use perl;

The backend of the site, which dynamically generates each page, is built with Perl and MySQL. A little evangelism: If you've not considered Perl as a programming language before, or you've been put off by people saying it is unmaintainable for large projects, take a look at what's new in the Perl world. CPAN, the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, is stronger than ever and has some exciting new stuff. Want more maintainable code? Enforce best practices with Perl::Critic. ORM? We've got that. Whatever you are looking for is likely on CPAN, and Perl is a great language, and you can find more info at Perl.org or from the community at Perlmonks.

jQuery

jQuery is a JavaScript library that makes selecting and modifying elements very easy. The project's apt motto is "write less, do more." It does the annoying tasks - like handling events in a cross brower, consistent manner - for you so you can focus on the actual utility of your code and site.

As an example, the previous/next photo preview animations on the photo pages of this site are done by jQuery. jQuery handles the tasks I don't want to deal with, like getting my code loaded as soon as the DOM is set up without resorting to mixing my content and my code.

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