Terrible blog post (half-baked recruiting link bait), but some interesting discussion below. /$.02
Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One
71–80 of 108 posts
Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One
#72I think you're confusing Javascript Developer and Front End Web Developer. The two are mutually exclusive.
mutually exclusive is a Venn Diagram with no overlap - so no, they're not
Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One
#73Did I misunderstand something, or does this article just list all the reasons it's a bad idea to be a JavaScript developer? (apart from the 99 reasons that is JavaScript itself) basically: you use a language that is the envy of noone, to work with things like web browsers, the DOM and CSS. Anyone would want good money to do that...
I do pretty much what the article describes and you echo the sentiment I get from dev friends who hate working with CSS and the DOM! I enjoy it though. There's a lot of art to it. I have absorbed a decade's worth of trivia that lets me usually do the right thing first time or find the solution quickly. And I generally get to be the interface to other teams (like designers, content people) which I like too.
I'm in the exact same boat as you MDCore - the job description describes me decently well, but I too have my pick of jobs. If you need to hire yesterday, this company should consider hiring a UI person and a JS person separately.
Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One
#74Looks like the site has been hacked, there is a bunch of spam underneath the header.
Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One
#75Being a front-end web dev sucks. You need to know browser quirks, know about design, know UX, know JS in depth, jquery of course and even backbone and/or angular are now expected (with any other framework being a plus). And the back-end guys learn mostly one language and stack, e.g. .NET and maybe SQL (if there isn't already someone dedicated as a DB guy). Then they still wonder why you are bitching about vertical ce…
Also, paid less than backend.
Companies encourage people to become a front-end dev because they don't want to do it.
Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
The way I imagine node development is pure hell. You have this event loop where if you screw anything up your whole app immediately comes to a grinding halt. You don't have any mature standard library. Instead you have 8 gazillion libraries in different versions... Just overboarding complexety, unfindable bugs, dependency hell. And then you do all of it in JavaScript.
Node's event loop is very easy to work with since all the standard tools are async from the start. It's not like eventmachine where standard Ruby calls are synchronous and they can throw a wrench in your logic. There's no need for a mature standard library. Things move faster nowadays and you can't wait for things to get standardized. Node embraces the open-source spirit and trusts that the best libraries will rise t…
Integers.
Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One
#77I think hn user nostrademons has had some of the most interesting comments on front-end development and has posted about some useful skills to have. But judging by his comments the most important skills appear to be curiosity, hard work, and motivation to make something. True, there is an incredible amount of trivia in developing for the browser, but since the reason for the trivia is that your program may be run on any of a billion or more devices, it seems worth the effort.
Those skills are important because the front end field is still in flux and while lists are a great starting point it seems unlikely that there is a good exhaustive list. (I'd love to see one if there was.)
Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One
#78What if I am a JavaScript wizard who is also a backend wizard, and I know a lot about CSS/HTML and browser quirks, but I couldn't design my way out of a wet and ripped paper bag? Can I be awesome too? Or am I designated to the waste bin? Because that would suck. I don't like the waste bin. It smells funny.
This guys is being pretty hyperbolic when it comes to the requirements for design-related skills. Perhaps that is the bar they set at Cloudera, but here are a lot of people out there that do 'front-end development' who don't have corresponding design skills. There are also classes of people out there called 'designers' that are particularly suited to that line of work.
Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One
#79Did I misunderstand something, or does this article just list all the reasons it's a bad idea to be a JavaScript developer? (apart from the 99 reasons that is JavaScript itself) basically: you use a language that is the envy of noone, to work with things like web browsers, the DOM and CSS. Anyone would want good money to do that...
Best comment in the entire thread.
Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One
#80Clientcide sounds similar to suicide, homicide, infanticide, genocide etc.