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The old saying goes like this: "if you want freedom on one layer you need stability on the layer below" My guess is that since frontend web development is at t

The old saying goes like this: "if you want freedom on one layer you need stability on the layer below" My guess is that since frontend web development is at the top of the stack it has an incredible amount of freedom so everything changes every minute. You don't see too many people wanting to subvert HTTP making a billion homemade alternatives

capableweb 4y ago
> You don't see too many people wanting to subvert HTTP making a billion homemade alternatives No? I constantly come across new protocols, promising improvements compared to it. Some even become relatively popular and are included in browsers by default. Just some examples are WebSockets, WebRTC and QUIC. I expect we'll see more of them in the future as specific use cases requires more specific protocols.
- ezsmi 4y ago
  I think you make a fair point but on the other hand I don’t see many “top 20 alternatives to http in 2022” articles (which implies there are more than 20 alternatives) like we have for front end technologies. I.e. https://www.netguru.com/blog/front-end-technologies https://www.netguru.com/blog/front-end-technologies
  - bobthepanda 4y ago
    I think part of it is also level of effort. You could right click "inspect element" in any browser and mess around in the html or the JS console and see things happening live. This is an extremely low barrier to entry. Low barriers to entry are good, our profession is very well compensated and developed economies could certainly use low effort ways to get people from lower compensated jobs into higher compensated jobs* but that also means that there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. --- * yes, tech isn't for everyone (what job is?), and when I say low barrier to entry I mean you don't really need to subject yourself to what could easily be 5-10 years of schooling in medicine or law or engineering.
    - HidyBush 4y ago
      the level of effort is determined by how deep in the stack you are. if you make a new JS framework every single browser will run it, if you make a new web scripting language good luck getting support from even one browser
    - lopatin 4y ago
      Yeah but to be good, you have to have like at least 5 years of experience shipping stuff. It's kind of like going through many years of law/medicine school.
      - bobthepanda 4y ago
        Not all the ways to do that come with either the punishing schedules (e.g. residency) or the massive loan debts.
- dgb23 4y ago
  Those are orthogonal choices though.

capableweb 4y ago

> You don't see too many people wanting to subvert HTTP making a billion homemade alternatives No? I constantly come across new protocols, promising improvements compared to it. Some even become relatively popular and are included in browsers by default. Just some examples are WebSockets, WebRTC and QUIC. I expect we'll see more of them in the future as specific use cases requires more specific protocols.

ezsmi 4y ago
I think you make a fair point but on the other hand I don’t see many “top 20 alternatives to http in 2022” articles (which implies there are more than 20 alternatives) like we have for front end technologies. I.e. https://www.netguru.com/blog/front-end-technologies https://www.netguru.com/blog/front-end-technologies
- bobthepanda 4y ago
  I think part of it is also level of effort. You could right click "inspect element" in any browser and mess around in the html or the JS console and see things happening live. This is an extremely low barrier to entry. Low barriers to entry are good, our profession is very well compensated and developed economies could certainly use low effort ways to get people from lower compensated jobs into higher compensated jobs* but that also means that there are a lot of cooks in the kitchen. --- * yes, tech isn't for everyone (what job is?), and when I say low barrier to entry I mean you don't really need to subject yourself to what could easily be 5-10 years of schooling in medicine or law or engineering.
  - HidyBush 4y ago
    the level of effort is determined by how deep in the stack you are. if you make a new JS framework every single browser will run it, if you make a new web scripting language good luck getting support from even one browser
  - lopatin 4y ago
    Yeah but to be good, you have to have like at least 5 years of experience shipping stuff. It's kind of like going through many years of law/medicine school.
    - bobthepanda 4y ago
      Not all the ways to do that come with either the punishing schedules (e.g. residency) or the massive loan debts.
dgb23 4y ago
Those are orthogonal choices though.