The Dynamic Web
Yesterday I realized that my HTML skillz are seriously outdated. Someone at work produced a much better interface to a tool that my team has been writing and showed me that I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to the display layer of web applications. I'm used to working in the guts of the program and my rudimentary HTML comes from 1995 when I created my first webpage (with no blinking text I promise). Even the singular word 'HTML' is completely outdated. Now, you at least have to include CSS and Javascript. And that's just to make a normal webpage. So, I'm going to force myself to acquire new design skillz. I'm going to learn CSS and how Javascript fits into everything. I found that I can go here to see what's possible with CSS, here to find a good tutorial, and here to learn about how to represent lists in CSS.
Of course, CSS is important for making a beautiful webpage but I want to make dynamic applications similar to Gmail and Google Maps. So I searched a little more and read a little bit about XmlHttpRequest which is the client-side library that runs a lot of the dynamic web applications. Ajax is another name for how this all fits together.
After a little more searching I stumbled upon an essay that completely misses the point of the dynamic web. I'm not even sure who the author is, the essay format looks like Paul Graham but it isn't clear that he's the author since it's not on his normal site. I shouldn't even waste my time writing about it but it's so amazingly retarded that I have to. Especially since there seems to be a bigger language war brewing than has happened in a while. The gist of the essay is that you need to use Javascript to make dynamic webpages and Javascript is ugly because it requires so many curly braces and Google is screwing up because it's forcing its developers to write in Javascript. The most amazing paragraph must be read in full:
Although the more I think about the more I realize that this must be a joke. He's making fun of Paul Graham's outrageous claims by going a little further. Damn, I hate it when I get pulled into stuff like this. I guess I just don't have a good bullshit-detector, I should have read more carefully. I should have detected it in the first paragraph when he says that Google Maps shows that Google is losing the innovative edge. It's actually a really funny essay the second time I read it. The last time I got pulled in was from this essay about the Mac Mini. It took me only a couple paragraphs to realize that it was a joke, but I was so pissed off at him by then. The Building a Linux Desktop for Grandma essay on that site is also really funny. You should read the rest of the essays too.
Of course, CSS is important for making a beautiful webpage but I want to make dynamic applications similar to Gmail and Google Maps. So I searched a little more and read a little bit about XmlHttpRequest which is the client-side library that runs a lot of the dynamic web applications. Ajax is another name for how this all fits together.
After a little more searching I stumbled upon an essay that completely misses the point of the dynamic web. I'm not even sure who the author is, the essay format looks like Paul Graham but it isn't clear that he's the author since it's not on his normal site. I shouldn't even waste my time writing about it but it's so amazingly retarded that I have to. Especially since there seems to be a bigger language war brewing than has happened in a while. The gist of the essay is that you need to use Javascript to make dynamic webpages and Javascript is ugly because it requires so many curly braces and Google is screwing up because it's forcing its developers to write in Javascript. The most amazing paragraph must be read in full:
Viaweb did not rely on client-side Javascript, fancy cascading style sheets, or dynamic content generation.[4] Yet it was effective enough that Yahoo! bought it for $49.6 million. $49.6 million will buy a lot of time for reflecting on the things that really matter, such as why Google Maps and GMail represent one step in the road to intellectual and cultural bankruptcy for Google.He's basically saying that ViaWeb is a better web app than Google Maps or Gmail because Yahoo paid $49.6 million for it. Wow, what completely insane logic. That's so completely retarded logic that I think maybe this might just be a joke. But I can't really be sure since there are people out there making outrageous claims about why their language is really the One True Language™.
Although the more I think about the more I realize that this must be a joke. He's making fun of Paul Graham's outrageous claims by going a little further. Damn, I hate it when I get pulled into stuff like this. I guess I just don't have a good bullshit-detector, I should have read more carefully. I should have detected it in the first paragraph when he says that Google Maps shows that Google is losing the innovative edge. It's actually a really funny essay the second time I read it. The last time I got pulled in was from this essay about the Mac Mini. It took me only a couple paragraphs to realize that it was a joke, but I was so pissed off at him by then. The Building a Linux Desktop for Grandma essay on that site is also really funny. You should read the rest of the essays too.
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