Back end Python web development is a joy these days.
Depends who's code you have inherited. Agreed Python is a lot more pleasant than Javascript, but people still write some horrible stuff.
But does Python back-end code scale like Javascript?
Ask HN: How do I escape webdev?
31–40 of 75 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do I escape webdev?
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Depends who's code you have inherited. Agreed Python is a lot more pleasant than Javascript, but people still write some horrible stuff.
But does Python back-end code scale like Javascript?
Are you saying that you can't scale code because it's in Python? And JavaScript would solve the problem?
You can scale Python apps just fine (though obviously it depends a lot on the problem as how you go about that)
Re: Ask HN: How do I escape webdev?
#33SAP,DataFlex,ERP,Cobol,SQL ETL,ColdFusion,PHP are all good options.
Re: Ask HN: How do I escape webdev?
#34So you want to write spagetti in another language because webdev is getting too difficult? In my opinion one should strive to learn their craft well, and if you havent by now, you should very quickly educate yourself out of writing bad code. Otherwise it's a habit that keeps you feeling bad about you and your code and hold you at disadvantage against that competition you are so worried about. But if you think a break…
This is one of the most passive offensive responses I have read on this website.
It adds nothing of value and helps no one. Not even you as the author of the comment.
Becoming the 10x engineer everyone dreams of is one thing but definitely not a viable option.
Re: Ask HN: How do I escape webdev?
#35Sounds like a problem with the code you write instead of industry. Like you are not proud of your work and it eats you.
Almost everything is connected to web nowadays(frontend and backend) and it certainly doesn't have to be as bad as you describe. I would advice to try automating as many things as possible. Especially things you don't like as there is a lot of motivation for that
Re: Ask HN: How do I escape webdev?
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly it sounds more like OP is stuck int the bad code trap because they work alone. Couple that with web dev and of course the world would seem bleak. Frontend code can be beautiful and maintainable but not having senior people to help you even know what that means sounds frustrating to me. my vote is to join a company as an intern/junior and grow.
100%. I worked alone for a few years. Again self taught web development. I tried to read the “best practices” for the languages I was learning. But it was bugs galore and code I feared maintaining after release. I then spent 5 months at a company in a team where every bit of code went through a peer review process. Even I was responsible for reviewing others code. I learnt a hell of a lot, we barely had any bugs and…
It's nice how you are telling the OP to just learn to write nice code and then you support it by anecdote about how others taught you to write nice code.
I am not under the impression that OP wants to continue writing bad code.
Re: Ask HN: How do I escape webdev?
#37Feeling the same way, which is why I'm wanting to build some open source apps that replace as much as possible w/ db/api from db...e.g. using Hasura + React or Vue to create a SaaS framework, to re-use for multiple business ideas, maybe have a hosted version or being open core as a biz model.
Re: Ask HN: How do I escape webdev?
#38I know what you mean. While web is unavoidable in some area for the 'instant deployment' benefit it brings (in consumer internet...), it lacks in my opinion a solid architecture fundation (separation of business data and layout...), and we pay a high price for this (costly development, high cost of obsolescence...). So I prefer to avoid web development when I can.
Also, many development environments (not only web) are not keen with 'medium skill' developpers: the architecture is too complex that it is a mess just navigating around, and it requires self discipline and experience to organize your development. There should be, in my opinion, a 'safe place' for people whose job is just to transcript business requirements into working code without requiring extra 'architecture' skills. Most IT departments of companies have this 'medium skillset' population, and as a result, there is a lot of waste and drama.
With that in mind, I spent around 1 year of my private time designing a low-code framework to provide enteprise IT developers with a 'medium skillset' an efficient tool to develop business apps. This is fully open-source, so do not hesitate to have a look and get involved ( https://openlowcode.com/ )
Re: Ask HN: How do I escape webdev?
#39A lot of websites these days are "build to last", but that is almost always a sales argument with very weak evidence. It just sells well to the client because they think they buy something for the future. And every agency or freelancer sells the same lie.
We make websites according to the latest fad and all your work will be thrown out when the business decides to change agency, framework or rebuild everything in some marketing automation tool. I've worked in an agency for almost 10 years and I have accepted that fact.
No matter how beautiful your code is, most web code is thrown away after a couple years anyway. It is just has to do what it is supposed to do, nobody cares about the code.
Agencies also deliver spaghetti code, what is the definition of that anyway? All code is spaghetti in some way. All real code is a mix of different styles and approaches. It will be a mix of OOP, Functional, declarative, imperative code. It is all custom build by different people with different backgrounds.
If you want to work on a more structured codebase then try applying to a company who have 1 product and 1 big codebase. You are likely to find much more structured code there because organising codebases take a lot of time and effort. For a larger codebase with more people working on it things like design patters, rules, best practices, linters and tests will become useful and teams will add then over time.
You will not easily find all of that in web development simply because there is no budget for it. There is only 1 goal in web development. Add as much business value in the least amount of hours.
You can be proud on what you delivered for the businesses you worked for. You solved their problems and you created value for them. No matter what the code looks like. As long as it was secure and it worked then it was perfect for what it was supposed to achieve. Don't be so hard on yourself.
Re: Ask HN: How do I escape webdev?
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
100%. I worked alone for a few years. Again self taught web development. I tried to read the “best practices” for the languages I was learning. But it was bugs galore and code I feared maintaining after release. I then spent 5 months at a company in a team where every bit of code went through a peer review process. Even I was responsible for reviewing others code. I learnt a hell of a lot, we barely had any bugs and…
It's nice how you are telling the OP to just learn to write nice code and then you support it by anecdote about how others taught you to write nice code . I am not under the impression that OP wants to continue writing bad code.
He's telling the OP to _join a team who will support you_.