Ask HN: How does a 1990s web developer get back on track?

First, don't worry about new frameworks or languages right away. You can stick with PHP/mySQL on the back end to start.

Learn all the updates to CSS first, to understand how pages are structured without tables. That will help you to move on to jQuery, which will in turn help you understand how JavaScript is used nowadays to work with the page. Once you are that far, you can pursue node.js to get up to speed on server-side JS.

After that, you should be as caught up as you need to be, and will better be able to evaluate all the other frameworks and languages out there, and set your own direction.

I can't agree more. The tons of frameworks and libraries coming out are suited to specific use cases, more web applications than simple sites, and using them unnecessariy will not gain any advantages. If you just want to "setup a website every now and then", your current skillset is more than sufficient. Don't fall into the trap of using new technology for the sake of using new technology.

You may notice that when late 90s/early 2000s sites get posted to HN, there are often a set of comments on how quick-to-load and readable they are.

Check to see if your local area has web developer meetups. Then you can observe examples how they create web applications today. These meetups may be under trendy names like "java" and "html5".

I don't know what any of those things you named are. I ignore all that stuff. The only thing from the '90s that doesn't work anymore is Flash, because I guess Apple blocked it during the mobile revolution and it killed its dominant position.

Otherwise, everything applicable from back then still is today. Any time anyone mentions PHP on forums like this, there's always fashion-conscious people who jump in to attack it. But I'm still building brand new websites based on it, and people still express their gratitude, never once saying there's any problem because the site uses PHP.

MySQL is still going strong, and there's some alternatives that are compatible, like Percona and Maria.

JavaScript is the same. There's all these frameworks like there are for PHP, but I ignore all that. I never understood why I'd be better off using someone else's virtual language on top of a language. I just use bare JavaScript, and it works the same to me as it did back then. Still have to worry about differences between browsers, but instead of Netscape and IE, it's stuff like Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. A framework can make that easier, but it can make others things more difficult, and it's better to keep dependence on JS minimal anyways.

What I'm getting at is, I don't know why you need to update anything. If you're trying to get a specific job, then you need to use what they do. But for just building things in your free time that work on modern web browsers, you already know what you need to know. You could probably even run the same exact version of server and authoring tools you did before, and it should display fine in the latest web browsers.

It's different if you want to build something like a mobile app, or Windows software, because those platforms changed significantly since the '90s. There's languages now that didn't exist then, and new tools you've never seen before.

But on the web, any text editor, HTML, and any language you want for the backend is fine. Just like I still write .sh scripts, and they get the job done.

It's more important to spend that time on family, and your career. Since the stuff you already know still works, there's not much need to use anything else. Unless you're worried about what the kids think, and how they'll judge you.

Luckily, you can skip right ahead to React+Redux. It's really a logical extension of your stack than you think. jQuery and Backbone you can pretty much ignore except know that it's a less elegant and less declarative way to do models, views, and event binding.