FWIW, the GitHub age isn't entirely accurate because both React and Vue had major rewrites and the current default branch doesn't hold the entire development history. Vue's first public release was Feb of 2014 and React is just celebrating its 5th birthday.
Why Is Front-End Development So Unstable?
41–50 of 366 posts
Re: Why Is Front-End Development So Unstable?
#42Calling out Vue.js as a possible solution is hilarious. Selling a trending technology as a silver bullet is exactly the problem he complains about in the article.
Comparing the development methodology of Facebook - the company behind React - and this mindset is illuminating. Facebook famously rewrote PHP and added extensions like XHP rather than start their codebase from scratch. React follows a similar philosphy. It can be incrementally introduced into a codebase without radical rewrites.
These lessons are largely ignored in the open source community, where everyone will gladly tell you how your tech is all wrong. This is actually really easy to avoid. Just focus on solving the problems you have and only adopt technology that is relevant to you.
Re: Why Is Front-End Development So Unstable?
#43This is a really well-written and well-thought out piece. The author touches on a number of points but never gets polemical. This piece resonated with me particularly well: > Be wary of self-promotion > Over the last few years I’ve seen much more aggressive self-marketing in the JavaScript world, possibly due to the rise of paid online training materials and the employment/consulting advantage of being a Github ‘cele…
I'm finding the growing celebrity culture of programming to be troubling. I find that programming is becoming less and less about code or architecture and more about evangelism and marketing, but I'm not sure what changed in the incentive structure for this to happen, and I would like to find out. Aside: This has made me reconsider being a career programmer.
It's an extremely large and diverse field. There are plenty of us who aren't celebrities and don't care about celebrities (except to the extent that it is caused by deep expertise). Just like you ignore reality TV celebrities, ignore these guys. It's just noise. Turn off Twitter and read "Growing Object-Oriented Software, Guided by Tests" instead.
Re: Why Is Front-End Development So Unstable?
#44This offers a good explanation for why the most popular options are generally the ones that developers choose, but not why the thing that is currently popular shifts as fast as it does.
Why did React take the limelight while Angular fell out of favor? What caused that shift in what is popular?
Re: Why Is Front-End Development So Unstable?
#45> 2.5 years for the youngest isn’t that old in the scheme of things - it’s less than half the support lifespan of your typical desktop OS, for example - but it’s still a ways off our caricature. Let's compare it with some server-side technologies: Python/Django: 2005 Python/Flask: 2010 Nginx: 2004 Perl/Catalyst: 2006 Maybe I'm biased towards older software, but the difference to the popular frontend stuff is striking…
> but it seems many developers frown upon it these days This is sadly very true. jQuery is almost used as an insult these days. Having code be called "jQuery Spaghetti" is about the worst epithet that can be hurled at a javascript codebase these days.
I am one of those people. It isn't that I don't understand it's purpose. What I hate is when people like my boss, who haven't read a text book on the subject for 13 years pull Jquery out automatically and force it into everyones face before any actual purpose for doing that is established. It really winds me up.
Re: Why Is Front-End Development So Unstable?
#46React is only 3 years old?!?!
Re: Why Is Front-End Development So Unstable?
#47> 2.5 years for the youngest isn’t that old in the scheme of things - it’s less than half the support lifespan of your typical desktop OS, for example - but it’s still a ways off our caricature. Let's compare it with some server-side technologies: Python/Django: 2005 Python/Flask: 2010 Nginx: 2004 Perl/Catalyst: 2006 Maybe I'm biased towards older software, but the difference to the popular frontend stuff is striking…
No love for Rails? It's also been around since 2005.
Seems like they are a Pythonista
Re: Why Is Front-End Development So Unstable?
#48"Unstable", "Issue", "Problem". The opposite of the front-end world is not something to desire. Change means people are fixing problems and giving away their solutions for free. To desire less change means wishing fewer people gave away their work.
I am ok with that. If more people giving away their work ends up with "left-pad" situation. Also most of git hub repos are crap to be abandoned after couple months.
As in article if people share code to be "ninja", "rockstar" devs that is wrong approach and I don't want that code. Because solution is not honest, not reliable and probably will be dumped as soon as "rockstar" will find another flashy term where he can gain more "ninja" points.
Re: Why Is Front-End Development So Unstable?
#49This is a really well-written and well-thought out piece. The author touches on a number of points but never gets polemical. This piece resonated with me particularly well: > Be wary of self-promotion > Over the last few years I’ve seen much more aggressive self-marketing in the JavaScript world, possibly due to the rise of paid online training materials and the employment/consulting advantage of being a Github ‘cele…
I'm finding the growing celebrity culture of programming to be troubling. I find that programming is becoming less and less about code or architecture and more about evangelism and marketing, but I'm not sure what changed in the incentive structure for this to happen, and I would like to find out. Aside: This has made me reconsider being a career programmer.
>I'm not sure what changed in the incentive structure for this to happen, and I would like to find out.
People started getting paid more for doing this because managers have no idea what programming actually is.
Re: Why Is Front-End Development So Unstable?
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
jQuery is great for small snippets of code, but encourages a quick and dirty style that collapses for larger applications. Most jQuery applications couple their business logic to the mechanics of working with the DOM. It was also intended to smooth over browser inconsistencies and gaps in APIs. This is less relevant these days now that browsers are more mature.
> jQuery is great for small snippets of code, but encourages a quick and dirty style that collapses for larger applications. I keep hearing (well, reading on HN) criticisms of this sort about jQuery and they are absolutely not supported by the years of experience I have using jQuery for front-ends that have in many cases been quite complex. I use it because it greatly simplifies DOM manipulation and event handling. (…
In my experience the app tends to evolve around jQuery selectors and event handlers, rather than having a well defined structure. This is not a fault of jQuery, as it never intended to solve those problems. Like you said, it is purely meant to solve the DOM issue.