Perhaps you could split development along front-end/backend lines. One dev uses whatever backend stack they want, and the other does all the HTML/CSS/JS.
Ask HN: My friend and I cannot agree on our server side stack for our startup
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Re: Ask HN: My friend and I cannot agree on our server side stack for our startup
#22Here are my thoughts, in no particular order. - Don't work with a friend on a startup. You are very unlikely to be friends afterward. If you can't easily compromise on something as unimportant as your stack, you're going to disagree on way more important things. Why do you need two devs anyway? - Two things that kills startups are analysis paralysis (always trying to make the perfect choice = wasting lots of time) an…
Using a single language on the front and back is a very nice plus, especially with ecmascript 6 support. My current job is doing that and it makes it much easier to break off features without having to get the server guy (me) involved. I personally feel like there is more javascript out there as well, so it's points for staffing.
C# I think is probably better documented, with fewer hair pulling bugs (I will frequently have to read code in a library to understand how exactly to use it in nodejs) and I'm very much missing a standard threading system, but I think early on it's more important to go fast so I would vote full stack JS over JS + .NET
Re: Ask HN: My friend and I cannot agree on our server side stack for our startup
#23Here are my thoughts, in no particular order. - Don't work with a friend on a startup. You are very unlikely to be friends afterward. If you can't easily compromise on something as unimportant as your stack, you're going to disagree on way more important things. Why do you need two devs anyway? - Two things that kills startups are analysis paralysis (always trying to make the perfect choice = wasting lots of time) an…
I feel like if you use a lightweight node/express setup, you feel really productive because you're spending a lot of time coding, but you're actually far less productive than someone who uses an actual full fledged server side development framework (Rails/Django). For toy projects I do enjoy node, but if I was throwing myself into a startup, I'd use Rails without hesitation.
Re: Ask HN: My friend and I cannot agree on our server side stack for our startup
#24Ahh! yes decision making in startups, fun times.
Well in this case it may be wise to develop a decision making process or framework.
You can choose from one of these listed here https://www.mindtools.com/pages/main/newMN_TED.htm
Furthermore, it may be worthwhile learning each other favorite stack as you could pick up new skills. Could be a bonding experience as well. Just my two cents.
Re: Ask HN: My friend and I cannot agree on our server side stack for our startup
#25Don't use MS SQL server. It has serious issues with locking at scale that you can never get around. Apart from that, just make a choice and run with it.
At what kind of scale? I don't think any web application should have problems unless the queries are very badly designed. I've worked with MS SQL for 10+ years (at financial institutions) with no problems. Oracle might be a tad better, but it's also pricier. No idea about Postgre (I've heard it's good), but what you mention shouldn't be a good reason to dismiss MS SQL.
I would also like to know at what scale as I've used MSSQL for several years and only badly designed queries/tables caused locking issues.
The real _problem_ (which BizSpark can resolve short-term) seems like it would be licensing.
Re: Ask HN: My friend and I cannot agree on our server side stack for our startup
#26as smt88 said, TypeScript sounds like the obvious choice. He probably enjoys the type safety aspect of C# along with Visual Studio (or whatever IDE he uses). You appreciate the fact that the same code on the server runs on the client. You could nail both of these using TypeScript.
Re: Ask HN: My friend and I cannot agree on our server side stack for our startup
#27Flip a coin. Seriously. Moving forwards is far more important than being "right". If it turns out you made the wrong decision you can always fix the code later. All the hard stuff (data models, business logic, etc) is portable between languages.
"Flip a fucking coin." is exactly what I was going to say. Clearly the decision is influenced way too heavily by each of your pasts rather than on the merit of the technology (either will do exactly what you need it to do). So just flip a fucking coin, or come up with a more interesting way to settle these kinds of trivial pursuits.
Re: Ask HN: My friend and I cannot agree on our server side stack for our startup
#28I'm assuming you're already past the stage where you've verified the problem you're solving is worth solving with technology, otherwise you're wasting time. With that said, you need to divide responsibility. Either a 'CTO' role that has the decision to base the stack in his/her choice, or divide the tech up frontend/backend and give one person authority over each. When it comes to tech decisions, look at what you can…
ac2u FTW! Follow these steps:
-What you can work on fastest
Then:
-available hiring pool
-finally things like licensing
Re: Ask HN: My friend and I cannot agree on our server side stack for our startup
#29Perhaps evaluate the financial aspect of each stack, and compare. I suspect C# /.NET / MSSQL / Windows servers will be higher. In addition to server costs, someone has to pay for those software licenses too.
Microsoft gives startups free software licenses for the first 3 years and free/discounted access to Windows Servers on Azure. After 3 years you're almost certainly either making so much or so little money the extra license cost won't be a significant factor.
The first hit's always free.
Re: Ask HN: My friend and I cannot agree on our server side stack for our startup
#30Don't use MS SQL server. It has serious issues with locking at scale that you can never get around. Apart from that, just make a choice and run with it.
SQL Server scales fine...just ask Stack Exchange. http://nickcraver.com/blog/2013/11/22/what-it-takes-to-run-s...