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121 lines
6.5 KiB
121 lines
6.5 KiB
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<!-- Created by AOLpress/1.2 -->
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<TITLE>Jan 1997 WebApps Editorial</TITLE>
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<P>
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<EM>This is a draft of the editorial of the Jan/Feb 1997 issue of
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<CITE>Web Apps Magazine</CITE>, ISSN #1090-2287. See also:
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<A HREF="9703-web-apps-essay.html">Mar/Apr Distributed Objects Issue</A>
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<A HREF="9705web-apps-db.html">May/Jun 1997 Databases Issue</A> editorials,
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<A HREF="WebApps/Overview.html">more about WebApps</A>.</EM>
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<P>
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<HR>
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<P>
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I'm sure you've seen the ads: "Wanted: HTML programmers" HTML
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<EM>programmers</EM>? I can see HTML writers, practitioners, or even coders;
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but HTML is not a programming language. An HTML editor was supposed to be
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like a really primitive word processor with one killer feature: hypertext
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links. No propellor on the head necessary.
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<P>
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And I'm sure you've been here too: the all-singing, all-dancing Java, ActiveX,
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and Shockwave page. The tension and excitement builds as you wait for all
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the pieces to download; your machine moans under the stress, but you finally
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got that RAM upgrade and a new sound card, and you're ready. And finally...
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a talking head tells you to come back next week when they will have their
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catalogue online. Gee thanks. A simple "under construction" sign would have
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told me all I need to know about this site: go somewhere else.
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<P>
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Both these situations show the same thing: a failure to understand this new
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medium--the web. Quality communication on the web is a mixture of poetry,
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graphic design, interactive user interface design, and database application.
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It's an immersive, participatory medium.
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<P>
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I learned my first lesson about the web long before I ever heard of HTML,
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HTTP, or URLs: I was writing COBOL programs for insurance claims processing.
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I was asked to update this program, and I completely overhauled the user
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interface; I replaced a modal, one-record-at-a-time interface with a modeless,
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spreadsheet-like interface. I couldn't wait to demo it for the customer.
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Her reaction crushed me: "Where's the add mode?"
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<P>
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Then I saw the army of clerical workers at their desks working with another
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one of the claims programs. They were unconscious, chatting away while they
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turned hardcopy claim forms into bits with thier fingers on the keyboards.
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They never even looked at the screen; they were always two or three screens
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ahead. I realized that any change to that program would mean thousands of
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hours lost to re-training. Lesson learned: people resist change.
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<P>
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And yet the web is all about change. It's about changing from country to
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country with one click. Or changing software packages. It's about participating
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and making changes of your own as fast as hitting the save button. It's about
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connecting your enterprise information systems to all the other information
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systems out there so that your enterprise can keep up with the pace of change
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in the world. "Nirvana is when the information system changes as fast as
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the organization does," as XXX put it.
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<P>
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HTML forms and CGI were a tremendous advance: they brought the power of 1960's
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COBOL programming to the web. For CGI applications, traditional languages
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like C quickly gave way to higher level languages like perl, tcl, and applescript
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where solutions can be expressed naturally and prototyped quickly. Few web
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apps demand the performance of C, and even fewer stand still long enough
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to be written in C. The web blurs the notion of prototype and production
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software. Rapid applications development takes on a whole new meaning. Software
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technologies previously considered too high-level and inefficient for production
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use are now considered essential to keep pace.
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<P>
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The Internet is an incredibly fertile ground for research and development.
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The web development community formed quickly, and the marketplace of ideas
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is rich. First there was the "view source" window for finding out "How did
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they do that?" with HTML. Then mailing lists and newsgroups for exchange
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of source code sprang up all over. And now those ideas are the basis of a
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rich commercial market, from $49 utilities to multimillion dollar back-end
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systems.
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<P>
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But there are three challenges facing the web development community: richer
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human interfaces, better back-end integration, and complexity management
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through component software.
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<P>
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Richer human interfaces compete with simpler, more familiar mechanisms that
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require less of the client machine. The practical research work on this challenge
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is very promising. But in a production setting, an interface relying on anything
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more than basic HTML and graphics had better be motivated by a big gain for
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the user. Don't fall into the "HTML programmer" mindset; communication through
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documents has hundreds of years of tradition that shouldn't be thrown away
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lightly. Most sites will get more return out of investing in content and
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structure using the existing idioms than doing something different.
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<P>
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On the back end, the challenge is to find the right mix of reliability and
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flexibility and the right mix of tried-and-true techniques with novel but
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promising ideas. If the structure of your enterprise information isn't changing
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fast enough to keep you working long hours, I'd be willing to bet that your
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audience and their usage patterns are.
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<P>
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And in between the front end and the back end, the development community
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struggles to leverage its work, to make writing the next system easier than
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the one before. To what extent should you leverage community knowledge and
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experience by using what everybody else is using, and when should you strike
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out on your own? How long can we get by on copy-and-pasting each other's
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work? When will we be able to use each other's work in black-box fashion?
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How much are we willing to pay in time, money, and licensing restrictions
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in order to get there? What languages, libraries, and tools will get us there?
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<P>
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As we look at programming languages for the web, keep in mind that they're
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used not only to express programs for the machine, but also to communicate
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to other developers. The web brings about changes that allow us to look at
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non-traditional development technologies a lot more seriously. The motivation
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for high level languages is to express problems and solutions more naturally.
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This allows developers to worry less about the mechanics of computing and
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more about creative solutions. And I mean really creative: the web medium
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admits works of art just as ink on paper or sounds in the air. It invites
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readers to not only browse information, but to participate in it.
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<P>
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Welcome to the global community of web software developers.
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<P>
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<ADDRESS>
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<A HREF="./">Dan Connolly</A><BR>
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11 Nov 1996<BR>
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Austin, TX
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</ADDRESS>
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