zlacker

Well, I still think that allowing Javascript onto the web was a fatal mistake. HTTP/URL/HTML and eventually also CSS was a fantastic combination. This stack was progressively learnable via self-discovery.

Once the Javascript-coders infected the web it almost immediately turned into a write-only medium.

I worked at a browser vendor whilst all of this was happening. I was busy with the mechanics of building a particular browser. Couldn't make sense of the javascript/webstandards stuff in detail, but I trusted these people were smart enough. I did notice the people who were running this stuff (they were making the formerly kinda static html/css web standards dynamic by defining vast amounts of javascript API:s) were all very young people. Probably a median age of 21 or so. (Some "wunderkids" around 17 or so.) The average age of the people actually implementing stuff was closer to 28-30 in this company. Nothing against young people in general.. they can bring new thoughts etc.. but.. they do tend to lack experience.

In retrospect I regret that I didn't engage with this young crowd more. In general I wish there had been more discussion between these two camps.