The history of web development is now over 30 years in the making. Full of innovation and advancement, it’s a fascinating tale. That’s especially true when told by industry professionals like web developer Luke Robert Flinn. Flinn is a seasoned developer from Warrnambool on the southwestern coast of Victoria, Australia.
A graduate of the University of Melbourne’s School of Computing and Information Systems, he is a go-to source of expertise and published a top-selling book on the topic last year. To demonstrate, what follows is a brief history of web development from the Warrnambool-based expert’s perspective.
The Early Web and Its Development
In the early days of the web, websites were little more than simple text and images. Yet, as early as 1989, such sites were revolutionary. Accessed via browsers like Mosaic and Netscape, all early websites were composed almost exclusively of HTML – still the basic language of the web today.
A few short years later, in the mid-1990s, Microsoft released Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer was the first widely-used web browser, allowing developers like Warrnambool native Flinn’s predecessors to do more with their websites. That included using simple scripting languages like JavaScript to create more dynamic content.
Simple scripting languages like JavaScript were followed by increasingly sophisticated options. Among the first was Perl, which quickly enabled web developers to create more complex and robust websites. Following the introduction of Perl, numerous other programming languages were developed, such as PHP and ASP.
Web Development in the New Millennium
The 2000s saw the emergence of content management systems like Drupal and WordPress. These systems enabled Luke Robert Flinn and other developers in and around Warrnambool, across Australia, and elsewhere worldwide to create websites more quickly and with greater ease than ever.
The mid-2000s also saw the introduction of dynamic web development frameworks like Django and Ruby on Rails. These frameworks provided invaluable sets of tools and libraries, allowing developers to create polished web applications. Such tools also made it possible for developers to launch complex websites without writing every line of code from scratch.
Modern-Day Web Development
The last decade and a half have brought more advancements in web development than ever. The rise of mobile devices, namely smartphones, and tablets, rapidly created a need for responsive web design and development. Responsive design and development soon allowed people to browse the web on different devices – not just desktop computers and laptops.
Building on the success of frameworks like Ruby on Rails, newcomers such as Angular JS and jQuery then arrived. These have granted developers the necessary tools to create interactive and engaging web applications that would not have been possible before.
A More Accessible, Powerful, and Engaging Web
The history of web development is a fascinating and ever-evolving one. From the simple beginnings of the web in the 1990s to the modern era of dynamic web applications, web development has come a long way in a relatively short time.
Crucially, with every piece of innovation and continued advancements in the field, today’s web is more accessible, powerful, and engaging than ever. And as the web continues to evolve, individuals such as Luke Robert Flinn, Warrnambool, Australia-based developer, will undoubtedly find new ways to keep creating all-new, never-before-seen user experiences.
