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Ask HN: Fastest/easiest framework to build a web application in 2020?

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Re: Ask HN: Fastest/easiest framework to build a web application in 2020?

#12

Post by Alex3917 »

vnpc1 wrote: post #8
Alex3917 wrote: post #2

Still Django. It's in a weird state where it's starting to show its age, but everything else is at least 10 years away from catching up. So still the best bet if you're starting something new today.

Can you share a bit more about how it's showing its age? (I'm not a web dev, but played around with Flask recently and in general find the giant ecosystem of different frameworks fascinating.)

> Can you share a bit more about how it's showing its age?

1. There are some bugs that can't be fixed just because they break backwards compatibility. E.g. usernames are stored to the database incorrectly by default, but the dev team isn't going to change it. So if you don't know that it works the way that it does, it can cause issues.

2. Most people now use a js frontend and a REST backend. Django can do this well, but because it wasn't originally designed to be used that way there is a ton of random cruft that isn't super useful to most people anymore.

3. No good async story. They are working on this, but it's going to be kind of bolted on rather than designed for async from the ground up.

4. Lots of random cruft related to weird design patterns that folks have advocated for over the years. You don't have to use any of it, but the fact that it's there leads a lot of people to believe they should be using it, which leads to bad codebases.

Basically you can do everything you'd want to or need to using Django, but there is just a bunch of random crap in there that you need to prevent people from using. And preventing people from doing stuff that they want to do tends to lead to either conflict or technical debt, so it would be much better if it just weren't there in the first place.

Re: Ask HN: Fastest/easiest framework to build a web application in 2020?

#13

Post by CompBrogrammer »

If I may, I have a related question I'd like to ask.

I'm a front-end developer looking to get serious about practicing my back-end development skills. Any recommendations for a language/framework with static typing (outside of Node + TS)? Spring Boot and Kotlin? .NET Core? Go?

Re: Ask HN: Fastest/easiest framework to build a web application in 2020?

#16

Post by wheresvic3 »

I would recommend looking into Node.js for the back-end. You can then combine it with either React/Angular or even just a plain jQuery front-end.

The nice part about Node is that you'll have JS on both the front and back ends.

It really scalable and if you use typescript, you can get type safety as well :)

Re: Ask HN: Fastest/easiest framework to build a web application in 2020?

#17

Post by austincheney »

jiofih wrote: post #9
mterrel wrote: post #4

My personal picks would be: - React for the front end ( https://reactjs.org ) - Node.js for your back end ( https://nodejs.org ) - Deploy using Adapt, which ties your front and back end together using React-like components. ( https://adaptjs.org ). - (Optional) If this project is larger or commercial, definitely use TypeScript on all 3 of the above ( http://www.typescriptlang.org/ ) [Disclosure: I'm a maintainer of A…

> Use React’s declarative JSX syntax, JavaScript components, and a rich component library to build, deploy, and operate your Im sorry but why would someone want to use a templating language to configure infrastructure? It’s like using CSS syntax for defining an HTTP API. Doable, but... why? It’s not any easier to pick up or reason about than any existing configuration language. On React + node, this assumes no render…

A template language suggests something that uses code points to inject dynamic values. JSX is a bit more than that in that it bundles a template plus the corresponding assigned logic. It is more of a component language than a template language.

At any rate the reason why somebody might want to do this is purely because its declarative. I prefer imperative programming myself, because I want to know exact what the logic is doing from reading the code, but many people don't think that way. Many people want to know what is happening without being overwhelmed by how its happening and they need the code to communicate to them in exactly that way.

Re: Ask HN: Fastest/easiest framework to build a web application in 2020?

#19

Post by ajford »

bussierem wrote: post #10

5 answers as of my typing this, all 5 recommending almost entirely different options. I think you're not going to see much consensus to this question, merely a comment-based list of all possible frameworks that people know. User joshmn had it right in his reply: > If you know something now, use it. Anything your team already knows will be easiest and fastest for you to use. Any new person you hire will have a lot to…

Exactly this! Current shop has a crufty in-house monstrosity with a weird history. All due to someone deciding that the stack had to be Python/Django + Backbone.js + jQuery.

Not a bad stack, but the development team was a group of PHP developers. Rather than go with something they all knew, the leadership decided that switching stacks and having the entire group learn Python with the CMS/CRM/Fulfillment system being their first professional project was the way to go.

What resulted was a misshapen monstrosity. Plenty of good ideas, ruined by limitations in understanding of the stack they tried to implement, and further hampered by a lack of good direction and herding of the team. The stakeowners of various bits were allowed to snag their pet developer and lean on them until their "feature" was implemented, with little to no cohesive architecture in place.

Perfect is the enemy of good. There are dozens of frameworks because they all have their uses. Stick to what you know, and let that guide you. If you have a desire to learn a new stack, go for it. But don't pick one because someone else says "it's the best".

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