Its hard to think of many people more qualified to talk knowledgeably about Web frameworks than Matt Raible, particularly on the Java platform. The slides to his presentation, “Choosing a JVM Web Framework” contain some very interesting comparisons of the competing Java Web frameworks.

In a recent episode of This American Life, host Ira Glass suggested that we are now living through a “Golden Age” of television, a time when the major networks are responding to increasing competition with greater experimentation and better quality programming overall. He suggests that we may not recognize that we are living through this era until after it is over, and we are left to ponder fond memories.

I suggest that we are experiencing a similar “Golden Age” of Web application development. I think its been going on for some time now, taking shape in a recognizable form in 2005 and really hitting its stride in 2006. And, I suspect it may have peaked already and that in a few years, some of us may look back on this time and romanticize it.