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I think a lot of people find developing applications using things like WPF and QT (and probably JavaFX, too) to be more enjoyable than the modern web stack. Bu

by rpeden 9y ago

I think a lot of people find developing applications using things like WPF and QT (and probably JavaFX, too) to be more enjoyable than the modern web stack. But those same people also probably worry when they see that a huge percentage of job postings involve front-end web development. The sense I get,though, is that while there are many web-focused jobs available there's also a ton of competition for those jobs. Whereas with native front end development, there's less demand but also far fewer developers qualified for/interested in the work.

pjmlp 9y ago
I don't worry that much, because iOS and Android are also native for any application that actually cares about UI/UX, so there are lots of opportunities, specially for applications that aren't yet another CRUD app.
mike_hearn 9y ago
It can be misleading too. Desktop frameworks date from a time when there was no distinction between backend and frontend developers. There were just software developers, and they were expected to be able to write algorithms and UI and whatever else was necessary to ship the app. This led to a lot of ugly UI, but also pretty tight low latency UI (compared to the web). It also impacted job descriptions and the way people think about hiring. I am the lead developer at a firm with about 25 software developers, we do JavaFX GUIs when we can. We do not mention this in job specs. We do not hire for "frontend" guys specifically. Writing JavaFX code (or WPF or Qt) is just too easy to bother doing a specific candidate search for them - any competent dev can learn these frameworks quickly (and they do). The primary reason to search for UI specific skills in the desktop world is to find people who truly understand usability and graphics design, which is a separate skillset to what the modern kids call "frontend development". There are lots of web UIs out there that look superficially attractive as they just imported a stock CSS theme but which are actually confusing, nonsensical or simply can't scale to the addition of more features. UX design is as much about figuring out your user stories and workflows as it is making nice graphics. In the case where developers need to do their own UI design, I prefer to just train them and push them to consider appearances when doing the work. It's easier to train someone how to make an attractive-enough UI than to train them in great software engineering. So ideally you'd have two specialists tag-teaming but when that isn't possible, desktop UI + some training is the way to go.

by rpeden 9y ago

pjmlp 9y ago

I don't worry that much, because iOS and Android are also native for any application that actually cares about UI/UX, so there are lots of opportunities, specially for applications that aren't yet another CRUD app.

mike_hearn 9y ago

It can be misleading too. Desktop frameworks date from a time when there was no distinction between backend and frontend developers. There were just software developers, and they were expected to be able to write algorithms and UI and whatever else was necessary to ship the app. This led to a lot of ugly UI, but also pretty tight low latency UI (compared to the web). It also impacted job descriptions and the way people think about hiring. I am the lead developer at a firm with about 25 software developers, we do JavaFX GUIs when we can. We do not mention this in job specs. We do not hire for "frontend" guys specifically. Writing JavaFX code (or WPF or Qt) is just too easy to bother doing a specific candidate search for them - any competent dev can learn these frameworks quickly (and they do). The primary reason to search for UI specific skills in the desktop world is to find people who truly understand usability and graphics design, which is a separate skillset to what the modern kids call "frontend development". There are lots of web UIs out there that look superficially attractive as they just imported a stock CSS theme but which are actually confusing, nonsensical or simply can't scale to the addition of more features. UX design is as much about figuring out your user stories and workflows as it is making nice graphics. In the case where developers need to do their own UI design, I prefer to just train them and push them to consider appearances when doing the work. It's easier to train someone how to make an attractive-enough UI than to train them in great software engineering. So ideally you'd have two specialists tag-teaming but when that isn't possible, desktop UI + some training is the way to go.