So true.
I can only think that modern front end development has failed
101–110 of 521 posts
Re: I can only think that modern front end development has failed
#102For me it failed mostly because the complexity involved. Even a rather simple interactive website requires weeks/months of coding & testing. WYSIWYG editors don't cut it, and we need to implement same things over and over again (i.e login).
Re: I can only think that modern front end development has failed
#103As a recent example : Substack is worse than Wordpress.
And it's probably related that you can read Wordpress comments with JavaScript disabled, while not Substack comments.
Re: I can only think that modern front end development has failed
#104modern front end development is very prone to producing shit. and it can happen in a very short time, not in years. If user experience and performance are still important to you, you can do good things. But if your only concern is to try new things and mess with your application, the end will be producing shit.
Re: I can only think that modern front end development has failed
#105I don't find the argument convincing. I've used the web all day for decades, it's fine. Some sites are slow, some sites are buggy, some sites don't meet contemporary design standards... this is nothing new, it's the same as it ever was. The one quality that truly differentiates the new web from the old web is the Cambrian explosion of ad tech, but this isn't a "front-end" problem, it's a cultural problem rooted in th…
There are good examples of ad integration and bad examples. People spend a whole lot more time talking about app architecture versus how to elegantly load, render/position and refresh ads.
Agreed, but the people complaining don't really register the "good" examples, understandably.
Re: I can only think that modern front end development has failed
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
I believe Twitter uses React? Although it’s possible that Twitter successfully served you Twitter-Lite while FB may have mistakenly sent the full version.
I just checked. You're right. So maybe it isn't React but something else Facebook is doing.
How about editing your above comment that was badmouthing react then?
Re: I can only think that modern front end development has failed
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
It appears to be an app for a phone? I have no throttling problem on the phone in case that wasn't clear, but I don't care to look at the small screen and want to use my desktop.
I think they mean https://m.facebook.com - a lightweight web version.
I tried it. It's very ugly and featureless on desktop but it does load fast.
Re: I can only think that modern front end development has failed
#108I'd like to add a bit more nuance. Modern frontend development provides many opportunities for failure. These failures often make their way into production. I, personally, get great results with modern FE development. My users are happy. I am happy. It's all very successful. All the defenders of modern FE development will likely chime in with the same sentiment. I also get great results with C, which arguably provide…
I think a lot of it had to do more with business requirements than art or science. The business folks stroll in and make these generic one-click deploy type things to get sites up and running quickly, at the expense of being vetted by good artists and scientists.
A good analogy I think is any person using MS publisher to create a book layout. Sure it can be done quickly because the software does the thinking; but should it? Good books have skilled typographers designing the proportions of the pages relative to text block, the fonts, et cetera. The end result is a book that one scarcely notices but feels very pleasant to hold and experience.
We need websites that are subservient to their content; sites we scarcely notice but thoroughly enjoy.
EDIT: one last point: I think part of the problem is also that browsers have an identity issue. E.G. they started as a static publishing platform, but now they are a full blown operating system with web assembly etc. As we know, anything that does too many things is inherently complex, and hence “bloated.”
Re: I can only think that modern front end development has failed
#109Not so fast. Front end development is in fantastic shape for an industry that’s 25 years old.
In a quarter century, we’ve participated in reshaping how billions of people spend their free time and get their work done, seen the rise of social giants, endured the creation of millions of mediocre small business sites, learned to build apps, and taught millions to code in the process.
Now, some of our current development paradigms are either underdeveloped or outright broken. News websites are a cultural disaster. Web app development changes weekly.
This is the natural result of many people trying many things. But the web mostly works most of the time. Eventually we will have fully baked standards with supervisory committees and enforcement and professional certifications and insurance and all the other trappings of a fully grown industry. But right now we get to enjoy the growth of one of the most exciting industries in history, despite it’s problems.
Front end development isn’t broken, it’s teething.
Re: I can only think that modern front end development has failed
#110I'd like to add a bit more nuance. Modern frontend development provides many opportunities for failure. These failures often make their way into production. I, personally, get great results with modern FE development. My users are happy. I am happy. It's all very successful. All the defenders of modern FE development will likely chime in with the same sentiment. I also get great results with C, which arguably provide…
>Modern frontend development provides many opportunities for failure
I think this is the important thing here. Everything feels less stable, and more prone to breaking, on the modern web. You write some simple HTML, style it with CSS, and write vanilla JS for the parts that need it, and everything feels solid. You start a new project with a framework, and it seems like there is this whole area of your project that is essentially a black box, ready to break (or misbehave) any time.