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> Webpack 2 combined with Yarn running inside of Docker to automate builds is the nicest (and fastest) frontend build pipeline I've had yet. See, maybe this is

> Webpack 2 combined with Yarn running inside of Docker to automate builds is the nicest (and fastest) frontend build pipeline I've had yet. See, maybe this is the get-off-my-lawn coming out of me but it pains me that that complex setup is the nicest and fastest frontend build pipeline you've had. Almost a whole decade ago we had pretty simple and straight forward build patterns for frontend. Essentially running the site as is from the VCS was in "debug" mode and you'd write scripts that combines and minifies everything and plugs it right back into the html when you "build" it. And that it was it. Simple and fast. I'm sure using ES2015, TypeScript, SCSS, handlebars and a million other things that get transpiled, concatenated and minified help with productivity for some people but it just seems insanely overly complex to me especially when half of the examples that show how "simple" many of these technologies are can also be made very simple using standard API calls. I like things simple. As simple as possible. Webpack is probably not for me but I wanted to provide my own perspective to see if anyone shares it or if I'm more of an outlier.

maktouch 10y ago
I think it really depends on what you work on. > Almost a whole decade ago we had pretty simple and straight forward build patterns for frontend. a decode ago, we didn't really build web apps like today though. The browser landscape was different. The technology was different.. but the most important: the expectation was different. Man, 10 years ago we still had flash. > [...] help with productivity for some people but it just seems insanely overly complex to me It is. To be honest, if I'd start today, I'd be super lost too.. but it is a one-time cost/investment to start to gain that productivity. I think the biggest upside of this whole thing is working at scale in terms of human. Good modularization allows you to achieve this.. in the old school day, that was either a big javascript bundle, or a bunch of them inserted in the pages as global. My opinion is: if you think you don't need it, don't bother with it. I didn't understand webpack until I needed it. I didn't understand React until I needed it. I didn't understand docker and kubernetes until I needed it. Trying to force yourself to use thing when you don't see the usefulness is counter productive.
- BinaryIdiot 10y ago
  Fair enough though > a decode ago, we didn't really build web apps like today though. The browser landscape was different. The technology was different.. but the most important: the expectation was different. Man, 10 years ago we still had flash. Other than dealing with more browser incompatibilities that we have less of most of my work was still fairly complex web applications. We just didn't have many if any frameworks so depending on the experience of the starting developer you most likely walked into a wall of spaghetti which I understand frameworks can sometimes help even new developers write cleaner code. Also Flash was amazing back then, heh :)
madeofpalk 10y ago
Go build a simple website and use simple tools. It's that easy - people are still using `cat`, right? I just deployed a site that's just all just one HTML file with inline CSS and JS tags. 'Deploying' is as simple as copying the source files up to S3. Meanwhile, I'm working on _another_ site that requires the hybrid approach of SPA for smooth transitions and caching and what not, yet the SEO and first-boot speed of a server-side-rendered site. This (obviously) has a more complicated build 'pipeline' to achieve a more sophisticated feature set.
- BinaryIdiot 10y ago
  I was only referring to web applications. Websites I would expect to be pretty simple and straight forward. Simple tools can be used to build both. Simply because you use simple tools doesn't mean you can't create the necessary complexity.

maktouch 10y ago

I think it really depends on what you work on. > Almost a whole decade ago we had pretty simple and straight forward build patterns for frontend. a decode ago, we didn't really build web apps like today though. The browser landscape was different. The technology was different.. but the most important: the expectation was different. Man, 10 years ago we still had flash. > [...] help with productivity for some people but it just seems insanely overly complex to me It is. To be honest, if I'd start today, I'd be super lost too.. but it is a one-time cost/investment to start to gain that productivity. I think the biggest upside of this whole thing is working at scale in terms of human. Good modularization allows you to achieve this.. in the old school day, that was either a big javascript bundle, or a bunch of them inserted in the pages as global. My opinion is: if you think you don't need it, don't bother with it. I didn't understand webpack until I needed it. I didn't understand React until I needed it. I didn't understand docker and kubernetes until I needed it. Trying to force yourself to use thing when you don't see the usefulness is counter productive.

BinaryIdiot 10y ago
Fair enough though > a decode ago, we didn't really build web apps like today though. The browser landscape was different. The technology was different.. but the most important: the expectation was different. Man, 10 years ago we still had flash. Other than dealing with more browser incompatibilities that we have less of most of my work was still fairly complex web applications. We just didn't have many if any frameworks so depending on the experience of the starting developer you most likely walked into a wall of spaghetti which I understand frameworks can sometimes help even new developers write cleaner code. Also Flash was amazing back then, heh :)

madeofpalk 10y ago

Go build a simple website and use simple tools. It's that easy - people are still using `cat`, right? I just deployed a site that's just all just one HTML file with inline CSS and JS tags. 'Deploying' is as simple as copying the source files up to S3. Meanwhile, I'm working on _another_ site that requires the hybrid approach of SPA for smooth transitions and caching and what not, yet the SEO and first-boot speed of a server-side-rendered site. This (obviously) has a more complicated build 'pipeline' to achieve a more sophisticated feature set.

BinaryIdiot 10y ago
I was only referring to web applications. Websites I would expect to be pretty simple and straight forward. Simple tools can be used to build both. Simply because you use simple tools doesn't mean you can't create the necessary complexity.