Developing for the web is easier than I thought.

[jpalacio486]

I dont consider myself a hacker because I can't really program. But developing web apps has become increasingly easy due to open source, CMS, and the willingness of people to help one another via forums. What do you guys/gals think?

[npk]

I think this guy discovered the Most Important Hacker Lesson: Everything invented by man is easily understandable by man.

Seriously. Isn't that what makes hacking fun? The moment where you realize that you could build everything around you?

To the OP: Yours is a healthy, and important hacking attitude! If you really get into hacking, then you should work your way down the stacks of abstraction. For example, hack the source to your web server.

[abrown]

I think you have not been doing this very long...

[kashif]

He says he is not a hacker.

[Zak]

I think that sounds like somebody in the early 90s discovering Hypercard and saying "developing for the Mac is easier than I thought". The problem is what you can do without actually learning to program is pretty limited.

Hypercard was a RAD tool from Apple that was generally too limited to do anything interesting without adding external functions written in C. It was used (along with a lot of external functions) to create the first version of Myst.

[cstejerean]

While current rapid development toolkits for the web shield one from having to know much about the details, as soon as an applications needs to go beyond a handful of users the details can no longer be ignored. The good news is that most applications don't have a large audience and this allows folks to put together prototypes and demos and once an idea gains popularity they can always go back and hire someone else to take it to the next level.

[iamwil]

Just depends on what you need to do. If what you need to do is in the confines of what's been provided by open source, CMS, and the knowledge of other people, sure. But if one of those three falters, then well, that's where it get a bit tougher.

And part of what separates hackers from the non-hackers, is who's willing to learn, dig deeper, and figure out how to do.

[brlewis]

I've been developing web apps too long to be confident that I can say how easy it is to learn. Post a web app you've made and at least I'll have a little data.

[nextmoveone]

I think it's cool. The web is in a great place right now, and it seems to be moving forward.

[kashif]

Yes, easier to make stuff but not easier to make stuff that people are willing to pay for.