Browsing the geek shelf of a newsagents the other day, I noticed that there was a new magazine in addition to the old favourite of .net magazine, called Web Developer. I didn’t buy it, so this isn’t an in-depth review (I can’t even find a link to it, ironic, eh?), just a remark that this is a sign of the times. A sign that more advanced web techniques (called “development” rather than “design”) are filtering down to the masses.
Don’t get me wrong, development and design are two sides of the same coin. Both are as vital and worthy of study as the other. But whereas a few years ago I had to describe my job to the uninitiated as ‘web designer’, now I find I can proudly call myself a ‘web developer’ (or, to be even more posh, a writer of software for the web) without getting blank looks.
So, with a magazine that anyone can pick up to get into the web development way – not to mention to oodles of articles about AJAX, SQL and XML in other magazines – let’s hope that’s a sign of a new generation of web geeks proud to wear the developer badge.