Client-Server Web Apps with JavaScript and Java

Chapter 14. Conclusion

Life is a distributed object system. However, communication among humans is a distributed hypermedia system where the mind’s intellect, voice+gestures, eyes+ears, and imagination are all components.

—Roy T. Fielding

It is fascinating to set out to write a book with a general plan in mind and then review the final result. Although different than what I initially envisioned, this book does remain faithful to a theme introduced early on—that of change. The introduction pointed out that there has been tremendous change in the world due to technological innovation and spoke to a few specific areas where this is evident. If anything, the rate of change has been increasing in recent years. It is common for a large-scale project to be considered a legacy application by the time the product is launched.

Extreme reactions like trying to apprehend all of the new innovations or ignoring them altogether are obviously shortsighted and futile. A better response is to identify which shifts are truly significant game changers. The ride through this book highlights some of the areas of software development encountered by Java developers that require a closer look. Two basic sources for insights as to how to react to the seismic shifts that continue to affect web development are the wider development community and the insights of earlier generations.

Community

Other programming communities have significantly different perspectives and can therefore inspire innovations different than ...