Stacks

When I first started playing with computers, stacks were something different to heaps. Later I came to know them as a type of list. Now when someone talks about stacks, they are usually talking about a target development platform.

Of course you could change MySQL for PostgreSQL, Zend for Kohana, CodeIgnitor or Cake, JQuery for Prototype or MooTools. The stack looks more or less the same. They all feature the MVC pattern. Businesses objects, which have long lived in databases, form the model. The application layer contains the event driven controllers. The javascript enabled page becomes a sophisticated user interface rather than a static view.

They all leave the application model, logic and user interface for the developers. In a large organization, these responsibilities would be divided among several specialists. Luckily, there already exists a wide range of business objects and design patterns a freelance application developer can use to build robust applications.

Given the similarities between these stacks, especially the bits they leave for developers to implement themselves, it should be straightforward to implement the same application in anyone of these stacks.