Posts tagged as: xhtml

My Web 2.0 stack

I'm not sure when "stack" came to mean a list of languages/technical standards used to build an app, but it is a useful description. It helps convey the logical architecture within a multi-layered development environment. The best example of a useful stack is LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl or Python or PHP), which summed up what most of us used to build Web 1.0. I've spent the last few months reading and skimming as many new technology books as possible, and I've narrowed down the list of things I need to become proficient in to understand how Web 2.0 works. What I still need is a catchy acronym. Here's the list:

• XHTML. This is basically HTML with some really prissy rules, like case sensitivity, and needing to close all tags. There are said to be tools that will make this conversion for you, but I haven't tried any.
• CSS. Once you understand the basic rules, CSS is a fun way to design a site, especially if you start with a pre-written stylesheet, so you can just change things like colors and spacing.
• XML. While XML itself can be understood in minutes, the many, many ancillary standards and protocols make it tough to find a real-world entry point. I've found RSS programming to be a good starting place.
• Ruby. I've been programming with Ruby for a month, and I'm getting to like it more and more. I think it may have the same level of ease and productivity that made the dBASE language so popular in its time.
• SQL. Yes, its still here, and its still the same, which is the problem. The issue will be fitting the object-oriented data structures of XML into the tables of SQL. The consultants will be paying their mortgages on this one for years.
• Javascript. I could say Ajax instead to assure a higher rating on the Web 2.0 Validator, but Ajax really means Javascript that maintains contact with a server without reloading a page.

Frankly, its not as much as I expected when I started researching Web 2.0 this summer. The good part is that it all fits together easily, and none of the parts are particularly challenging. That's when I am most productive. By the time a language gets as richly, and complexly supported as Java, for example, I get bored and confused and move on.