Frontends for time travelers¶
Warning
This document is not finished.
I had a few jobs doing web development circa 12–15 years ago. HTML 4, CSS 2, pre‐ECMAScript 4 JavaScript, and PHP, Python, or ASP. These languages – especially PHP and ASP – were terrible. On the side, I tried out Java EE tools like Spring and gave Django a try. MVC was the standard practice, and Ajax was used where needed.
It was all terrible, but straightforward.
Now, terms like “full‐stack developer” abound. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript go in the same files. We’re building backends with JavaScript. A typical stack is huge and chooses technologies in a massive set of technologies.
It’s such a massive chunk of modern software that it’s worth delving into, even if you never plan to do web development. This documents my journey to understanding it, as someone who hadn’t done web development in 10 years.