8 ms·

What's funny is that now, 5 years later, all the crazy things the writer is parodying sound completely normal to me.

tehjoker 5y ago
I last coded JS seriously in 2016 and I felt like I was losing my mind (though once things got working it was fun). Did things settle down since then?
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- count 5y ago
  No.
- mhink 5y ago
  Since 2016... yes, more or less. Webpack became the de-facto standard for bundling for a few years there, but everybody hated configuring it, so it dramatically increased the "out-of-the-box" configuration. That said, the ES module standard has started to make its way into the world, so there are more than a few bundlers these days that aim to do Webpack's job better. They've also learned from years past, and most try very hard to remain "zero-config". TypeScript has become extremely widespread, and has finally reached a reasonable level of maturity, in the sense that 1. most libraries now come with type definitions, and 2. its type system is sophisticated enough to express (and infer types for) common Javascript patterns. For non-Typescript code, Babel is still quite common, although like I mentioned, most bundlers are trying to avoid making you explicitly configure your compiler, so it's much less of a PITA to get working. In runtime-land, I can only really speak to React. It's come quite a long way in the past couple years- the main difference is the introduction of "function components" rather than the previous "class MyComponent extends React.Component". These function components use a new effect/state management architecture (called 'hooks') that's sort of like a DSL. Personally I really like it, but it's kinda divisive. Next.JS has emerged as sort of the standard "React front-end framework", and it's quite nice- again, people took "Javascript fatigue" pretty seriously, so there's much less fussy configuration. In semi-related tech, GraphQL has become quite popular for APIs, and there are a few libraries out there to help handle it. Oh, and the Prettier formatter became popular, for whatever reason, which makes me want to bang my head against a wall because in spite of the name, it makes everything it touches uglier. Anyways, I know that was kind of a wall of text, but the takeaway here is that although a bunch of new stuff happened, FE tooling is definitely trying to be more mature and avoid a Cambrian explosion of new stuff like there was back then. Hope that helps!
  - 3np 5y ago
    While fetch rules the browser, it’s still anybody’s game for succeeding request.js for node. Recently I’ve been going with got.
    - catlifeonmars 5y ago
      Node-fetch?
    - IggleSniggle 5y ago
      I haven't really been following, but I just sort of would have assumed that node-fetch or equivalent would be mainlined into nodejs. I get that nodejs is not in the habit of replicating browser APIs, but it seems like that one, at least, would be on-point for nodejs.
  - tehjoker 5y ago
    Thanks, that does!
  - SomeCallMeTim 5y ago
    Agree on all points...except Prettier, which is manna from the gods. Better to get used to it than to fight it.
    - ickyforce 5y ago
      It's ok except the wrapping rules. Everything turns out into vertical grotesque - and TypeScript has longer lines because of type names so it wraps often.
      - SomeCallMeTim 5y ago
        I use it with TypeScript, and I find the wrapped lines to be far more readable. You get used to it. Many people do, though I understand it's a point of religion for some to Not Wrap Lines. Had a short contract recently with a company that had a small team of two developers. My widest reaching contribution to the team, I think, was to vote with the team lead to adopt Prettier. Their previous approach was to _never wrap import lines_. There were literally 1000-character import lines. One of the developers was totally religiously opposed to ever wrapping them. Deltas in PRs were impossible to actually parse with huge lines like that, and if two people modified the same import line, merging the two changes was a nightmare. But with a facade of Democracy, the team lead was able to finally adopt Prettier and its wrapping to the project. This despite the fact that I'd already let it be known that I was only staying until the end of the contract (about three months) and moving on. Whatever works.
dredmorbius 5y ago
Not sure which planet you're on, but it's been 16 Earth years.
- heavyset_go 5y ago
  The Hacker Noon article was released in 2016.
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    Ah, thought you were referring to TFA, my error.

I last coded JS seriously in 2016 and I felt like I was losing my mind (though once things got working it was fun). Did things settle down since then?

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
count 5y ago
No.
mhink 5y ago
Since 2016... yes, more or less. Webpack became the de-facto standard for bundling for a few years there, but everybody hated configuring it, so it dramatically increased the "out-of-the-box" configuration. That said, the ES module standard has started to make its way into the world, so there are more than a few bundlers these days that aim to do Webpack's job better. They've also learned from years past, and most try very hard to remain "zero-config". TypeScript has become extremely widespread, and has finally reached a reasonable level of maturity, in the sense that 1. most libraries now come with type definitions, and 2. its type system is sophisticated enough to express (and infer types for) common Javascript patterns. For non-Typescript code, Babel is still quite common, although like I mentioned, most bundlers are trying to avoid making you explicitly configure your compiler, so it's much less of a PITA to get working. In runtime-land, I can only really speak to React. It's come quite a long way in the past couple years- the main difference is the introduction of "function components" rather than the previous "class MyComponent extends React.Component". These function components use a new effect/state management architecture (called 'hooks') that's sort of like a DSL. Personally I really like it, but it's kinda divisive. Next.JS has emerged as sort of the standard "React front-end framework", and it's quite nice- again, people took "Javascript fatigue" pretty seriously, so there's much less fussy configuration. In semi-related tech, GraphQL has become quite popular for APIs, and there are a few libraries out there to help handle it. Oh, and the Prettier formatter became popular, for whatever reason, which makes me want to bang my head against a wall because in spite of the name, it makes everything it touches uglier. Anyways, I know that was kind of a wall of text, but the takeaway here is that although a bunch of new stuff happened, FE tooling is definitely trying to be more mature and avoid a Cambrian explosion of new stuff like there was back then. Hope that helps!
- 3np 5y ago
  While fetch rules the browser, it’s still anybody’s game for succeeding request.js for node. Recently I’ve been going with got.
  - catlifeonmars 5y ago
    Node-fetch?
  - IggleSniggle 5y ago
    I haven't really been following, but I just sort of would have assumed that node-fetch or equivalent would be mainlined into nodejs. I get that nodejs is not in the habit of replicating browser APIs, but it seems like that one, at least, would be on-point for nodejs.
- tehjoker 5y ago
  Thanks, that does!
- SomeCallMeTim 5y ago
  Agree on all points...except Prettier, which is manna from the gods. Better to get used to it than to fight it.
  - ickyforce 5y ago
    It's ok except the wrapping rules. Everything turns out into vertical grotesque - and TypeScript has longer lines because of type names so it wraps often.
    - SomeCallMeTim 5y ago
      I use it with TypeScript, and I find the wrapped lines to be far more readable. You get used to it. Many people do, though I understand it's a point of religion for some to Not Wrap Lines. Had a short contract recently with a company that had a small team of two developers. My widest reaching contribution to the team, I think, was to vote with the team lead to adopt Prettier. Their previous approach was to _never wrap import lines_. There were literally 1000-character import lines. One of the developers was totally religiously opposed to ever wrapping them. Deltas in PRs were impossible to actually parse with huge lines like that, and if two people modified the same import line, merging the two changes was a nightmare. But with a facade of Democracy, the team lead was able to finally adopt Prettier and its wrapping to the project. This despite the fact that I'd already let it be known that I was only staying until the end of the contract (about three months) and moving on. Whatever works.

dredmorbius 5y ago

Not sure which planet you're on, but it's been 16 Earth years.

heavyset_go 5y ago
The Hacker Noon article was released in 2016.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  Ah, thought you were referring to TFA, my error.