5 ms·

Not sure I follow the reasoning here. I mean, it's not like JavaScript and its associated tooling is the barrier to entry to frontend anymore for anyone that ha

Not sure I follow the reasoning here. I mean, it's not like JavaScript and its associated tooling is the barrier to entry to frontend anymore for anyone that has the energy and interest to spend even a trivial amount of time looking into it. The tooling and framework outlook has stabalised massively over the last few years, and settled on zero-config build tools (create-react-app, angular-cli etc.) and mature frameworks (React is 5 years old now) with great developer ergonomics (components and uni-directional data flow are here to stay). JavaScript itself has sorted itself out to a large extent if you just want to roll ES6+, and there's any number of compile-to-javascript languages to satisfy every stripe of programmer - ClojureScript, ReasonML, Elm, TypeScript, etc. Respectfully I'd suggest that the reason the majority of Go or C++ devs aren't building single page webs is not because of the tooling and languages around the web platform, but because they're simply not sufficiently interested in it - there's a lot required to work on the web platform that has nothing to do with what flavour of programming language you find acceptable ... you need design sensitivity, experience with UI, UX and animation/motion, experience working cross platform and cross browser, experience working with graphic designers and CSS skills to name just a few.

ern 8y ago
More of a general observation than something directed at you in particular: back in the 2004-2005 timeframe, I saw a cohort of developers thinned out by the jump from ASP/VB6 to ASP.NET/C#. They made similar arguments (mature framework, lots of documentation, de facto standards, also lots of FUD). Microsoft appeased them with VB.NET,and made soothing noises about them not being replaced. I suspect that the move to the current JavaScript-heavy ecosystem killed more careers. WASM represents another potential shift. If one wants to survive, one has to prepare for these shifts, and not emotionally invest in a particular tech stack.
- Wintamute 8y ago
  > If one wants to survive, one has to prepare for these shifts, and not emotionally invest in a particular tech stack. Couldn't agree more. I'm already a refugee twice over from previous tech stacks, and keep on enjoying where I end up! That said, I've always stayed within the realm of creative, visual and UI development. I'm just floating the idea that transitioning into a web/UI development stack from a backend or systems programming background might not be all that easy, whether ones favourite programming language now compiles to WASM or not.

ern 8y ago

More of a general observation than something directed at you in particular: back in the 2004-2005 timeframe, I saw a cohort of developers thinned out by the jump from ASP/VB6 to ASP.NET/C#. They made similar arguments (mature framework, lots of documentation, de facto standards, also lots of FUD). Microsoft appeased them with VB.NET,and made soothing noises about them not being replaced. I suspect that the move to the current JavaScript-heavy ecosystem killed more careers. WASM represents another potential shift. If one wants to survive, one has to prepare for these shifts, and not emotionally invest in a particular tech stack.

Wintamute 8y ago
> If one wants to survive, one has to prepare for these shifts, and not emotionally invest in a particular tech stack. Couldn't agree more. I'm already a refugee twice over from previous tech stacks, and keep on enjoying where I end up! That said, I've always stayed within the realm of creative, visual and UI development. I'm just floating the idea that transitioning into a web/UI development stack from a backend or systems programming background might not be all that easy, whether ones favourite programming language now compiles to WASM or not.