Building the Hundred-Year Web Service with htmx
summary
Argues that building for decades means using the web’s durable primitives: HTML, HTTP, and a server-embedded sqlite on the server (no separate Postgres process and its ~5‑year upgrade churn). Describes a working trips app built with Node.js + better-sqlite3, Express, Nunjucks, htmx for PUT/DELETE interactions, and FullCalendar via a JSON endpoint; pages render and update via server HTML so debugging stays simple. Proposes standardizing these primitives with Triptic proposals and shows htmx-based features already working.
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chapters (15)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:14Lessons from bridge building
- 3:56Lessons from the early web
- 7:40Designing for the future
- 10:28The case for SQLite
- 12:16Database maintenance trade-offs
- 15:26SQLite stability and quirks
- 18:59Structuring application logic
- 21:05A practical web application
- 25:47Updates and simplicity
- 28:40Handling advanced interactivity
- 30:26Debugging and reliability
- 32:20Leveraging htmx
- 34:27Future-proofing and standards
- 36:27Conclusion
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