Blogging not because I have to, but because I want to

I’m a big fan of client-side development using HTML / CSS / JavaScript for about the past 2 or 3 years – really ever since I dug into jQuery and really began to appreciate the power that the technologies on the client-side possess. Nowadays, everything is HTML / CSS / JavaScript – it’s in all the articles, all the techies are talking about it, and it’s on everyones’ resumes.

In looking at candidate resumes or listening to presenters speak about web technologies, we constantly hear “HTML / CSS / JavaScript”. They’re presented in different order, but regardless, it’s still quite a mouthful to say or read over and over. It’s 10 syllables – way too much for these OCD days. And especially since we live in a 140 character world, we need an acronym or a shortening for this term. I’ve given this much thought and have arrived at my contribution to this serious, serious problem.

JACSHT

That’s right. We’ll just take the first two characters of JAvascript, CSs, and HTml, and voila! A new word! I mean, we have:

AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML – way too long and it’s not even XML all the time anymore!);

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation – and is it JAY-son or jay-SOHN?)

and so on.

So how could this work? I think this could lend so much truth to many conversations:

HIRING MANAGER: So, do you know JACSHT?

CANDIDATE: No, sir, I don’t know JACSHT.

HIRING MANAGER: How can you expect me to employ you if you don’t know JACSHT? The whole world is moving towards JACSHT.

CANDIDATE: Sir, I wish I knew as much JACSHT as you.

DEV1: I just got back from BUILD and now I know all about JACSHT.

DEV2: Oooh, I’m not doing JACSHT in my job. I wonder if anyone will care if I’m not doing JACSHT?

See how easy this is? And it really conveys a ton of meaning when a DEV doesn’t know JACSHT.

So I’m proposing that we begin to refer to the client side technologies of HTML, CSS and JavaScript as JACSHT. It’s easy to say (heck, even a little funny) and communicates effectively when a DEV doesn’t understand that technology.