Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Drupal's Golden Handcuffs

mikecr.it

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 148 posts

Re: Drupal's Golden Handcuffs

#11

Post by incongruity »

lkrubner wrote: post #6

I am puzzled by this: "Good Drupal developers are making a lot of money right now, much more than I'm seeing for Django or Rails or Node devs in general." I am curious where this is? This is not true in New York City, where I am. Developers who are good with a given PHP framework (Drupal, Symfony, etc) will make something like $60 to $70 an hour. The top Rails devs will make at least the same amount, and usually a li…

Out of idle curiosity (having left development a good while ago), are those rates you're quoting your expectations for freelance contracting or a salaried/full-time position?

Re: Drupal's Golden Handcuffs

#12

Post by exratione »

If you're using Drupal the way the author describes here - building in the interface rather than writing code - then yes, you're pretty much doomed. You're producing a very fragile thing that is very hard to maintain and adjust later on, and heaven help you if you actually want to do something in a different way than the modules you're working with allow out of the box.

Drupal development is very divided between (a) the small number of people who can treat it as a framework and write solid custom code while still making good reuse of core and contributed modules to speed development versus (b) the much larger number of people who treat it as a sophisticated CMS with plugins, and typically use Views and template overrides to produce a fragile solution.

On the money side of things - yes, if you're in group (a), then you can charge a bunch of money. Drupal development is very lucrative. If you're in group (b), then no. That's just an average wage.

Re: Drupal's Golden Handcuffs

#13

Post by richforrester »

I'm a Sydney-based UX person with a background in UI and front-end coding, and I happen to find programming (I dabble in php) extremely satisfying. Drupal, to me, is definitely a means to get things done.

Here's my "day in Drupal":

- Amazed - Amazed - Bored - WTF? - Lunch

- Amazed - Puzzled - Amazed - FUCK YOU DRUPAL! - Amazed

Yes, setting up content types and views can be annoying, but really, sometimes you get a view done in under 15 minutes. Including styling. Stuff like that never ceases to amaze me, and really makes Drupal worthwhile.

I could never code a cms ground-up, and the likes of cakePHP and whatnot just seem a wee bit too far down the rabit-hole (for now).

Drupal is an "easy" alternative.

Re: Drupal's Golden Handcuffs

#14

Post by patrickocoffeyo »

exratione wrote: post #12

If you're using Drupal the way the author describes here - building in the interface rather than writing code - then yes, you're pretty much doomed. You're producing a very fragile thing that is very hard to maintain and adjust later on, and heaven help you if you actually want to do something in a different way than the modules you're working with allow out of the box. Drupal development is very divided between (a)…

Yes, and amen. All people who are afraid to write code need to stop using drupal.

Re: Drupal's Golden Handcuffs

#17

Post by math0ne »

lkrubner wrote: post #6

I am puzzled by this: "Good Drupal developers are making a lot of money right now, much more than I'm seeing for Django or Rails or Node devs in general." I am curious where this is? This is not true in New York City, where I am. Developers who are good with a given PHP framework (Drupal, Symfony, etc) will make something like $60 to $70 an hour. The top Rails devs will make at least the same amount, and usually a li…

I work with drupal contractors quite a bit and they charge a minimum of 150-250 an hour these days.

Re: Drupal's Golden Handcuffs

#18

Post by mcrittenden »

exratione wrote: post #12

If you're using Drupal the way the author describes here - building in the interface rather than writing code - then yes, you're pretty much doomed. You're producing a very fragile thing that is very hard to maintain and adjust later on, and heaven help you if you actually want to do something in a different way than the modules you're working with allow out of the box. Drupal development is very divided between (a)…

This comment confuses me. If you're going to use Drupal as a framework and ignore the rest, then why not just use Django or Rails, both of which are cleaner and more sophisticated frameworks?

I don't think it's fair to look down on people who use Drupal as it's meant to be used.

Re: Drupal's Golden Handcuffs

#19

Post by mcrittenden »

patrickocoffeyo wrote: post #14
exratione wrote: post #12

If you're using Drupal the way the author describes here - building in the interface rather than writing code - then yes, you're pretty much doomed. You're producing a very fragile thing that is very hard to maintain and adjust later on, and heaven help you if you actually want to do something in a different way than the modules you're working with allow out of the box. Drupal development is very divided between (a)…

Yes, and amen. All people who are afraid to write code need to stop using drupal.

There's a difference between beinf afraid to write code and avoiding reinventing the wheel. If there's a Drupal module that gives you what you need, why would you not use it?
Post reply on HN