minima

minima: noSQL + noHTML + noJS =============================

Traditional web frameworks comprise of an ORM layer over a DB, a templating engine and some HTTP dispatcher and session management. In my view, the first two are relics of the past and we can (and should) do without them, and the third should be greatly improved. Luckily, modern minimalist frameworks like `flask` get us closer to that, but there's still way to go.

• The Vision

• Installation

• Basic Useage

The Vision: Snakes all the Way Down! ------------------------------------

• Websites should be service-oriented, exposing APIs instead of generating HTML pages

on the fly. JSON API calls everywhere, by default.

• Templating is a stupid thing: it's basically very limited, cumbersome, and impossible-to-debug

form of function application. A template takes parameters and generates HTML: it's a function!

• An HTTP server is ultimately a degenerate form of Remote Procedure Call (RPC) - it dispatches

function names (URLs) to concrete functions, extracts parameters, and generally alleviates your code from the mess that is HTTP. It's time to realize it and think about it the way it realy is.

• HTML is too low-level for us to mess with; we ought to be talking at a much more semantic

level, that renders itself as HTML plus the required JavaScript.

• JavaScript is a horrible language and we should strive to avoid any contact with it. We do this

by putting as much of it as possible into the framework. Semantic elements may generate their appropriate JavaScript when they render themselves to HTML, but the product should be pure.

• ORM and SQL suck. A document-oriented database (e.g., *mongo*) would normally prove the better

choice (unless you need really complex queries): if you choose to work in a dynamic language, why would you work with a static DB schema?

Web programming involves too many unrelated technologies that were stac