Web pages started as documents, and have gradually evolved to support ever more complex uses, so that now they are effectively a platform for application delivery (and a very good one) as well as for document delivery. Oftentimes web applications are a mix of both data delivery and data manipulation, so the line is not clearly drawn. This has inevitably created a tension between those who see apps as the only future, and those who see docs as the purpose of the web, and apps as an afterthought (a camp the author of this article falls into). I don't think it's useful to attempt to set up a dichotomy between Apps and Docs and pick a side. Very few websites are pure document stores, and very few apps don't require documents, urls for resources etc.
Personally I think the web should evolve to play to its strengths: Simplicity, Flexibility, Separation of data from code and from style.
It'd be nice if instead of trying to shove javascript into every hole because it happened to be bundled with browsers, we pushed browsers to bundle more runtimes for client-side work (a WASM standard library if you like), so that the web can continue to be a place where you can post about javascript on a server running arc software, and not care which technology the server or server uses, which can be swapped out at will. One of the great joys of web development from my point of view is not being tied to a particular language or ecosystem, because the web is heterogeneous.
Personally I think the web should evolve to play to its strengths: Simplicity, Flexibility, Separation of data from code and from style.
It'd be nice if instead of trying to shove javascript into every hole because it happened to be bundled with browsers, we pushed browsers to bundle more runtimes for client-side work (a WASM standard library if you like), so that the web can continue to be a place where you can post about javascript on a server running arc software, and not care which technology the server or server uses, which can be swapped out at will. One of the great joys of web development from my point of view is not being tied to a particular language or ecosystem, because the web is heterogeneous.