Why the proliferation of server side environment like: Node.js, ASP.NET (C#), Java, ColdFusion, PHP, Ruby, etc.? I've found nothing so complicated about old languages (C++, etc.) that could not of had a web library added around them to do the exact same thing. Is SSL, cookies, and the HTTP protocol that complicated to warrant all of this?
Was it because of shared hosting (and thus running your own custom executable) that gave rise to all this? The products I'm wanting to make for the web can't use PHP, Ruby type environments. I'm looking at Node.js or a C++ version of the same.
We'll most likely output JSON and have JavaScript assemble the GUI on the client side thus making what these frameworks do nothing but the most basic of tasks.
Well -- first thing is lets decouple your premise. You imply that all the technology you listed was designed with server side in mind. It wasn't: C#, Ruby and Java are general purpose languages not targeted at the server explicitly.
Second, if you don't think C++ gets complex (and has entirely different working models based on who is writing it) -- I recommend you use it more. C++ is a damn complex, deep, feature packed language. C++ server side frameworks exist (and are the fastest thing around: http://www.techempower.com/benchmarks/) but they take massive amounts of effort versus some of the newer languages.
PHP took off because of shared hosting, wordpress and pragmatism. People who were inexperienced could (1) get access to it, (2) deploy it and (3) get things done.
ASP.net survives (most would argue it didn't really take off) because if you live in the MS toolchain, it is a very nice experience.
I'm not sure about ASP.NET - projects I've worked with are utterly over-engineered with so many interfaces, services, factories, and service factories, that it's impossible to figure out where the code is that actually does anything, even in VS2012.
That played a huge part in things, yes. PHP and ASP gained a huge part of their popularity because they were designed to fit into existing shared hosting setups, so everyone could rely on them being available anywhere and everywhere. Hence mod_perl, mod_ruby, mod_python, etc. to try to get those languages into the same space. Now that virtual machines are the norm it is a lot easier to use whatever you want.
Why the proliferation of server side environment like: Node.js, ASP.NET (C#), Java, ColdFusion, PHP, Ruby, etc.? I've found nothing so complicated about old languages (C++, etc.) that could not of had a web library added around them to do the exact same thing. Is SSL, cookies, and the HTTP protocol that complicated to warrant all of this?
Was it because of shared hosting (and thus running your own custom executable) that gave rise to all this? The products I'm wanting to make for the web can't use PHP, Ruby type environments. I'm looking at Node.js or a C++ version of the same.
We'll most likely output JSON and have JavaScript assemble the GUI on the client side thus making what these frameworks do nothing but the most basic of tasks.