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The latest project I'm currently working on I got to choose how to build. It is an internal CMS. I went with Rails API, React, Material-UI. So far, I like it.

The latest project I'm currently working on I got to choose how to build. It is an internal CMS. I went with Rails API, React, Material-UI. So far, I like it. I like separation. I know that one side ( ruby, rails, gems, pg, sql etc ) is all about data -> one mindset. Another side is about views ( js, css, html, multiple select, date pickers, autocompletes etc ) -> different world. I build my assets in one place, I work with my data in other. I wear one hat as a backend guy, and when I need refocus completely on front end work. I wouldn't argue it's easier, but I think it's easier for me. I like it better. Plus, the API will be consumed eventually by user-facing site and apps.

cjauvin 8y ago
I'm almost exactly the same situation these days: small project, got to choose my tech stack, so I went with a "conservative" part I have good experience with (backend in Flask) and a more experimental part (for me) that I'm taking the occasion to explore and learn: React + TypeScript + Material UI. For that latter part, although I must recognize that the tooling has evolved into a quite complex pipeline (which is a cognitive investment, almost a gamble, in itself), I also clearly see the benefits of a set of ideas that have rapidly evolved in the turbocharged settings of the web development ecosystem: React: the distillation of many programming paradigms (functional, composition over inheritance, etc) for building UI components. TypeScript: the augmentation of JS with mature and powerful programming constructs. Material: a visual language for UIs with a strong focus on coherence and being truly cross-platform. All in all, although I'm well aware of the critiques that can be addressed to the modern webdev environment (the so-called "JS fatigue"), I feel like all these new tools empower me, and I really enjoy learning about them.

cjauvin 8y ago

I'm almost exactly the same situation these days: small project, got to choose my tech stack, so I went with a "conservative" part I have good experience with (backend in Flask) and a more experimental part (for me) that I'm taking the occasion to explore and learn: React + TypeScript + Material UI. For that latter part, although I must recognize that the tooling has evolved into a quite complex pipeline (which is a cognitive investment, almost a gamble, in itself), I also clearly see the benefits of a set of ideas that have rapidly evolved in the turbocharged settings of the web development ecosystem: React: the distillation of many programming paradigms (functional, composition over inheritance, etc) for building UI components. TypeScript: the augmentation of JS with mature and powerful programming constructs. Material: a visual language for UIs with a strong focus on coherence and being truly cross-platform. All in all, although I'm well aware of the critiques that can be addressed to the modern webdev environment (the so-called "JS fatigue"), I feel like all these new tools empower me, and I really enjoy learning about them.