Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Are there and will there be a lot of JavaScript backend developer jobs?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 56 posts

Re: Ask HN: Are there and will there be a lot of JavaScript backend developer jobs?

#31

Post by heisenbit »

Ruby and parts of PHP are the quick wins. The real question when it comes to backend jobs is what is going to happen in the JS backend vs. Java. And that is at the moment hard to predict. The Java eco system is showing some weakness (Oracle stewardship, Eclipse stumbling, IBM embracing Swift) but on the other hand it is massive.

JS is not in a place yet where it could take on Java. But it is on the way to become an alternative that could eat away at Java use cases. JS6, TypeScript and the consolidation around NPM packages are significant improvements. Node control is too concentrated for a long term healthy ecosystem and lacks alternatives but if such would emerge then all bets are off. The primary back-end stack which is at the moment compiled Java byte-code could in the long run split into compiled whatever code and scripted Typescript code.

Caveat: Java investments stay subdued. JS investments don't level off.

Re: Ask HN: Are there and will there be a lot of JavaScript backend developer jobs?

#32

Post by botw »

danielheath wrote: post #23
erikb wrote: post #22

PHP, Java, and C will probably stay around as long as their isn't a huge shift in software development, e.g. by having AI doing the development for you. JS as a backend is more of a joke, though. It has heartful followers, true. But it doesn't bring anything valuable to the table. I may be wrong (and happy to be corrected) but this was developed by people who learned the JS frontend stuff first and then didn't want t…

The killer feature (and only reason I use it) is being able to render the same templates with the same data on the server (isomorphic/universal/whatever). The result is a webpage that can do lightening-fast transitions client-side without breaking the back button.

so you have to keep the same code on client side for every page that requires re-rendering. kind of bloated?

Re: Ask HN: Are there and will there be a lot of JavaScript backend developer jobs?

#33

Post by Eridrus »

erikb wrote: post #22

PHP, Java, and C will probably stay around as long as their isn't a huge shift in software development, e.g. by having AI doing the development for you. JS as a backend is more of a joke, though. It has heartful followers, true. But it doesn't bring anything valuable to the table. I may be wrong (and happy to be corrected) but this was developed by people who learned the JS frontend stuff first and then didn't want t…

NodeJS has an advantage on very lean teams where you need a front-end that's not hideous and a backend of some sort, NodeJS makes it easier to find a single person who can do all the programming on that project. It's not a technical win, but it is a business win.

Re: Ask HN: Are there and will there be a lot of JavaScript backend developer jobs?

#34

Post by heisenbit »

throwaway13337 wrote: post #3
kristiandupont wrote: post #2

As you say, PHP is pretty old and still widely used. There is still a lot of Cobol code running in the world. I would argue that there is so much inertia in programming languages that you can allow yourself the privilege of selecting strictly from which language you enjoy the most, not by trying to analyze which will provide a stronger career path.

I used to be a flash developer. It's worth considering.

It is. Flash however is also an example of something very much depending on a single vendor. If is somewhat comparable with focusing on the application level. There are plus sides to it but risks can materialize faster.

Re: Ask HN: Are there and will there be a lot of JavaScript backend developer jobs?

#35

Post by botw »

languagewars wrote: post #26

I think JS will do quite well as JS becomes the back end scripting language over time (in place of lua for example.) I don't see a bright future for ruby, I think it had some lead advantage, but RoR/opinionated-design really cut down the options for innovation with a Ruby based web dev group. It is interesting to see how diametrically opposed philosophy of Ruby the language is from the RoR community, it is like Ruby…

Python needs popular applications such as Magento, Joomla, oscommerce, etc. in PHP. Python needs better integrated with LAMP as the default in 'P'.

Re: Ask HN: Are there and will there be a lot of JavaScript backend developer jobs?

#36

Post by botw »

heisenbit wrote: post #31

Ruby and parts of PHP are the quick wins. The real question when it comes to backend jobs is what is going to happen in the JS backend vs. Java. And that is at the moment hard to predict. The Java eco system is showing some weakness (Oracle stewardship, Eclipse stumbling, IBM embracing Swift) but on the other hand it is massive. JS is not in a place yet where it could take on Java. But it is on the way to become an a…

The trend is microservice with polyglot environment where developers can use their favorite language for the right task. I can see Java, Python, Go, Nodejs all having their place in back end. Especially with PaaS buildpack, docker container, devops, it is less and less significant to choose one particular language as primary back end language.

Re: Ask HN: Are there and will there be a lot of JavaScript backend developer jobs?

#37

Post by z3t4 »

erikb wrote: post #22

PHP, Java, and C will probably stay around as long as their isn't a huge shift in software development, e.g. by having AI doing the development for you. JS as a backend is more of a joke, though. It has heartful followers, true. But it doesn't bring anything valuable to the table. I may be wrong (and happy to be corrected) but this was developed by people who learned the JS frontend stuff first and then didn't want t…

nodes killer feature is the (accidently) combination of good practises. And the commonjs lexical scoped module system

Re: Ask HN: Are there and will there be a lot of JavaScript backend developer jobs?

#38

Post by PunchTornado »

languagewars wrote: post #26

I think JS will do quite well as JS becomes the back end scripting language over time (in place of lua for example.) I don't see a bright future for ruby, I think it had some lead advantage, but RoR/opinionated-design really cut down the options for innovation with a Ruby based web dev group. It is interesting to see how diametrically opposed philosophy of Ruby the language is from the RoR community, it is like Ruby…

I see PHP holding its position. It looks like the committee has woken up and now PHP is moving into the right direction.

Re: Ask HN: Are there and will there be a lot of JavaScript backend developer jobs?

#39

Post by cjhveal »

kevv87 wrote: post #9
subpublic wrote: post #7

As javascript has continued to crawl into many areas where nobody thought it would, my guess it could grow in the future. But it still lacks a good/popular backend framework (in node), as apposed to client frameworks. At the same time I think PHP has a good future, where 7.0 made a really great progress in performance. Laravel is awsome for web development.

Express seems pretty popular, it has stuff for routes, templates etc... Bit like Backbone for Client, without the HTTP stuff

I'd say the backbone comparison is pretty apt, but I've always felt both strived to be "libraries" of structural building blocks rather than frameworks (for better or worse).

Writing express servers feels a lot like writing a Ruby server at the Rack level. To people that are used to Rails/Django, it feels a lot more manual and painstaking. While I personally like the clarity of request flow and modularity that I get using express, there are definitely some friction points (picking the best model layer, quickly picking up a new codebase, generating admin UI, to name a few).

Re: Ask HN: Are there and will there be a lot of JavaScript backend developer jobs?

#40

Post by dfcowell »

For basic CRUD apps, choice of language is arbitrary.

At my company we have a mix of python, PHP and JS devs. Node is great for a lot of things, but it's better suited to smaller apps that do one thing. Cue microservice debate.

We have a lot of worker services written in Node, with a majority of our API services using PHP (Laravel/Lumen.) That's starting to change as some of our developers see the benefits of not having to context switch between languages when working on front and back end simultaneously.

Post reply on HN