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I wish it was that easy... this doesn't account for the dynamics of the job market, the particular niche of Web programming and the perverse incentives created

I wish it was that easy... this doesn't account for the dynamics of the job market, the particular niche of Web programming and the perverse incentives created by head-hunters. Much in the same way how programmers (and many others) are scared of "gaps" in their resumes (and will thus accept a job even if their finances would otherwise allow them to extend the job search further, creating more leverage on the employers), Web-programmers, specifically, will be vary today of putting, say, Mootools on their resume (because, oh the horror, I think it's like a decade old tech!). In the very same way programmers, especially in popular fields, like the Web, are compelled to follow group trends more than in less popular ones (eg. HPC). Specifically, in the case of Web programmers, this has an additional side of creating a lot of bloat for no reason other than following fashion. Similar dynamics exist (or used to?) in the world of Java, where you have to (had to?) know about EE and Spring (which are huge and bloated frameworks, most probably don't need to use to get the work done, but were made a staple of Java programming due to fashion).

cutler 4y ago
Kotlin has also suffered from this. It gained its credibility due to Google annointing it as the primary language for Android development but, being so close to Java, aspired to replace Java on the server. Sadly, Kotlin's main framework - Ktor - is a joke. The default, Gradle-based Ktor project within IntelliJ doesn't even work and the docs are useless. So Kotlin's server-side aspirations shifted to Spring Boot where it is supposed to be a first-class citizen. In practice there are numerous gotchas for the unwary and if you fled to Kotlin in reaction against Java's archaic practices such as escaping regex metacharacters you'll be disappointed to discover that Spring Boot validation relies on Java-based annotations which means you have to use Java regex patterns. So much for being a first class citizen.
mclightning 4y ago
It shows the sad state of professional consideration in this thread, that I had to scroll down so far to see someone mention job-prospect aspect of tech-stack choices.

cutler 4y ago

Kotlin has also suffered from this. It gained its credibility due to Google annointing it as the primary language for Android development but, being so close to Java, aspired to replace Java on the server. Sadly, Kotlin's main framework - Ktor - is a joke. The default, Gradle-based Ktor project within IntelliJ doesn't even work and the docs are useless. So Kotlin's server-side aspirations shifted to Spring Boot where it is supposed to be a first-class citizen. In practice there are numerous gotchas for the unwary and if you fled to Kotlin in reaction against Java's archaic practices such as escaping regex metacharacters you'll be disappointed to discover that Spring Boot validation relies on Java-based annotations which means you have to use Java regex patterns. So much for being a first class citizen.

mclightning 4y ago

It shows the sad state of professional consideration in this thread, that I had to scroll down so far to see someone mention job-prospect aspect of tech-stack choices.