# Web Development from DHTML to AJAX and Modern Standards

DevFeed: [Web Development from DHTML to AJAX and Modern Standards](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/it-has-never-been-about-the-standers-while-it-has-always-been-about-the-standards-31957.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://tech.finn.no2011/08/26/it-has-never-been-about-the-standers-while-it-has-always-been-about-the-standards/>)

Author: espen

Published: 2011-08-26T06:50:51Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Finn.no](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/finn-no.md>)

Topics: [Web Development](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/web-development.md>), [Ajax](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ajax.md>), [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/browsers.md>), [JavaScript](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/javascript.md>), [ui](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ui.md>), [CSS](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/css.md>), [jQuery](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/jquery.md>), [Library](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/library.md>)

Tags: [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browsers.md>), [css](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/css.md>), [javascript](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/javascript.md>), [standards](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/standards.md>), [ui](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ui.md>), [web-development](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/web-development.md>)

## AI overview

The author reflects on a career in web development, from learning through source code and experimenting with browser technologies to the shift from DHTML and server-side development toward AJAX, JavaScript, CSS, and web UI libraries.

## Source excerpt

I was introduced to the World Wide Web back in 1995 while being a student at Molde College, Norway. What fascinated me the most was that I could learn how to create stuff for the web by just viewing the source code of other web sites. This blew my mind and since then I have built a career working with web development. Creating web sites and web-based applications for me has always been about trying to adopt the latest technological advances in browsers, as soon as they were available. Naturally, this has lead to me reaching a few dead ends (IE's Data Binding and Netscape JavaScript style sheets), but mostly it has enabled me to create some pretty cool things. From DHTML to an atomic winter In the days of the .com era, the community for creating web based applications was buzzing. We were cranking out all kinds of DHTML magic. Every site out there was jumping on the band wagon without any hesitation. One of the classics is online retailer Boo.com which went all out with new technology without really succeeding. Naturally we had to deal with older browsers then too, but we did not let that get in the way of using the latest standards being adopted in browsers. The burst of the .com bubble created something of an atomic winter as far as web based user interface development goes. A lot of people lost their jobs and the rest of us took refuge in server side development. A clean slate and a new dawn Thankfully all the bad stuff was swiftly cleaned up with the introduction of the AJAX approach by Jesse James Garret in 2005. All the interface developers came out from their hiding places and they sure had been busy during that atomic winter. Out popped all kinds of amazing things like Dojo Toolkit, Yahoo! UI Library and JQuery. Once more the web moved forward at a rapid pace thanks to the newly found fame due to the AJAX hype. JavaScript was getting recognition as an actual language and CSS was being implemented in a more serious manner than before. We all implemented our ap