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Front-End Developer Handbook

frontendmasters.com

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11–20 of 73 posts

Re: Front-End Developer Handbook

#11

Post by Blackstone4 »

poof131 wrote: post #7

"A whole lot of developers adopt static type checking for mostly subjective reasons or band wagon emotions. Some sell out completely to Typescript and the Microsoft way of doing things while others take on a slower approach with Flow. One thing is for sure, most developers don't need types, they are simply complicating already complex problems and solutions. Like most things, most of this trend is subjective dogma no…

> "Some sell out completely to Typescript and the Microsoft way of doing things"

> "this trend is subjective dogma not objective value"

Ironically, the author own phrasing is not objective and somewhat hypocritical. S/He described the use of Typescript as "selling out and the Microsoft way of doing things". S/He's trying to leverage anti-Microsoft sentiment to boost her/his argument. Feels more like a smear campaign then an objective opinion.

Re: Front-End Developer Handbook

#12

Post by iandanforth »

tannhaeuser wrote: post #10

Congrats to putting this together; I like it. At the risk of preaching to the choir here, however, I feel like these days Web dev publications don't sufficiently focus on foundations (HTML, CSS) and jump to JavaScript-heavy solutions a little bit too early for my taste. As a consequence, I frequently see Web dev newcomers ask questions such as "What framework should I use for (basic website)" when of course for the r…

http://bettermotherfuckingwebsite.com/

Re: Front-End Developer Handbook

#13

Post by speg »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #9
poof131 wrote: post #7

"A whole lot of developers adopt static type checking for mostly subjective reasons or band wagon emotions. Some sell out completely to Typescript and the Microsoft way of doing things while others take on a slower approach with Flow. One thing is for sure, most developers don't need types, they are simply complicating already complex problems and solutions. Like most things, most of this trend is subjective dogma no…

Looking back and forth between code and docs just to remember the shape of returned objects is annoying and probably the worst for productivity. I imagine most people using vanilla JS have significant amounts of objects memorized.

IF there any docs!

Re: Front-End Developer Handbook

#15

Post by Blackstone4 »

anon1094 wrote: post #6
pjmlp wrote: post #2

The title should be Web Front-End Developer Handbook. Native desktop, mobile, TV and infotainment systems are also front-end.

I don't understand why you're getting down voted, but this is absolutely correct and more specification is needed when it comes to "front-end". I come from a traditional front-end background (for web) and I send many front-end jobs for my company RemoteLeads as well. Front-end is the most fragmented programming job category and I'm sure it's the one that gets the most applicants. Companies will say they're looking fo…

I read the Jerry Low article and comments.

On the front-end, I feel like you can group people into two categories:

- Front-end/UI designer - UI specialist with HTML, CSS, wireframing and some JS skills

- Front-end developer - JS engineer typically leveraging JS frameworks and Bootstrap

In the comments section of Jerry's article, it feels like there are a bunch of HTML + CSS specialist who need to re-position themselves as UI designers. They are being displaced by front-end devs who can leverage Bootstrap to do the bulk of the UI. They can work with a UI designer to put together the workflow and tweak the UI.

Jerry also states: "Even without the divide on the front-end I still hear lots of people claiming they’re full stack developers — I guarantee they’re not."

I don't understand his perspective here. If you work on the front and backend then you are a full-stack developer. If on the other hand, a full-stack developer claimed to be an expert on both the front and backend...then I would be wary.

Re: Front-End Developer Handbook

#16

Post by zdragnar »

fulafel wrote: post #8
poof131 wrote: post #7

"A whole lot of developers adopt static type checking for mostly subjective reasons or band wagon emotions. Some sell out completely to Typescript and the Microsoft way of doing things while others take on a slower approach with Flow. One thing is for sure, most developers don't need types, they are simply complicating already complex problems and solutions. Like most things, most of this trend is subjective dogma no…

Types are not the only game in town, schema style solutions (like Clojure(Script)'s spec) have many things over static type systems.

You can use both, ala tcomb or io-ts

Re: Front-End Developer Handbook

#17

Post by zdragnar »

FLUX-YOU wrote: post #9
poof131 wrote: post #7

"A whole lot of developers adopt static type checking for mostly subjective reasons or band wagon emotions. Some sell out completely to Typescript and the Microsoft way of doing things while others take on a slower approach with Flow. One thing is for sure, most developers don't need types, they are simply complicating already complex problems and solutions. Like most things, most of this trend is subjective dogma no…

Looking back and forth between code and docs just to remember the shape of returned objects is annoying and probably the worst for productivity. I imagine most people using vanilla JS have significant amounts of objects memorized.

IDEs like webstorm can ostensibly be quite helpful if you use jsdoc style annotations.

However, in my experience, once a code base is big enough, you can open almost any file and find documentation that's out of date, incorrectly copy-pasted, or some other major issue. TS, on the other hand, at least forces you to stay correct, which is ultimately what convinced me to switch.

Re: Front-End Developer Handbook

#18

Post by jpd- »

"A developer who can code the front-end, back-end, API, and database isn't as absurd as it once was (excluding visual design, interaction design, and CSS). Still mythical in my opinion, but not as uncommon as it once was."

I see this attitude expressed a lot among people who identify as "front end" developers and it seems like psychological projection to me. I would count myself and a number of close friends and associates as these mythical "full stack" developers so (in my circle) I don't think it is uncommon at all.

One thing I have noticed (again, in my circle) is that "front end" developers tend to start learning with front end development and are commonly self taught, while "back end" guys are more likely to have a degree and start with something enterprisey like .NET or Java. From what I've seen, back end guys have a much easier time moving to front end than vice versa.

Re: Front-End Developer Handbook

#19

Post by jpd- »

poof131 wrote: post #7

"A whole lot of developers adopt static type checking for mostly subjective reasons or band wagon emotions. Some sell out completely to Typescript and the Microsoft way of doing things while others take on a slower approach with Flow. One thing is for sure, most developers don't need types, they are simply complicating already complex problems and solutions. Like most things, most of this trend is subjective dogma no…

Context means everything. Is the author working on a startup with weekly sprints and a small dev team, or an enterprise app with 400 devs and a legacy codebase in a waterfall environment?

The author strikes me as someone who has a very narrow breadth of experience.

Re: Front-End Developer Handbook

#20

Post by lioeters »

jpd- wrote: post #18

"A developer who can code the front-end, back-end, API, and database isn't as absurd as it once was (excluding visual design, interaction design, and CSS). Still mythical in my opinion, but not as uncommon as it once was." I see this attitude expressed a lot among people who identify as "front end" developers and it seems like psychological projection to me. I would count myself and a number of close friends and asso…

This last sentence made me think, it's probably because people who start learning from the backend have an understanding of the whole stack from the bottom up, whereas those from the frontend start with a much more distant abstraction and gradually discover the underlying layers of the system.
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