Generally, yes one would not want to swap out their web server willy-nilly...
Yet, this is one of those "YAGNI in 99% of your use cases", but when that 1% use case arises, a server swap would be far more desirable than a whole framework shift.
So while self-indulgence can certainly be a motive (and why not? as long as everyone's having a good time), may I offer a few more charitable reasons for this:
- programming API ergonomics
- performance
- application runtime model (servlets -> embedded server)
- security model
- application server features (websockets, comet?)
- binary size
- server configuration niceties
etc...
That said, a developer only has flexibility if it is built in from the get go.
A counterfactual would be to consider the set of developers who have had to put in ugly hacks because they can't just rip the web server out of the framework of choice they are locked into.
Generally, yes one would not want to swap out their web server willy-nilly...
Yet, this is one of those "YAGNI in 99% of your use cases", but when that 1% use case arises, a server swap would be far more desirable than a whole framework shift.
So while self-indulgence can certainly be a motive (and why not? as long as everyone's having a good time), may I offer a few more charitable reasons for this:
- programming API ergonomics
- performance
- application runtime model (servlets -> embedded server)
- security model
- application server features (websockets, comet?)
- binary size
- server configuration niceties
etc...
That said, a developer only has flexibility if it is built in from the get go.
A counterfactual would be to consider the set of developers who have had to put in ugly hacks because they can't just rip the web server out of the framework of choice they are locked into.
(edit: bullet list formatting)