Larsen - The Uncertain Web

The evolution of the Web as a development platform and the incredible growth in the number of web-enabled devices has pushed the Web into places it could never have reached before. In the past decade, weve gone from a stagnant platform with a handful of browsers and operating systems connecting to the Web to a vibrant, Open Web Platform serving a dizzying array of browsers and devices.

Thats the big picture.

The thing is, most of the time, front-line developers dont get to spend time looking at the big picture. You know how it isits usually a challenge just getting the next release out the door. Whether youre building a site for a client, working on the latest version of your JavaScript framework, or simply trying to make sure people can read the text on your blog, theres not a lot of time available to muse about the way the Web as a whole has changed. Instead, you focus on solutions to individual problems, because those are the ones keeping you from going home at a reasonable hour. Even folks who are tasked with keeping track of the big trends can get sidetracked by specific storms that pop up. Its hard to keep your eye on the big picture when youre watching 10 (long!) emails an hour come through on a standards topic youre following with interest.

Thats where this book comes in. Judging by the conversations I see on GitHub, StackOverflow, Twitter, and IRC, it seems like people dont really think about how fundamentally the Web has changed. Whether its searching for the perfect test to detect a mouse user versus a touch user or designing a responsive site for the perfect set of media query breakpoints, there are many developers still trying to hammer out absolute rules and rigid best practices. People are clearly looking to develop sites and applications within clearly defined boundaries.

Although that can be a comforting idea and was once possible, those days are long gone. Its time for a new approach.

The quote from Yehuda Katz at the beginning of the first chapter, sums up, cleverly, two of the threads that youll see throughout the book. Flip ahead and check it out, or read it live on Twitter.

Hopefully, when youre done with this book, youll be doing less crying .

Todays Web is a wild place. The Web has never been a static platform, no matter how much people might wish it were so. You just cant control whos going to request your content. You cant control the browser or device theyre using, and you certainly cant guarantee things like the operating system, screen resolution, bandwidth, or available system fonts. For developers coming from pretty much any other discipline, the number of things that are out of the developers control can be mind-boggling. That statement will only grow more true with every passing day. Standards are changing on, in some cases, a daily or weekly basis, new devices are coming online at a furious pace, and browser vendors are going at it tooth and nail to innovate their way to the top of the league tables. With an ecosystem like that, trying to collapse everything you do as a developer into something that can fit into a neat little box is a recipe for frustration. Embracing the ecosystem for the wild mess that it is and developing with an eye toward the uncertainty the Web will throw at you is the best way to reach whomever might want to get at your site or application with whatever they have in their pocket or on their desktopnow and in the future.

The tools to do this are already here; you just need an adjustment in the way you view the Web and the way you develop for it.