I'm primarily a desktop application developer but I've been doing some web design projects recently and realized that I was doing significantly more switching between files while getting significantly less work done.
Problem:
When developing desktop applications, my favorite part is determining the best design patterns and data structures to use in order to minimize coupling and maximize cohesion. However, with web design, I seem to be all over the place in terms of structure. The large number of required scripting/programming languages has a lot to do with it. Even though I understand them, sometimes it is mentally exhausting getting them to work together perfectly. In just one project, you might use HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, XML, C#/VB, etc. Then, each has an arbitrary number of files and making a single change in one might require changes in numerous other files. In a world of abstraction, I would think that the whole process would be made much more concise and uniform.
Questions:
I typically use a MVC design so that I can design the view, link all of the triggers to the controller, and work on the controller/model without ever having to touch the view again. Is there a way to simulate this in web design? How well do design pattern from desktop applications port to web applications? Is there a way just to reduce the coupling feeling?