ElectricDiscoTech

An approach to developing modern web applications

Marc J. Greenberg <codemarc@gmail.com>

ElectricDiscoTech (edt)

Modern web applications (circa 2015) treat the browser as a full runtime environment. The explosion of open source, freely available frameworks, the cloud, containerization, devops and tooling enable any developer with a spark of an idea to "create", build, package and deploy functional, scalable, data driven web applications by simply investing a little bit of time and energy in learning the "right" set of stuff. The trick then is to know how to quickly provision a usable development environment so that the focus remains on the content and not the technology.

Choreography

It all starts with an idea. This can be about technology, or it can be about making money, or helping a friend/relative with one of their ideas, or it can be about learning a skill or technique. To make something great you need a little passion for whatever it is. Then you'll need a name and a reason for choosing the name. This gives you a focal point. It should be something that is easy to remember. Something that reminds you of your original motivation.

Let's examine the name I chose for this project: ElecrtricDiscoTech (edt). It comes from the name of a family business Smith Electrical Supply and a tee shirt with a logo "Smith El-Disco" as in Smith Electrical Distribution Company. The disco part has always stuck with me as has the notion of service discovery and the ever exciting memory of the actual discotheque. Its is important not to vest to deeply in mentally marketing your chosen name as it always morphs over time.

Next I like to to create a favorite icon. This serves two purposes. It gets the creativity flowing while reinforcing the motivational reminder, visually. So of course a discotech needs a disco ball. Upload your image to your favorite favicon generator and you have started.