I don't want to do front-end anymore

Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by bluefirebrand on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @10:18AM (#26078426)

This illustrates really nicely how the "Full Stack Developer" is becoming more and more impossible to be. It's not enough to know how to set up a couple of servers with routing and IP blacklisting and load-balancing, you have to build a mountain of microservices with an even bigger mountain of tools.

For frontend it's no longer enough to know HTML, CSS, basic JavaScript and maybe JQuery. It's not enough to render static templates on the server. You have to build a SPA with dynamic bindings and a build pipeline with webpack or whatever else.

It's all just ballooned like crazy and personally I found it incredibly hard to keep up with all of it. So I'm trying to transition into either front or back end, so I'm not trying to learn full stack everything anymore.

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by dimitrios1 on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @10:26AM (#26078509)

I've just come back to standard web architecture these days. Just use Rails, Laravel, or Phoenix. While your compatriots will still be configuring their prettierrc and eslint, you'll have released your first set of features.

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by bluefirebrand on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @11:53AM (#26079695)

Yeah. It's fine for personal projects or small things but good luck convincing a big company that what they really need is 2009 technology nowadays.

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by tonyedgecombe on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @12:42PM (#26080369)

Well they are relying on 1995 technology (JavaScript).

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by veidelis on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @01:12PM (#26080715)

This is a weird statement. You are completely ignoring how the JS API in browsers has evolved.

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by AlchemistCamp on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @02:12PM (#26081358)

And the parent was calling Phoenix and Laravel, neither of which even existed in 2009, 2009 technology.

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by bluefirebrand on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @02:28PM (#26081515)

Was referring to rails, but sure.

And yes, I was wrong, rails has been around longer than that, it was just a guess.

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by AlchemistCamp on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @04:56AM (#26087329)

It's still called Rails but it's a radically different framework now. 2009 was before the big merge with Merb (a then competing framework).

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by arvinsim on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @12:15PM (#26080009)

Is Phoenix really that mainstream now?

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by AlchemistCamp on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @02:07PM (#26081320)

The person you're answering said nothing about Phoenix being mainstream, but it's mainstream enough for Discord and Brex to build unicorns on its back.

The reason I've been teaching it myself, despite Elixir being a young, niche language is that I believe it's an ideal choice for a solo-founder or small team trying to build an ambitious web app. It's a tool I personally want to have at my disposal.

Discord is a great model: start with a simple Phoenix app, ship way faster than the competition, build out more sophisticated infrastructure with scale, and then finally rewrite core loops as NIFs (natively invoked functions) that are implemented in Rust. They were in a crowded market with extremely well-funded competitors and they still built a considerable lead in product and infrastructure.

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by arvinsim on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @08:43PM (#26084907)

Right. I did hear that Elixir and Phoenix works really well for concurrency

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by rini17 on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @03:07PM (#26081855)

I'll bite: What kind of frontend stuff can't be done without HTML, CSS, basic JavaScript and maybe JQuery?

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by bluefirebrand on Tuesday February 09, 2021 @04:25PM (#26082565)

I am not saying those things are insufficient to build good websites and apps.

I am saying it does not matter if they are sufficient on their own. If you want to find professional work as a frontend dev in 2021 you will be expected to learn larger and more complex toolchains.

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Re:I don't want to do front-end anymore by collyw on Wednesday February 10, 2021 @04:17AM (#26087070)

As a backend dev I have spent a fair bit of time in the last few years fixing shitty outdated frontend stuff. Angular 1, Dojo at present. It would have been so much easier and more maintainable if these apps had been done with server side rending and a bit of JQuery.

I am sure there are plenty of applications in maintenance mode using simpler tech (or possibly not, because the lower complexity means that there are far less bugs?)

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