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No, you cannot, not in an easy way. I've taught many people Node.js/express and they always struggle with all of those copy/pasted configuration bits. Now if I

No, you cannot, not in an easy way. I've taught many people Node.js/express and they always struggle with all of those copy/pasted configuration bits. Now if I add them, I tell them something along the lines This is just magic, copy/paste it to make your app work. Some day you will understand. Once you get used to them it's easy, but to get started it's a nightmare. I started with PHP back in the day, and even though it's hated around here the bar to getting started there is amazingly low in a good way.

asadlionpk 8y ago
Exactly this! An experienced developer might take configuration and setup for granted. I also teach sometimes and all this friction to get started just makes it harder to get into web development these days.
Waterluvian 8y ago
That feeling of discomfort and tinge of frustration means you're learning. I feel like this is helping people to skip over a really useful lesson.
- franciscop 8y ago
  It means you are getting frustrated, evaluating your life choices and whether Node.js is really for you. The lesson they get is that Node.js is not for them! I prefer those who are new to any webdev to get started by creating a simple CRUD, not with the grunt details like parsing a JSON body or what is this session stuff. Those IMHO should be optional optimization details to apply later on if you wish, but not mandatory for everyone.
- asadlionpk 8y ago
  You don’t need to teach all the hard lessons at the beginning. If that was the case, we should all be programming in Rust/Wasm from Web101.
jjcm 8y ago
I'll echo this. I was hired by Atlassian to join and "make prototyping better". Part of this meant enabling designers to more easily create code based prototypes. I learned very early on that if creating something in code means learning/entering cryptic code just to start (that is, before any work gets done), then you lose people very quickly. Inexperienced developers can easily express, "Hey if I click this button and a field has the word 'bubblegum', I want a popup to show", and likely can figure out the js necessary for it. But if you say, "Ok, before you write that javascript you have to configure a package.json and install all necessary pages, but also make sure your version of node is the correct version for our internal libs", their excitement to dive into a project is ruined.

asadlionpk 8y ago

Exactly this! An experienced developer might take configuration and setup for granted. I also teach sometimes and all this friction to get started just makes it harder to get into web development these days.

Waterluvian 8y ago

That feeling of discomfort and tinge of frustration means you're learning. I feel like this is helping people to skip over a really useful lesson.

franciscop 8y ago
It means you are getting frustrated, evaluating your life choices and whether Node.js is really for you. The lesson they get is that Node.js is not for them! I prefer those who are new to any webdev to get started by creating a simple CRUD, not with the grunt details like parsing a JSON body or what is this session stuff. Those IMHO should be optional optimization details to apply later on if you wish, but not mandatory for everyone.
asadlionpk 8y ago
You don’t need to teach all the hard lessons at the beginning. If that was the case, we should all be programming in Rust/Wasm from Web101.

jjcm 8y ago

I'll echo this. I was hired by Atlassian to join and "make prototyping better". Part of this meant enabling designers to more easily create code based prototypes. I learned very early on that if creating something in code means learning/entering cryptic code just to start (that is, before any work gets done), then you lose people very quickly. Inexperienced developers can easily express, "Hey if I click this button and a field has the word 'bubblegum', I want a popup to show", and likely can figure out the js necessary for it. But if you say, "Ok, before you write that javascript you have to configure a package.json and install all necessary pages, but also make sure your version of node is the correct version for our internal libs", their excitement to dive into a project is ruined.