Development methodologies in Web 2.0 time‑frame
Internet changed the way software is developed. It enabled collaboration between geographically dispersed developers and promoted code re‑use. Result is improvement of code quality available as components under permissive licences which promote sharing of code and ideas.
In the sort run, this trend enabled rapid development of prototypes and working systems from readily available parts, and in the long run it will bring massive improvements to our daily work‑flows using Service Oriented Architectures.
Complex frameworks for development of rich web‑based application appeared reacently. They are available for different languages and platforms. Since they are coupled with AJAX they promise rich client delivered directly to browsers using powerful combination of server‑based business logic and client‑side JavaScript to produce rich user interfaces seen only in desktop applications.
This reminds somewhat of approach introduced by 4GL languages, and one might argue that this is, in fact, revival of 4GL for Web 2.0 world. Paradigm is now based on loosely coupled parts and services available through the Internet. This might bring us closer to the idea of ambiguous computing and network computer.