I think a simple web stack should aspire to the simplicity of the PHP stack, twenty years ago:
1) Create a directory "foo" on your server
2) Make a file called "bar.php" in that directory
3) Write "Hello World!" in the file
4) Open http://localhost/foo/bar.php in the browser and see "Hello World!"
Lines of code or configuration so far: zero.
5) Add some actual code to bar.php
6) Reload the page and see the result
Number of steps to rebuild or restart: zero.
Then you can add templating, routing, logging, testing, anything. I'm not married to the PHP language, it's a mess. But the idea of keeping simple things simple is very important, and from what I see of today's developers, that idea has been utterly forgotten. Memory-holed. It's astonishing, I can barely believe that it happened.
EDIT: Sorry, I just said this offhand and didn't mean to hijack the discussion. Feel free to downvote, so something more on-topic gets on top.
1) Create a directory "foo" on your server
2) Make a file called "bar.php" in that directory
3) Write "Hello World!" in the file
4) Open http://localhost/foo/bar.php in the browser and see "Hello World!"
Lines of code or configuration so far: zero.
5) Add some actual code to bar.php
6) Reload the page and see the result
Number of steps to rebuild or restart: zero.
Then you can add templating, routing, logging, testing, anything. I'm not married to the PHP language, it's a mess. But the idea of keeping simple things simple is very important, and from what I see of today's developers, that idea has been utterly forgotten. Memory-holed. It's astonishing, I can barely believe that it happened.
EDIT: Sorry, I just said this offhand and didn't mean to hijack the discussion. Feel free to downvote, so something more on-topic gets on top.