I can't think of a single framework or software technology that took off after 5 years of unpopularity. Let alone in web where the pace of development is much faster.
Ruby comes to mind - matz wrote it in 1995, but it wasn't until the pickaxe book came out in 2001 that it gained any popularity outside Japan. And it wasn't until Rails came out 3 years later that it really took off. That's almost a full decade from conception to use outside of niche applications.
Wholly dependent on what you mean by "took off" but I'd argue Haskell qualifies. It was a nothing language for two decades before finding its footing and is now used in quite a lot of places (TIOBE puts it near TypeScript).
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I can't think of a single framework or software technology that took off after 5 years of unpopularity. Let alone in web where the pace of development is much faster.
Ruby comes to mind - matz wrote it in 1995, but it wasn't until the pickaxe book came out in 2001 that it gained any popularity outside Japan. And it wasn't until Rails came out 3 years later that it really took off. That's almost a full decade from conception to use outside of niche applications.
Wholly dependent on what you mean by "took off" but I'd argue Haskell qualifies. It was a nothing language for two decades before finding its footing and is now used in quite a lot of places (TIOBE puts it near TypeScript).
Dart was really unpopular for years, until Flutter saved it. It has grown tremendously since then.