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I have a backlog of personal projects of various kinds that I have been tinkering with for years now. But since I'm a back end guy, that's what I normally work

I have a backlog of personal projects of various kinds that I have been tinkering with for years now. But since I'm a back end guy, that's what I normally work on when I have free time. Every time I decide that I'm going to take the plunge and get down and dirty with front end stuff, I get completely paralyzed by choice, and I end up deciding that the most sensible way for me to move forward is to learn the fundamentals and design front ends with html + CSS + vanilla JavaScript. As you can imagine, my elegant back-end designs have interfaces the 90s would have deemed tacky. I really like the syntax (Python guy checking in here), but I don't even know where to start integrating this into a Pyramid app or what to do with it. I don't even know how to get started here. I have a market research app for building questionnaires. Like SurveyMonkey, but different. I want the front end to be trello-like so that you can move the questions around that way. I "know" JavaScript pretty well at this point. But when I look at the front end code for an open source trello clone, I swear it's just effing magic. Doesn't even relate in my mind to the language I thought I've been learning all this time. Since these kinds of threads tend to attract a lot of front end people, I thought I'd ask here: is this an appropriate language for a trello-like interface? There was a certain point in my career when I was learning Python when I went from knowing how to write classes and functions to being able to know what classes and functions to write to achieve my goals. I know how to do things in JS, but I have no idea what to do to accomplish my goals. Any tips from anyone?

jestar_jokin 11y ago
- Don't worry, there's only a few different paradigms in use by the different libraries and frameworks out there. Just look at the examples and see which one piques your interest. - Do some analysis to break down your problem into manageable steps, until you reach steps small enough to action. For example, a task tracking board might have the following components: columns (representing "status"), drag and drop (which changes the position of some DOM elements, plus updates the task status), and a form (to capture the task status). So, look for ways to solve each of those problems. e.g. column might be made easier using a grid layout system, such as provided by Bootstrap. Drag and drop can be handled using HTML5 features. And form handling can be made easier (or fancier) using any number of libraries out there. I wouldn't jump on a brand new language for the purpose of solving a problem, if you don't have a clear idea of the solution you would like to implement. Writing code is a means to an end, not a goal itself. It'd be easier to write a solution using methods you're familiar with, then rewriting it using different technologies.
ryanSrich 11y ago
For pet projects my advice would be a RESTful Angular Front-end and some styling framework like bootstrap or foundation. If it's a legit project I'd recommend hooking up with a Front-end developer and/or a designer/dev.

jestar_jokin 11y ago

- Don't worry, there's only a few different paradigms in use by the different libraries and frameworks out there. Just look at the examples and see which one piques your interest. - Do some analysis to break down your problem into manageable steps, until you reach steps small enough to action. For example, a task tracking board might have the following components: columns (representing "status"), drag and drop (which changes the position of some DOM elements, plus updates the task status), and a form (to capture the task status). So, look for ways to solve each of those problems. e.g. column might be made easier using a grid layout system, such as provided by Bootstrap. Drag and drop can be handled using HTML5 features. And form handling can be made easier (or fancier) using any number of libraries out there. I wouldn't jump on a brand new language for the purpose of solving a problem, if you don't have a clear idea of the solution you would like to implement. Writing code is a means to an end, not a goal itself. It'd be easier to write a solution using methods you're familiar with, then rewriting it using different technologies.

ryanSrich 11y ago

For pet projects my advice would be a RESTful Angular Front-end and some styling framework like bootstrap or foundation. If it's a legit project I'd recommend hooking up with a Front-end developer and/or a designer/dev.