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Ask HN: Why does front-end development change so often?

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Re: Ask HN: Why does front-end development change so often?

#71

Post by aastronaut »

throwaway98121 wrote: post #62
aastronaut wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Honestly, none of the real value was in any of the web apps. The value was in the backend logic (if there was any significant business logic at all) and more so in data and real system design, balancing between function, redundancy, resiliency, extensibility, and some notion of scalability depending on who the customer was and what expected or unexpected scenarios could arise and how our systems would behave." The…

How many apps require web storage? Are there sufficient requirements to implement web workers or service workers? Go back to the core design and simplify it. Keep what you need and everything else is noise. My point was people pick the new and coming framework and it turns into tech debt. If development was more requirement driven, we wouldn’t be in this mess.

> How many apps require web storage? Are there sufficient requirements to implement web workers or service workers?

Most B2B apps and apps with monthly subscriptions.

Re: Ask HN: Why does front-end development change so often?

#72

Post by Wavelets »

I started learning web development last year and have been completely overwhelmed by all of the tools, frameworks, etc. that are out there. I found the back-end to be a lot easier to pick up than the front-end.

Granted, I’ve been using Python for a long time and chose it (Django) for my back-end. It helped to not have to learn both the language, the framework, and concepts at the same time.

I was so frustrated with Vue that I ended up going with Elm. I did not have a background in functional programming, but I found it so much simpler than trying to learn Vue or React.

Re: Ask HN: Why does front-end development change so often?

#73

Post by nobody271 »

Because a few years ago it was the most easy to use language and people were creating brilliant tools and software libraries that, truly, changed the world. Because of the low barrier to entry everyone and their grandma became copycats by releasing their own revolutionary new framework. For a long while being a master of the majority of the JavaScript landscape made you elite. So developers minds were stretched, no, pulled apart by the diverging number of JavaScript frameworks.

Before long the list of things they were supposed to keep track of got so long that it just became impossible to do. I haven't been able to keep track of it since but I assume that just means the number of JavaScript frameworks is expanding faster than the speed of light.

Re: Ask HN: Why does front-end development change so often?

#74

Post by thomasmeeks »

MuffinFlavored wrote: post #60
thomasmeeks wrote: post #8

I think there are a few different factors at play: 1. Javascript has a massive and diverse community. Developers that would otherwise avoid the language must learn to use it. So, where other languages would rally around one framework (because of the self-selection), Javascript rallies into sub-communities around methodologies and architectures. 2. Javascript is gaining new developers at a very high rate. All these ne…

Is it in your mind/words harder than backend development?

In the general sense I don't think frontend or backend web development is more difficult than the other. It has more to do with the problem being solved and the expertise of the individuals involved.

For example, your comment made me wonder what I would point out as example of maximum complexity in either field -- distributed systems, tight performance constraints, exceptionally magical functionality, and so on. Everything I thought of is something that's done in both backend and frontend systems.

I do feel that the industry perception is that backend development is more technical. But I don't believe that is true anymore personally, and I think that perception is rapidly changing.

For what it's worth, I'm much more of a backend developer myself.

Re: Ask HN: Why does front-end development change so often?

#78

Post by sebmak »

I think alot of it comes down to the fact that the internet, and frontend-development (web development mostly) is relatively new. And as with anything new, the community is just trying everything they can to make it work until something eventually sticks.

As someone who has done this for a while, I remember how difficult it was to try and build a UI using flash, then later with just html and jQuery, and now with modern libraries like React. So while it seems like every year there is a new "better" way to do something, but that is mostly because is is getting better and easier over time.

Re: Ask HN: Why does front-end development change so often?

#79

Post by 8draco8 »

twtw wrote: post #66
thomasmeeks wrote: post #8

I think there are a few different factors at play: 1. Javascript has a massive and diverse community. Developers that would otherwise avoid the language must learn to use it. So, where other languages would rally around one framework (because of the self-selection), Javascript rallies into sub-communities around methodologies and architectures. 2. Javascript is gaining new developers at a very high rate. All these ne…

I would add 5. All those new developers entering the web development community want to make a name for themselves, and there isn't as much opportunity for that if you are just using a framework created by someone else.

And many of those developers think that they are smarter than everybody else and instead of contributing to existing projects they are either doing another fork or reinventing something from scratch. I am strong believer in: 'Do not reinvent the wheel, improve it!' I think backend developers are more mature community, front end is still quite fresh, it reminds me of PHP in years of versions 1-3 where there was virtually no standards, everybody was inventing whatever they wanted and working on top of that. This days PHP is much more mature and the same will happen to JS and whole front end, we just need time.

Re: Ask HN: Why does front-end development change so often?

#80

Post by RyanShook »

sebmak wrote: post #78

I think alot of it comes down to the fact that the internet, and frontend-development (web development mostly) is relatively new. And as with anything new, the community is just trying everything they can to make it work until something eventually sticks. As someone who has done this for a while, I remember how difficult it was to try and build a UI using flash, then later with just html and jQuery, and now with mode…

Front-end web development is at least as old as the web itself so I’m not sure I agree with that argument.
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