Over the last couple of weeks you might have seen references (in blogs and articles) to a very interesting introduction to "What is Web 2.0" by Tim O'Reilly. The 5-part article can be found here.
Not that the topic is particularly new for anyone who's been following the web (and Google) over the last year or two, however the breadth of the article is most enligthning. I find the section about development particularly amusing, with its focus on Lightweight Methodologies (see point 5 on this page): continuous deplyoment, loosely coupled systems, the role of scripting languages, REST over SOAP, remixability, AJAX. I know this might simply look like a list of buzzwords, but it depicts where the web is heading.
What does it mean for Delphi as a web development tool? I have to say Delphi still lives in a different realm to LAMP, and although integration with ASP.NET can help it move along I don't think this is the ultimate solution. For Delphi to live up to the new era it would need a different appraoch: a script engine, a compiled-plug-in architecture, XML and XSLT integration at its best, and many other architectural changes. Or it may be that every tool has its role and Delphi cannot betray its roots. In this case, you'll need to add another tool to your toolset. For now I'm quite happy with XML-scripting, XSLT, and custom Delphi code when needed, as I explained in the last post. But the quest for tools for Web 2.0 development is still open...