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Ask HN: If you are starting in 2024, what is the most productive solo dev stack?

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Re: Ask HN: If you are starting in 2024, what is the most productive solo dev stack?

#62
post #52
post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I spent hours researching the right Markdown to HTML renderer. Writing HTML by hand would've been faster. There's dozens of these frameworks and none are perfect.

Or use something like strapdown and let the client handle rendering. https://naereen.github.io/StrapDown.js/

When I clicked that link I saw a flash of unstyled content, so that's immediately worse than HTML.

My point was that if you count the time spent looking for the perfect renderer, HTML is faster and easier to write than Markdown unless you're writing a book. You just added another option someone has to spend time evaluating to the pile.

Re: Ask HN: If you are starting in 2024, what is the most productive solo dev stack?

#63
post #62
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or use something like strapdown and let the client handle rendering. https://naereen.github.io/StrapDown.js/

When I clicked that link I saw a flash of unstyled content, so that's immediately worse than HTML. My point was that if you count the time spent looking for the perfect renderer, HTML is faster and easier to write than Markdown unless you're writing a book. You just added another option someone has to spend time evaluating to the pile.

There is no need to look for the "perfect" renderer. That reminds me of the authors that won't write unless they have the best notebook, pen, etc. Just write your content and throw strapdown on it. Who really cares if there's a flash of unstyled content?

Re: Ask HN: If you are starting in 2024, what is the most productive solo dev stack?

#64
post #35

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The official RCA is deprecated. Is there a fork you recommend?

NextJS does more than create-react-app, but you're not required to use all those extra features. You can use it to just escape the tedium of configuring JS tooling.

I spent 4 hours trying to figure out how to build a static nextjs website. I ended up giving up and switching to astro. You basically need to understand SSR to do static sites.

Re: Ask HN: If you are starting in 2024, what is the most productive solo dev stack?

#65
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The official RCA is deprecated. Is there a fork you recommend?

Vite is the closest thing we have to a Create React App successor. It does most of what CRA did in its heyday, while subsisting on far fewer dependencies. Run `npm create vite@latest` and just follow the CLI prompts.

someone told me about vite. ill try that out next. I switched to astro for a blog after giving up with nextjs, and it works pretty well for a blog. not sure about a front end app though.

Re: Ask HN: If you are starting in 2024, what is the most productive solo dev stack?

#66
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Vite is the closest thing we have to a Create React App successor. It does most of what CRA did in its heyday, while subsisting on far fewer dependencies. Run `npm create vite@latest` and just follow the CLI prompts.

someone told me about vite. ill try that out next. I switched to astro for a blog after giving up with nextjs, and it works pretty well for a blog. not sure about a front end app though.

You could build a blog with Vite and @mdx-js/react, but that honestly might be overkill. Astro is definitely tailored towards the blog use case. Gatsby is another older framework that's oriented more towards building a blog, but I'm not a huge fan of how it insists on making you use GraphQL. Eleventy is another popular choice for JS powered static sites if you're not set on using React.

Re: Ask HN: If you are starting in 2024, what is the most productive solo dev stack?

#67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet any one opinion is just that - one opinion. I find node easy and quick, and some of the ones in your easy list to be easy while others are time-consuming and odd. We're both right - it is all a question of what you are used to. So for someone just starting out, I agree - just pick one. You'll learn it, it is will make sense, you will be productive, and because you only know one thing everything else will seem wei…

> it is all a question of what you are used to. In a Dunning-Kruger kind of way? As in, without having the familiarity with other options, you can't recognize how slow and difficult it is?

You T shape it. Play with other frameworks. And also read blogs by people using those frameworks. Keep learning!

Re: Ask HN: If you are starting in 2024, what is the most productive solo dev stack?

#68
It looks like the answers are heavily biased towards “my favorite tool”. And don’t take into account what’s actually asked. For a person who doesn’t want to become an swe (e.g. working on a specialized area at a big company) and who is a newcomer the answer is simple: JS, period. Take Next.js and try writing something using SO, chatGPT, articles and books. Treat html , css as “will learn on the go when I need something”. Next.js is the closest that the JS has to the standardized, pawed path. It covers all you need front-end, back-end, static sites. Batteries included.

Note: I am mostly a back-end / SWE and mostly avoid JS, but I also have to admit that IMO that’s the best match with the authors goals.

Re: Ask HN: If you are starting in 2024, what is the most productive solo dev stack?

#69
post #36

It really depends on what you're building, but Django is still undefeated for 95% of the things a solo dev will want to create. Everyone here recommends React, but all the interactivity usually doesn't add business value, just complexity and slowness.

How is it compared to Rails? It seems like the world is just divided between server first or JS framework first depending on how much interactivity. In my case i just need some API calling, retrieving data, rendering it on the dashboard (just text, no graphs) and pushing some of the content to another API.

Re: Ask HN: If you are starting in 2024, what is the most productive solo dev stack?

#70
post #68

It looks like the answers are heavily biased towards “my favorite tool”. And don’t take into account what’s actually asked. For a person who doesn’t want to become an swe (e.g. working on a specialized area at a big company) and who is a newcomer the answer is simple: JS, period. Take Next.js and try writing something using SO, chatGPT, articles and books. Treat html , css as “will learn on the go when I need somethi…

Can I just say, thank you?

Some of the answers are exactly what I've been trying to avoid. My only goal is being able to build my own stuff, I don't really care about kubernetes or scaling. I don't anticipate to have 1m active users with concurrency.

At the same time, I got a bit scared by React quite frankly and hence was only looking at Sveltekit. However you rightly pointed out, its still being shaped despite being similar to Next.js and seems like ideal for React devs who want to jump into more simplicity and "vibes" with DSL.

My only other consideration was Rails but for that one - the learning curve is even steeper.

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