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47 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
47 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
---
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title: Introduction
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sidebar_label: What is Wasp?
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slug: /about
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---
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Thanks a lot for giving Wasp a try! In the sections below we will give a short overview of what it is, how
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it works and get you started.
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## What is Wasp?
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Wasp is a programming language for building **full-stack web applications**. That means Wasp takes care of all three
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major parts of a web application: **client** (front-end), **server** (back-end) and **deployment**.
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## Wasp is a DSL
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Wasp is a programming language, but a specific kind: It is a *Domain Specific Language*, or shorter *DSL*.
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That means it is not a general-purpose, Turing-complete language (such as e.g. Python or Java) and it is not meant
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to replace them. Instead, it is specialised for a single purpose: **building modern web applications**.
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Another examples of *DSL*s that are often used today are e.g. *SQL* for databases and *HTML* for web page layouts.
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The main advantage and reason why *DSL*s exist is because they need to do only one task (e.g. database queries)
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so they can do it really well and provide the best possible experience for the developer.
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The same idea stands behind Wasp - a language that will allow developers to **build modern web applications with
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10x less code and less stack-specific knowledge**.
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## Wasp integrates with the existing stack
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As mentioned above, Wasp is not trying to do everything at once but rather focuses on the accidental complexity
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which arises from connecting all the parts of the stack (client, server, deployment) together.
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Right now, Wasp supports React and Node and relies on them to define web components and server queries and
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actions.
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## Is Wasp a web app framework?
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Wasp is addressing the same core problems that typical web app frameworks are addressing, and it in big part [looks, swims and quacks](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_test) like a web app framework.
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On the other hand, Wasp does not match typical expectations of a web app framework: it is not a set of libraries, but instead it is a programming language (DSL).
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## What it is meant for
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- building full-stack web apps (like e.g. Airbnb or Asana)
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- quickly starting a web app with industry best practices
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- to be used alongside modern web dev stack (currently supported React and Node)
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## What it is not meant for
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- building static/presentational websites
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- to be used as a no-code solution
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- to be a solve-it-all tool in a single language
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