The World Wide Train Wreck: is there light at the end of the tunnel?

Abstract

The Web, as initially presented to the world, provided a mechanism to get static content onto millions of computers. The straightforward HTML encoding for describing pages is simple enough that billions of pages have been created by perhaps millions of people. Numerous tools have been written to aid this process, again testifying to the simplicity of HTML. Humans being the demanding creates that they are, almost immediately wanted more automated ways to create dynamic content. A plethora of languages sprang up to meet this need including Java and Javascript as well as techniques to integrate existing general purpose languages (C, Perl) with HTML. This created what I refer to as the World Wide Train Wreck. Web-based applications each having parts implemented, by necessity, in a different language. The corresponding poor coupling and chaotic interconnections of these applications is a programming nightmare reminiscent of a train wreck.