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I truly feel sorry for those who started learning web development somewhere between 2009 and 2014. During that time, it seems like what would be accepted as th

I truly feel sorry for those who started learning web development somewhere between 2009 and 2014. During that time, it seems like what would be accepted as the new standard for creating web applications was completely up for grabs. You had Angular, Backbone, Ember, and probably many others that just didn't get noticed. Can you imagine being a new developer during this time, trying to learn how to create a web application with no prior knowledge? When I started getting serious about this in 2006 or so, it was difficult enough just learning the basics of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and how everything worked together. I have been into computers and programming my entire life, had learned C and a few other languages, and it still took me years to become an intermediate 'full-stack' developer. Again this is before any of these MVC frameworks were out. I think the main problem comes in when you try to engineer a completely new standard on top of an already existing standard. Whatever happened to using servers and browsers as they were meant to be used? Why are we constantly trying to reinvent the standard and giving these libraries which make everything more complicated attention? Is the reduction in requests to the server by having everything on client side really that beneficial with today's computing power and language capabilities (Golang http://marcio.io/2015/07/handling-1-million-requests-per-minute-with-golang/ http://marcio.io/2015/07/handling-1-million-requests-per-min...)? The logic here escapes me. Angular wants you to basically use a new language and web architecture, complete with hundreds of pages of documentation specific to Angular, on top of the standard. I didn't hear about Angular Material until now, and it's even more mind boggling - are we trying to have every site look and function just like the Google platform now? There's already a standard for that - no styling on inputs (granted it will look different from browser to browser). Luckily though, after half a decade, it seems like the community has a better understanding of what would be best and the tools have been built for it. I think in the near future, we'll see Golang and React take the lead in their respective areas of web development.

bduerst 10y ago
2009-2014 is a huge timeframe for the web, as mobile compatibility became increasingly important. Seven years from now we'll probably be talking about how much the web changed for VR/AR - or something new altogether.
- beeker87 10y ago
  I think the transition could have been much smoother and did not require engineering a new MVC framework on top of an already existing MVC framework. The only thing needed to make a page mobile ready is responsive CSS. What is more of a concern for mobile, and especially was back in 2009, is how much processing power a page needs to render and function fluidly. The truth is React isn't doing anything that requires new technology, it could've been built in the early 2000's. I guess ideas like Angular taking off are just the natural way of things when you have a big company supporting it. It goes to show though that even the largest companies on the planet sometimes get it wrong (but also get many things right, Google with Golang and Facebook with React). Did it really take 4-5 other inferior frameworks though to see the simplistic idea behind React and build it out? If so, people who see these bad practices happening and are capable of doing something about it should do so immediately, for the sake of the development community.
whamlastxmas 10y ago
>are we trying to have every site look and function just like the Google platform now? The internet would be a thousand times better if every website used Material Design properly. The amount of broken and poorly designed bullshit out there is staggering. Websites worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars flat out not working. Or working so slowly they may as well just not work. Even the ones that wind up working, they have horrific UI/UX decisions.

bduerst 10y ago

2009-2014 is a huge timeframe for the web, as mobile compatibility became increasingly important. Seven years from now we'll probably be talking about how much the web changed for VR/AR - or something new altogether.

beeker87 10y ago
I think the transition could have been much smoother and did not require engineering a new MVC framework on top of an already existing MVC framework. The only thing needed to make a page mobile ready is responsive CSS. What is more of a concern for mobile, and especially was back in 2009, is how much processing power a page needs to render and function fluidly. The truth is React isn't doing anything that requires new technology, it could've been built in the early 2000's. I guess ideas like Angular taking off are just the natural way of things when you have a big company supporting it. It goes to show though that even the largest companies on the planet sometimes get it wrong (but also get many things right, Google with Golang and Facebook with React). Did it really take 4-5 other inferior frameworks though to see the simplistic idea behind React and build it out? If so, people who see these bad practices happening and are capable of doing something about it should do so immediately, for the sake of the development community.

whamlastxmas 10y ago

>are we trying to have every site look and function just like the Google platform now? The internet would be a thousand times better if every website used Material Design properly. The amount of broken and poorly designed bullshit out there is staggering. Websites worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars flat out not working. Or working so slowly they may as well just not work. Even the ones that wind up working, they have horrific UI/UX decisions.