SalientPoint

The hype is on for lightweight “Javascript in the server” alternatives to the proven Java J2EE and LAMP stacks. Even last year’s cool Ruby/Rails-style web frameworks are being dissed by the Node.js crowd. Is this where web development is going or is it just a hype bubble? Presumably thousands of startups are already all-in on server-side Javascript and we’re looking forward to some real-world learnings and comparisons. Meanwhile we’re left guessing how this will all play out.

Is Node.js a toy for script kids who don’t understand server programming or a real web application server framework? The scalability debate rages across the web (An entertaining example: Node.js is cancer), but it seems clear that, even though hosted solutions might provide pieces such as monitoring, security and scalability the missing Node.js on its own can’t replace established web application infrastructure.

So all documentation menus on http://developer.amazonwebservices.com terminate in URLs like this:

http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=351&categoryID=88

Trying to follow it results in a page with the following illuminating message:

An error in the system has occurred. Please contact the system administrator if the problem persists.

This “problem” has prevented me from getting any work done at all today relating to our AWS server. It has been broken for the better part of the day, and I get the distinct feeling that no one knows ore cares about it. Isn’t AWS in the business of making this sort of thing work??

My initial enthusiasm for our decision to move to AWS has now turned into utter disappointment.

Tried to post this on the developer forum. It was broken too. .