The history of Web development
Historic milestones in web development
Let's start our overall review of the key trends that are currently affecting modern web development with a look at the historic milestones that enabled us to get to where we are today:
The Mosaic browser
Mosaic wasn’t the first browser, but it was the one that popularized the Internet for many. Released in 1993, it supported bookmarks and inline image. Before Mosaic images had to be downloaded and viewed separately from page content. Mosaic was, at the time, the most user friendly browser available by some degree. It allowed non technical users to understand the web for the first time.
Cookies
Support for cookies, tiny files that can store a web users preferences, were first supported by what was then the Mosaic Netscape browser in 1994. Whilst they have over the years gained a bad reputation for tracking user activity online, they have actually played a huge role in adding a layer of programmatic sophistication to the web. Such has been their impact we are only now implementing improved web storage methods to replace their use.
CSS
CSS, as we know it today, came along in 1994. It was proposed by the Opera browser CTO Hakon Wium Lie. Somewhat of a web pioneer, Hakon has since played key roles in the adoption of both downloadable fonts and the HTML tag. Whilst the separation of presentation and content that CCS facilitates is something we now take for granted, those who remember the mess HTML tables made of the web will forever be grateful for the day the W3C approved ‘CSS Level 1’4.
PHP
It is hard to imagine a World Wide Web without PHP, yet before 1996 that is exactly what we had. Quickly adopted upon its release as an core web language (it runs on a server, can be embedded in HTML and supports SQL databases) the language is now used on over 80% of all websites.
AJAX
It isn’t often that Microsoft is attributed with changing the web for the better, but with AJAX that is exactly what they did. Their implementation of a technique called XMLHTTP in the Outlook web application paved the way for what we now call AJAX. This technique allows web browsers to fetch new data without refreshing the page, giving web apps the ability to act much more like their desktop counterparts.
Django : The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines
Django's primary goal is to ease the creation of complex, database-driven websites. The framework emphasizes reusability and "pluggability" of components, less code, low coupling, rapid development, and the principle of don't repeat yourself.[8] Python is used throughout, even for settings files and data models. Django also provides an optional administrative create, read, update and deleteinterface that is generated dynamically through introspection and configured via admin models.
The History of web and web design
- The start of the web and web design
In 1989, whilst working at CERN Tim Berners-Lee proposed to create a global hypertext project, which later became known as the World Wide Web. During 1991 to 1993 the World Wide Web was born. Text-only pages could be viewed using a simple line-mode browser.[2] In 1993 Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina, created the Mosaic browser. At the time there were multiple browsers, however the majority of them were Unix-based and naturally text heavy. There had been no integrated approach to graphic design elements such as images or sounds. The Mosaic browser broke this mould.[3] The W3Cwas created in October 1994 to "lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability."[4]This discouraged any one company from monopolizing a propriety browser and programming language, which could have altered the effect of the World Wide Web as a whole. The W3C continues to set standards, which can today be seen with JavaScript. In 1994 Andreessen formed Communications Corp. that later became known as Netscape Communications, the Netscape 0.9 browser. Netscape created its own HTML tags without regard to the traditional standards process. For example, Netscape 1.1 included tags for changing background colours and formatting text with tables on web pages. Throughout 1996 to 1999 the browser wars began, as Microsoft and Netscape fought for ultimate browser dominance. During this time there were many new technologies in the field, notably Cascading Style Sheets, JavaScript, and Dynamic HTML. On the whole, the browser competition did lead to many positive creations and helped web design evolve at a rapid pace.[5]
What is Web design & Web development
- Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the production and maintenance of websites. The different areas of web design include web graphic design; interface design; authoring, including standardised code and proprietary software; user experience design; and search engine optimization. Often many individuals will work in teams covering different aspects of the design process, although some designers will cover them all. The term web design is normally used to describe the design process relating to the front-end (client side) design of a website including writing markup. Web design partially overlaps web engineering in the broader scope of web development. Web designers are expected to have an awareness of usability and if their role involves creating markup then they are also expected to be up to date with web accessibility guidelines.
- Web development is the work involved in developing a web site for the Internet (World Wide Web) or an intranet (a private network).[1] Web development can range from developing a simple single static page of plain text to complex web-based internet applications (web apps), electronic businesses, and social network services. A more comprehensive list of tasks to which web development commonly refers, may include web engineering, web design, web content development, client liaison, client-side/server-side scripting, web server and network security configuration, and e-commerce development.
Among web professionals, "web development" usually refers to the main non-design aspects of building web sites: writing markup and coding.[2] Web development may use content management systems (CMS) to make content changes easier and available with basic technical skills.
For larger organizations and businesses, web development teams can consist of hundreds of people (web developers) and follow standard methods like Agile methodologieswhile developing websites. Smaller organizations may only require a single permanent or contracting developer, or secondary assignment to related job positions such as a graphic designer or information systems technician. Web development may be a collaborative effort between departments rather than the domain of a designated department. There are three kinds of web developer specialization: front-end developer, back-end developer, and full-stack developer. Front-end developers responsible for behavior and visuals that run in the user browser, while back-end developers deal with the servers.
