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If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

hanselman.com

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Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#71
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use pycharm with typescript, and either I have a new version or the pycharm plugin is far different to the webstorm one. All the refactoring options, jump-to-symbol, type hinting, type completion and inline-error checking work really well for me. There are some pain points to be sure (modules, generics that don't quite work), but: - Emits known good javascript patterns, preventing javascript's typical '50 ways of d…

> - coffee script Why do you think that ? Coffeescript is basically javascript without the bad parts.

Really? Maybe I should have another closer look at it. I saw this from the homepage:

    Embedded JavaScript 
    Hopefully, you'll never need to use it, but if you ever need to intersperse
    snippets of JavaScript within your CoffeeScript, you can use backticks to pass
    it straight through. 
...and struggled to do basic things like interact with handlebars and jquery, and figured it was one of those 'works with other things written in coffee script' things.

Not so?

Why are there so many SO questions about 'how do I use coffee script with XXX'?

(where XXX is some existing javascript library, eg. jquery)

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#72
post #7

"Ultimately, we're all amateurs." - Wow, that's something I've been thinking a lot lastly. It's true that a good developer can learn a new language (or technology, or even paradigm) in a quite short amount of time, but at the same time, when we're constantly doing that it's true that, as an effect and as the author says, we're becoming permanent amateurs. I don't have a solution for this though (maybe there is no sol…

Its true. To quote a wise man at the php conference "I get the feeling we're just making stuff up that works" when talking about scaling sites.

Its about being a professional in the way you handle the tools at your disposal.

This has been going on for a while. It was noted last century that a job opening asking for "5+ years experience" in a technology that was 3 years old.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> hide the difference between apps and web apps Frankly, this is only possible by web apps not being web apps. Do you have any experience working with eiterh native SDK? Because I cannot imagine any one having experience (not just cursory hello-world glance) thinking that web apps are somehow superrior. I also don't get how web apps are better (or will be better) discoveralbility-wise. Or why it matters.

Frankly, this is only possible by web apps not being web apps. I'm not sure I agree with that, though it might never happen because the owners of the major platforms have absolutely no interest in being turned into a dumb foundation by the web (or a badly debugged set of device drivers, as Andreesen put it in 1995). The reasons for the ascendance of mobile are political and corporate though, not technical. There's li…

> Native apps are currently superior in: performance, accessible APIs, 3D

And data security. Web apps don't to my knowledge have a great deal to offer in that area.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#74
post #6

Folks, the big point of this article is not that Hanselman likes C#, it's that his list of options does not include Objective-C or Java. It's that he thinks that the web will win (over app stores). I strongly believe that he's right there. At some point, app stores had "discoverability" as an advantage over the web. This has been one of the strongholds of native app proponents. These days however, with the enormous a…

"It's that he thinks that the web will win (over app stores). I strongly believe that he's right there." "Whoever can make the Google of app discovery might make a temporary splash, but i bet that, not long after, people will return to plain old Google Search." You remember me to Kodak's "people will return to make analog photos, people want to hold something in their hand". You are deluding yourself, and you can't s…

I have to agree with this. It seems to me that people that think the web will win haven't tried deploying the same functionality via web and native app - the native app will be faster to develop and better.

Even Google seem to know this in their hearts. The Chrome team recently have started to acknowledge how far behind as a platform the web really is, and things like Google Now don't exist as websites at all.

The web simply has too many cases which don't work. For example, my current headache is the lack of wake lock style functionality, but the layout system is a trainwreck, the language tooling is abominable, and support for stuff like audio is a mess. All it has is ubiquity.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#76
"Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. I am a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author."

A Microsoft employee talking up C#, what a surprise.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's just discoverability though. I think the main question is if mobile web applications will be able to match native on both quality and performance. Facebook attempted this and failed badly, but that doesn't mean it can't happen or that native will always have an edge. If native does continue to have an edge though then I think web has an uphill battle.

Facebook was just a bit too early when trying to make html5 work on smart phones. If they were to make the attempt again today it would probably successful.

React [1] batches writes to the DOM automagically, which was the main problem with the original app that prompted the FB post. Sencha did a version that worked fine with then-current hardware/browsers.

[1] http://facebook.github.io/react/

It's also been a couple years. Mobile processor perf is better and JS engines are faster.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#78
If you're in the US, learn whatever the hell you want. Then move to a biggish city and find a job using it. Bam, you are now equipped to take advantage of the biggest tech boom the country has seen since the 1800s. The 90s wishes they were this good.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#79
post #2

It depends on your goals. If your goal is to do a startup, then the obvious choice is to really master an entire web stack. For instance linux / nginx / python / html / css / javascript. If you want to do research in computer graphics, then you better learn OpenGL and C++ or .NET. Want to work in embedded systems? C. Scott's recommendation of C# & Javascript is a solid and pragmatic choice, good for those looking for…

Can you do without only Python and its framework for programming side? As someone new to programming, I find it mind boggling how folks suggest learning multiple languages. Or does it become natural after you know one language very well.

Re: If you had to start over, what technologies would you learn in 2014?

#80
post #6

Folks, the big point of this article is not that Hanselman likes C#, it's that his list of options does not include Objective-C or Java. It's that he thinks that the web will win (over app stores). I strongly believe that he's right there. At some point, app stores had "discoverability" as an advantage over the web. This has been one of the strongholds of native app proponents. These days however, with the enormous a…

> hide the difference between apps and web apps Frankly, this is only possible by web apps not being web apps. Do you have any experience working with eiterh native SDK? Because I cannot imagine any one having experience (not just cursory hello-world glance) thinking that web apps are somehow superrior. I also don't get how web apps are better (or will be better) discoveralbility-wise. Or why it matters.

Actually I invented some technology that does this that we're using in production. Full two way integration between browsers and desktop and mobile apps. No plugins required as well.

And it wasn't a hard problem to solve.

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