That should be "mere mortals"...
What is a Full Stack developer? (2012)
41–50 of 124 posts
Re: What is a Full Stack developer? (2012)
#42It reminds me of this Blues Brothers quote: Elwood: What kind of music do you usually have here? Claire: Oh, we got both kinds. We got country and western. The tendency of web developers to appropriate well defined terms for their limited little world is a bit unsettling.
That's not fair. Unlike many areas of software engineering, web development uses a long list of technologies interchangeably. This set (HTML, CSS, js, rails, some db, lamp, aws, etc) is a mix of languages and platforms. A "full stack developer" is one who can choose the right set of tools from a long list and get a site built from scratch.
There is an element of breadth vs depth in this definition. In some types of software engineering it's crucial to have deep expertise of one or a two languages (oracle, or java) but on web development it's often better to have a much broader view of more things.
This is why 17 yo web full stack web developers are more common than deeply experienced .net developers. The former takes constant curiosity and the ability to stay up to date on what's new in a changing field. The latter takes thousands of hours of experience.
Re: What is a Full Stack developer? (2012)
#43Interesting that the OP doesn't consider a full stack Dev needs to now anything much about networking in 1 Server, Network, and Hosting Environment.
Surly a full stack means dev you can go from the wire up to a complete application. In practice this means at least a CCNA.
Re: What is a Full Stack developer? (2012)
#44"All our masons must be architects."
yes back in the middle ages that is what a Master Mason was
Re: What is a Full Stack developer? (2012)
#45Interesting that the OP doesn't consider a full stack Dev needs to now anything much about networking in 1 Server, Network, and Hosting Environment. Surly a full stack means dev you can go from the wire up to a complete application. In practice this means at least a CCNA.
Would the term 'full stack developer' really need explicit (i.e. Cisco) sysadmin qualifications?
What about more of the devops "get stuff working" on cloud platforms (EC2, Google App Engine, Heroku etc) using proven load balancing / caching / static serving software, changing your stack as and when you need rather than over-engineering something?
Re: What is a Full Stack developer? (2012)
#46The first few times I heard the term "full stack" developer it meant somebody who could understand what's going on at all levels of the call stack. That means from the kernel through C libraries, web server / JIT / high-level server langauge, through network layer, through browser implementation, javascript JIT, javascript / CSS / HTML interpretation and layout and so on. Has this turned into "I can does the servers…
> Has this turned into "I can does the servers and the javascripts too" or did I encounter the term out of its original context?
Haha, I cringed.
Re: What is a Full Stack developer? (2012)
#47The first few times I heard the term "full stack" developer it meant somebody who could understand what's going on at all levels of the call stack. That means from the kernel through C libraries, web server / JIT / high-level server langauge, through network layer, through browser implementation, javascript JIT, javascript / CSS / HTML interpretation and layout and so on. Has this turned into "I can does the servers…
Full stack developers have definitely been watered down over the years. In addition to your list you had to know all the electrical engineering behind the hardware. Further you at least needed a minor in chemistry. I scoff at someone who calls themselves "full stack" developer and couldn't even draw the silicon molecule. I just don't trust someone to write my web app who doesn't understand how electrons move. Kids th…
Indeed, magnetized needle and a steady hand is the only tool a full-stack developer needs.
Re: What is a Full Stack developer? (2012)
#48The first few times I heard the term "full stack" developer it meant somebody who could understand what's going on at all levels of the call stack. That means from the kernel through C libraries, web server / JIT / high-level server langauge, through network layer, through browser implementation, javascript JIT, javascript / CSS / HTML interpretation and layout and so on. Has this turned into "I can does the servers…
The term "stack" has been used to indicate the server OS, database and programming language for a while (i.e. LAMP). With client side code having really exploded from a few years ago I had just assumed, in the context of web development, "full stack" to mean somebody who can do both. It's probably only relevant recently when you could choose to be a "front end" developer that only does the browser code. A few years ago the browser code was just something we all did - which is why sites were often ugly!
Obviously we're dealing with stacks upon stacks if you want consider all aspects of computing. I would not think it was very common to find anybody who is truly skilled all the way from chip design up to the graphic design of a web page. Well, at least, I would not expect somebody to be great at every layer. Some of these areas are a career's worth of dedication to master and then also keep up.
Re: What is a Full Stack developer? (2012)
#49Marketing term for web monkey jack-of-all-trades. Does it fly in interviews to claim you are an expert in absolutely everything? Just curious.
It all depends on who you get asking questions.
Re: What is a Full Stack developer? (2012)
#50Somebody who knows everything, but not really ;)
A consultant. ;)