A 30‑Year Journey of Front‑End Development: From the First Browser to Modern Frameworks and Mini‑Programs

In 1990 the first web browser appeared and the World Wide Web was born, marking the start of front‑end development; early pages were static and generated entirely by back‑end code.

During the "洪荒时代" (1990‑1994) the WWW, browsers, and JavaScript emerged, while CGI and Perl enabled dynamic pages, yet full‑page refreshes remained slow.

The browser wars (1994‑2005) saw Netscape Navigator versus Microsoft IE, the creation of user‑agent strings, and the early need for compatibility hacks; an example UA string is Mozilla/2.0 (compatible; MSIE 3.02; Windows 95) .

The prototype era (2005‑2009) introduced Prototype.js, early Ajax techniques, and the first widespread use of JavaScript libraries for animation and DOM manipulation.

jQuery (2009‑2012) simplified DOM handling, cross‑browser compatibility, and popularised chainable APIs, leading to a surge in plugins, CSS selector learning, and the birth of modern concepts such as Promise and requestAnimationFrame.

Post‑jQuery (2012‑2016) brought module loaders (RequireJS, AMD, CommonJS), Node.js‑based build tools (Grunt, Gulp, webpack), and the rise of CLI scaffolding, which fragmented the front‑end ecosystem into distinct framework camps.

Since 2016 the three major frameworks—React, Vue, and Angular—have dominated, spawning ecosystems like React Native, Vue’s mini‑program compilers, and extensive state‑management and CSS‑in‑JS solutions; they also drove tools such as Babel and webpack.

The mini‑program era (2017‑present) reflects China’s own front‑end innovation, with platforms like WeChat Mini‑Programs, Baidu Smart‑Program, and cross‑platform compilers (Taro, Megalo, etc.) that reuse web technologies (webpack, CommonJS, virtual DOM) while targeting native‑like experiences.

In conclusion, JavaScript has transformed from a mocked language to the most popular programming language on GitHub, and front‑end engineers now enjoy higher salaries and broader opportunities across browsers, servers, desktops, mobile, and mini‑programs.