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I've often said that web development has a big culture problem. In any other field, 'modern' is the opposite of a selling point. People want tools that work, t

I've often said that web development has a big culture problem. In any other field, 'modern' is the opposite of a selling point. People want tools that work, that are proven and have years of stability and momentum. But in web development, there is an obsession with the new and shiny. It's 100% about the developer's own experience in creating a program and 0% about the user's experience actually using the half baked and constantly changing web app.

jakelazaroff 7y ago
Is that really true? On the backend, shiny technologies like Go have been exploding — Go modules only stabilized this year! Since React was released, we’ve gone through through at least two new ways of deploying a server — containers and serverless, replete with their own huge abstraction layers like Kubernetes — and we’ve moved from monoliths to microservices and back again. And in native land, the “Rewrite It in Rust” crew is doing their best to bring the new and shiny to systems programming. I agree that frontend web developers are maybe a bit too enamored with new tools. But I don’t think that mindset is unique to them, at all; they just happen to be the most numerous and visible examples.
- int_19h 7y ago
  Is Go really "shiny"? I mean, it's probably the most conservative mainstream PL on the market today, rivaling Java in some respects. Many claim that this is in fact why it's so popular.
- goatinaboat 7y ago
  On the backend, shiny technologies like Go have been exploding — Go modules only stabilized this year! This is only true in shops where webdevs dabble in back end, same as node.js. In most places you will find recent versions of things that may be decades old - Python, Postgres, Apache, even Linux itself.
  - jakelazaroff 7y ago
    Anecdotally, that is not the case — I know many non–web developers who are excited about new, trendy technologies like like Go.
- dahfizz 7y ago
  Go and Rust are both older than react. And I 100% agree that backend people overengineer with stuff like kubernetes. I think that's less about the new and shiny and more an obsession with scalability - even though the site could easily be hosted on a single Linux box.
- marcosdumay 7y ago
  I have just recently been tasked on estimating how many people in our city would fit your standard job requirements if we applied them to Go... since the requirements are legally necessary, we had to ditch any plans of using the language. I don't think "exploding" is the correct word, although it is growing.

jakelazaroff 7y ago

Is that really true? On the backend, shiny technologies like Go have been exploding — Go modules only stabilized this year! Since React was released, we’ve gone through through at least two new ways of deploying a server — containers and serverless, replete with their own huge abstraction layers like Kubernetes — and we’ve moved from monoliths to microservices and back again. And in native land, the “Rewrite It in Rust” crew is doing their best to bring the new and shiny to systems programming. I agree that frontend web developers are maybe a bit too enamored with new tools. But I don’t think that mindset is unique to them, at all; they just happen to be the most numerous and visible examples.

int_19h 7y ago
Is Go really "shiny"? I mean, it's probably the most conservative mainstream PL on the market today, rivaling Java in some respects. Many claim that this is in fact why it's so popular.
goatinaboat 7y ago
On the backend, shiny technologies like Go have been exploding — Go modules only stabilized this year! This is only true in shops where webdevs dabble in back end, same as node.js. In most places you will find recent versions of things that may be decades old - Python, Postgres, Apache, even Linux itself.
- jakelazaroff 7y ago
  Anecdotally, that is not the case — I know many non–web developers who are excited about new, trendy technologies like like Go.
dahfizz 7y ago
Go and Rust are both older than react. And I 100% agree that backend people overengineer with stuff like kubernetes. I think that's less about the new and shiny and more an obsession with scalability - even though the site could easily be hosted on a single Linux box.
marcosdumay 7y ago
I have just recently been tasked on estimating how many people in our city would fit your standard job requirements if we applied them to Go... since the requirements are legally necessary, we had to ditch any plans of using the language. I don't think "exploding" is the correct word, although it is growing.