36 lines
2 KiB
Markdown
36 lines
2 KiB
Markdown
## Server-side JavaScript is so 1999
|
||
|
||
It was the year when one of the earlier collaborative weblogs (yes, that’s what we called blogs at the time) called [Helma turned into a _corporate website_](http://web.archive.org/web/20010502043303/http://classic.helma.at/comment.asp?helmatic=hannes&item=7696)…
|
||
|
||
Thus, the life of Helma, the _web application framework_ begun. And with it, a serious effort of applying server-side JavaScript.
|
||
|
||
**JavaScript on the server.
|
||
Long before NodeJS.
|
||
Way long.**
|
||
|
||
Helma would not have been possible without the creative minds at the Austrian public broadcaster ORF, once called ORF Online, ORF.at nowadays.
|
||
|
||
They commissioned the precursor of Helma, a publishing system based on Marimba, and they used and further developed it for their in-house content management.
|
||
|
||
This early code blossomed into Helma and the content management organically grew into it, together with a bunch of sidelined applications, comprehending forum apps, podcast services and even SSL certificate management.
|
||
|
||
And all by writing JavaScript on the server.
|
||
Long before NodeJS.
|
||
Way long.
|
||
|
||
From ORF.at’s solid trunk a lot of colorful branches started to sprout, some of which still are around:
|
||
|
||
* [Antville](https://antville.org), the non-profit weblog hosting system, and its (at the time) corporate sibling [Twoday](https://twoday.net)
|
||
* [Parq](http://www.parq.at) and [Coplaner](http://coplaner.net), two groupware platforms for “joint building ventures” (_Baugruppen_ in German)
|
||
|
||
All written in JavaScript on the server.
|
||
Long before NodeJS.
|
||
Way long.
|
||
|
||
The people using Helma thought it was very convenient to write code in the same programming language for both, the client _and_ the server. And they were not wrong: along came NodeJS and somehow suddenly JavaScript was everywhere.
|
||
|
||
Unfortunately, Helma was not. And so she became part of the JavaScript mythology. A blink of an eye in the history of the web. Almost forgotten. Blessed forever.
|
||
|
||
A little server-side JavaScript framework called Helma.
|
||
Long before NodeJS.
|
||
Way long ago.
|