What's the oldest still-maintained web framework? [closed]

Question

I'm curious as to know how far back web frameworks go (of which I can still use today).

(Just as an FYI I don't consider CGI to be a framework as much as protocol or an interface.)

Answer 1

While "initial releases" and "current versions" may be radically different and/or incompatible, here is a small list I have compiled. While some of the approaches are antiquated, I believe they all fall within the "web framework" category, although this may vary by definition.

Also, check out Ian Darwin's: Java Web Framework List -- granted it is Java-specific, as the name implies.

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ColdFusion was first released in 1995. I suspect it is one of the first "frameworks".

Open BlueDragon has been about since 1998. It is a CFML implementation.

ASP (aka Classic ASP) debuted in 1998 -- not to be confused with ASP.NET.

JSP followed suit in 1999. The Servlet model is very much in use today.

Struts has been around in some form since 1999.

Tapestry may have been available about 2000.

Drupal, perhaps more of a "CMS", was released in 2001.

HTML::Mason was on CPAN by 2001.

ASP.NET was released in 2002 (along with .NET 1.0).

Seaside has been around since 2004.

Wicket has been about since at least 2004.

Ruby On Rails had a release in 2004. Django, arguably the "Python counterpart" of the time, was released in 2005. The "PHP counterpart", CakePHP, was also released in 2005.

Pylons is circa 2005, but has been superseded by Pyramid.

Answer 2

Project Xanadu, Ted Nelson's 1960 hypertext model. Still alive today.