The MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture was conceived by Trygve Reenskaug at Xerox PARC in 1979 while working with SmallTalk. MVC originated in desktop applications, and relatively recently made its way into web based applications. Many modern RIA frameworks closely resemble the older desktop client-server architecture, and the resurgence of MVC popularity makes sense.
I found these links to be particularly interesting on the topic of MVC, and they are in the words of the original MVC creator himself:
MVC XEROX PARC 1978-79
A description of MVC and its origins.
MODELS - VIEWS - CONTROLLERS
A great description of the logical components of MVC.
The Model-View-Controller (MVC) Its Past and Present
More detail about the MVC pattern and its evolution.
You can learn more about MVC, and its application to various technologies at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller
The concepts introduced by the model-view controller pattern are the driving factors for all major Flex frameworks, including:
http://www.appcelerant.com/mvc_is_dead.html
-Quin'
Matthew Quinlan
Chief Evangelist
www.Appcelerator.com
The problem, as I see it, is not the separation of model, view and controller, which is still a good idea. I think the real problem is with the use of XML for encoding control, and the use of HTML with embedded logic (in the form of scriptlets, custom tags, or tags from a standard tag library) for creating the view.
In desktop applications, even where the MVC pattern is used, all three parts are coded using an object-oriented programming language. Only a very few web frameworks (e.g. Wicket, GWT, Echo) take this approach. (These frameworks don't automatically separate M,V and C from each other, but they allow the user to do so just as they can when writing a desktop application.)
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