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Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One

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Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One

#81

Post by cema »

dsego wrote: post #50

Being 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…

The grass is always greener on the other side. Working with, say, .NET stack you still have, in practice, to deal with substantial SQL apparatus. These two worlds (C# or VB.NET and SQL) are sufficiently distinct to form what is known as impedance mismatch (structural incompatibility), so one also has to work with an ORM such as Entity Framework which introduces another level of complexity, and so on and so forth.

Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One

#82

Post by taude »

Am I the only one who thinks a lot of this is a little too specific on so many things? This thing reads like a list of things discovered while building an app, now they're making it gospel to know all these nuances. Knowing the trialing-comma thing, for example, is an I.E. only thing. What if you just don't code with trailing-commas to begin with because it doesn't look right, so you've never come across that? Anyway....

A lot of these things someone will figure out when they get stuck with a 5 second google search.

A lot of these things won't matter as legacy browsers fall out of scope.

A lot of these things won't matter if someone's utilizing some form of frame-work to help them glue code together.

Maybe this level of detail would be important if you're building custom JavaScript frameworks, or whatnot, but for 99% of the UI code out there....

...meh, I don't feel not immediately knowing a lot of these things would prevent anyone from developing a solid UI application.

(I'm going to write later how to get the most out of a team of typical web devs who aren't gurus or rockstars or ninjas, but yet manage to make compelling applications that make customers happy.)

EDIT: I'm only commenting on the first couple of items in the story, because I'm not even going to address the separation of front/back, and manageable team sizes.

Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One

#83

Post by talmand »

Swizec wrote: post #21

What 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.

Don't bother. I'm a front-end developer that happens to have a degree in design and no one from creative listens. Or they gripe about interrupting the "creative process" when I point out problems in the design intended for browsers before anything gets built. Telling them their "creative process" is just their opinion falls on deaf ears.

Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One

#84

Post by collyw »

dsego wrote: post #50

Being 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…

Back end on Django rocks. Until you are looking for a new job. (Though I disagree on the one language thing, at least a conventional language, plus SQL, and you need to at least know the basics of HTML / CSS / JS)

Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One

#86

Post by disposition2 »

elliottkember wrote: post #64

One thing about being a JavaScript guy is that it's quite fragmented. For instance, this guy's hiring for a position that uses MooTools. In my experience, MooTools (while a great framework) isn't used very often. The framework you know and love, and the job you want don't always match up - especially if you're going to work on a product that's a few years old.

This is my problem with JS. I've worked primarily with C#, done some Java and am currently doing some work with Python...all of which seem to be fairly consistent on functions that deal with problems, granted you get some overlap and redundant tools but there is some what of a standard. With JS, where does one start? Maybe I've just been too spoiled with what I've worked with thus far (jr programmer here) but in the times I've worked with or attempted to work with JS it has always left me looking for some kind of foundation or standards. So if any one out there enjoys JS and has some pointers on building a foundation, please advise...because a lot of the tools I see seem useful but I can't find any consistency in the projects I look at. Or rather, the only constant is that everything is always different.

Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One

#87

Post by collyw »

collyw wrote: post #84
dsego wrote: post #50

Being 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…

Back end on Django rocks. Until you are looking for a new job. (Though I disagree on the one language thing, at least a conventional language, plus SQL, and you need to at least know the basics of HTML / CSS / JS)

Of course you could forget about all of that and use MongoDb and json. In which case your point still stands.

Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One

#88

Post by anutron »

hderms wrote: post #78
Swizec wrote: post #21

What 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.

I believe I say in the article that if you have 5 of the 7 things that you're in solid shape. You certainly don't have to have any of these things, but having them helps...

/the author

Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One

#89

Post by anutron »

Bahamut wrote: post #73
MDCore wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Not always an option for startups... When you have a super small team, this role is often filled by only one hard-to-find person.

Re: Why It’s a Good Idea to Be a JavaScript Developer, and What it Takes to Be One

#90

Post by anutron »

cognivore wrote: post #67
snapcracker wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone wants a full stack dev these days… how many are there really?

I'm one, but I've had 26 years of experience in programming and software development to learn the stacks. At the company I work for arguably 4 of the 8 developers are full stack developers, so we can't be that rare. One thing that I'm not seeing here is the long view. Sure, learn JavaScript, but recognize that due to its sub-standard nature it will be a transitional technology until a better run-time for web apps tha…

JavaScript has been around long enough to arguably be called a mature language. It doesn't really need to be "better" (any more than any other language). It's the environment that's crappy - the Browser. But those aren't going anywhere. You're going to be waiting a long time before something supplants it.
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