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Ask HN: Is all programming constantly changing or just front-end JavaScript?

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Re: Ask HN: Is all programming constantly changing or just front-end JavaScript?

#11

Post by rolleiflex »

From what I could see, the amount of churn in the Javascript world is unsurpassed by anything in software or product, almost to an order of magnitude.

I ended up being a product designer (my main, academic education), a frontend, and a backend with varying levels of expertise in my lifetime, so I have some direct experience.

My current advice as of April 2019 is to keep calm, if you can stay away from JS, do it, if you can't, pick Vue, avoid Webpack, use Typescript, and forget the rest. That should go fine for the next couple years, if you can manage to remove Webpack, even longer.

Re: Ask HN: Is all programming constantly changing or just front-end JavaScript?

#12

Post by LyndsySimon »

My intuition is that it's a function of how many people are doing the type of work you're doing and how fast the environment within which your code runs changes.

Front-end JS is where both of these factor are at their peak - it's often the first stack new developers use, and there are a lot of devs doing it. Add in the speed with which the browser landscape changes and the (relatively) recent expansion of JS onto the server ... and everywhere else ... and you kind of have a perfect storm.

The other extreme is probably something like legacy systems development - like maintaining and expanding banking and financial systems - or embedded environments where the hardware has a long life expectancy and is not easily upgradable.

Re: Ask HN: Is all programming constantly changing or just front-end JavaScript?

#13

Post by RickS »

As somebody that's in JS all day but rarely touches backend, hearing about go, rust, kubernetes, docker, etc make it feel like backend is similarly fast-changing.

The difference seems to be in the narrative about the older tech. The "rails is still fine" crowd is loud, which is great. There is no equivalent for older JS tech. Though I would be willing to believe that's because things like jQuery are full of dated patterns that lead to bad times.

Re: Ask HN: Is all programming constantly changing or just front-end JavaScript?

#15

Post by rabidrat »

tobinfricke wrote: post #6

I program in C, C++, and Python at my day job, and those languages are pleasantly stable.

That's good to hear. I was worried that C++17 was a major revision to the language. At least Python hasn't had a major release since 2010 (Python 2, anyway).

Re: Ask HN: Is all programming constantly changing or just front-end JavaScript?

#17

Post by droobles »

RickS wrote: post #13

As somebody that's in JS all day but rarely touches backend, hearing about go, rust, kubernetes, docker, etc make it feel like backend is similarly fast-changing. The difference seems to be in the narrative about the older tech. The "rails is still fine" crowd is loud, which is great. There is no equivalent for older JS tech. Though I would be willing to believe that's because things like jQuery are full of dated pat…

I think jQuery and IIFE/AMD modules are fine. Tools for the job, React might be overkill for some smaller apps, and jQuery is a hassle with larger SPA/PWAs.

Re: Ask HN: Is all programming constantly changing or just front-end JavaScript?

#18

Post by colecut »

RickS wrote: post #13

As somebody that's in JS all day but rarely touches backend, hearing about go, rust, kubernetes, docker, etc make it feel like backend is similarly fast-changing. The difference seems to be in the narrative about the older tech. The "rails is still fine" crowd is loud, which is great. There is no equivalent for older JS tech. Though I would be willing to believe that's because things like jQuery are full of dated pat…

As a backend developer I am in the "jquery is fine" crowd =)

I'm always able to accomplish what I need without a lot of headache, though I'm not making gigantic SPA frontends.

There are very few people using go and rust for website backends. And kubernetes and docker are about deployment, not development.

If you are a backend developer, working in Ruby/Rails, or Php/Laravel, or Python/Django, or whatever, then I think you have a more than sufficient set of tools to do what you need to do, without worrying about much outside of that. It's a much more sane and stable experience than trying to be a frontend JS dev today.

Re: Ask HN: Is all programming constantly changing or just front-end JavaScript?

#19

Post by alexpetralia »

jppope wrote: post #4

I would argue that the frontend js changes are mainly to do with user expectations for what constitutes a well designed user interface. People expect more, and we have to give it to them to survive. Addressing your specific question => have the backend languages/ frameworks changed? meh. sorta. They've made incremental changes, but the meat and potatoes look the same from 4-7 years ago for the opinionated frameworks.…

Nice comment. I agree - I think innovation in backend development has really been subsumed by DevOps and data pipeline architectures, which have both really changed quite a bit.

Re: Ask HN: Is all programming constantly changing or just front-end JavaScript?

#20

Post by antoineMoPa »

rabidrat wrote: post #15
tobinfricke wrote: post #6

I program in C, C++, and Python at my day job, and those languages are pleasantly stable.

That's good to hear. I was worried that C++17 was a major revision to the language. At least Python hasn't had a major release since 2010 (Python 2, anyway).

Most places seem to use very old C++ versions.
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