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Absolutely spot-on regarding the cyclical nature of server-side techniques. These were once the backbone of high-performance web hosting and architecture. Remem

Absolutely spot-on regarding the cyclical nature of server-side techniques. These were once the backbone of high-performance web hosting and architecture. Remember Steve Souders’ “High Performance Websites”? It feels like a prophetic read today as it delved deep into what’s now being rediscovered. Full stack development has indeed morphed into a daunting field. The complexity has soared with numerous frameworks and PaaS solutions, which, while they offer a lot for “free,” tend to obscure the foundational principles that once were essential knowledge. This shift might not be detrimental as it allows developers to specialize or concentrate on business logic. However, it does make it challenging for small teams or solo developers to build high-performance applications due to the breadth of skills required. This democratization of technology might make the field more accessible, lowering the barriers to entry for newcomers. While some might view this perspective as elitist, I think it’s just being realistic about the skills and knowledge that defined a ‘good’ developer in the early 2000s compared to today. I’m nostalgic for the 2000-2010 era too, not just for the technologies and paradigms we used, but for the spirit of exploration and understanding that pervaded our approaches to problems.

chrisldgk 3y ago
The good thing about all this is that a lot of things also combined into single languages and that you can still spool up everything you need to run on a cheap VPS or even a small computer at home. Need to build a backend? JavaScript and NodeJS. Need to query a database or store data? JavaScript and an ORM of your choice. Need to build a frontend? JavaScript and a frontend library of your choice. My point is the only thing you actually need to know is a single language and you can build anything you want. This extends to PHP with Laravel, C# and Python as well. Getting into developing things got a lot easier because you don‘t need to get into the nitty gritty of how a web or database server functions. Obviously there‘s stuff like CI/CD, logging and error tracking that‘s a lot harder to do without PaaS solutions, not to speak of scalability. But these are things that should be left to the professionals, which should absolutely learn about the core concepts of the software they‘re building and deploying. But that’s what they‘re (read: we’re) being paid for.

chrisldgk 3y ago

The good thing about all this is that a lot of things also combined into single languages and that you can still spool up everything you need to run on a cheap VPS or even a small computer at home. Need to build a backend? JavaScript and NodeJS. Need to query a database or store data? JavaScript and an ORM of your choice. Need to build a frontend? JavaScript and a frontend library of your choice. My point is the only thing you actually need to know is a single language and you can build anything you want. This extends to PHP with Laravel, C# and Python as well. Getting into developing things got a lot easier because you don‘t need to get into the nitty gritty of how a web or database server functions. Obviously there‘s stuff like CI/CD, logging and error tracking that‘s a lot harder to do without PaaS solutions, not to speak of scalability. But these are things that should be left to the professionals, which should absolutely learn about the core concepts of the software they‘re building and deploying. But that’s what they‘re (read: we’re) being paid for.