ajax sprang up when Microsoft created the XMLHttpRequest Object which allowed developers to send asynchronous requests to servers without the page reloading, thus enhancing even further the web experience. Ajax was designed to work with both XHTML and XML so that information could be injected and updated quickly and using less resources. Why reload the whole page when you only need to change the information in a single element? XML and the many web services created to use it allowed people to integrate information from website to another in a standardised way and crossed the divides that sprung up from the use of different systems.
The web didn't stop there over time, newer ideas and innovations continued to spring up all over the shop and applications became more and more complex. Social Media started to come in to the main stream and integration between web sites and applications became more and more common. MySpace and Facebook started to come to fruition and the web continued to make new ground with many people that had considered the web to be a fad with those 'young people'.
With the advent of Ajax it allowed applications to be made and resemble desktop programs, but there was a problem that became apparent as time went on. As with most javaScript functionality it had its problems with the numerous browsers that were available in the market. It was also quite code intensive and lots of testing was usually needed to make sure code with all browsers. That is where my topic pops up and that topic is jQuery. jQuery is a javaScript framework and has ironed out many of the problems that made javaScript such a pain to work with in the first place. DOM traversal, Ajax calls and element selection was made easier and standardised, no more cross compatibility testing to make sure things worked in firefox and IE. Debugging and development time has become vastly decreased, something of which, if you are a business can be passed on when you quote your customers for work.
So what is the future for the web. Well in my opinion, the future is becoming smaller. Well it is terms of the web. Mobile technology is becoming more and more common and I think that is where a lot of the future innovations will lie. Apple and Google have both moved into the mobile phone market and making a lot of people think about using their mobile device as the primary device for accessing the Internet. I myself have bought a mac mini to develop applications for iPhone as I want to keep with up with how the market is changing. I haven't actually created an app yet as I have too many commitments in other areas but the area between desktop applications and web applications are coming together quicker than ever, something of which I think will change the web and the Internet forever.
Labels: Ajax, iphone, iphone Apps, jQuery, programming, web applications, web development
posted by firmy007 at
8:44 AM
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