5 ms·

I don't think it is meaningless. There is a stack. That stack is in memory. If you know what every piece of data is doing there and how to access it etc, you

• derrida 14y ago
  Perhaps whoever down-voted me can tell me where I was wrong so I can learn?
  • mattdeboard 14y ago
    Your definition is the only really meaningful and defensible definition. But that's not the point. The point is that even though there is a "correct" definition, the term is still useless because people use it to mean a million different things. And that won't change... the toothpaste is out of the tube, as they say.
  • pekk 14y ago
    I didn't downvote you, but "meaning is use" - and there is an established, context-specific social practice around the phrase "full stack developer" independent of how it makes you feel. In the relevant context, the word "stack" doesn't refer to the call stack. If you want to go off on a cranky tangent every time the phrase is used, you have the right do that, but things go more smoothly when you apply some charity in interpretation and take things the way you know they are meant.
• mgkimsal 14y ago
  It's still somewhat meaningless because there's still not a commonly accepted meaning. I would consider myself a fullstack web person, but I don't do linux kernel hacking. COULD I? Possibly, if my life depended on it, but since I have no kernel patches to my name, you might not consider me a fullstack developer, although I do (and others in my network would). By comparison to other people who only know photoshop, or only know SQL, or only know sysadmin work, I can operate functionally in many areas. syadmin - compile and set up servers from scratch database - can deal with most aspects of database setup, configuration, troubleshooting, optimization and usage. server-side level - php, java and a handful of others - worked with web-app languages since 1996 (php/perl primarily in those days). client-side level - js/ajax/etc etc - app integration with mail servers, chat servers, multiple external APIs, etc. Looking at a web browser, I can trace a click across the network with wireshark, through various layers down to my app, then in to a database, and can tell you how long each segment took and why and how to improve it for speed or scale. But... I've never done kernel hacking beyond compiling, so by your definition, I'm probably not a fullstack developer. See why there's confusion around the term? FWIW, I'm OK with the term, but think it's going to get generalized to the point of being the next 'rockstar ninja' phrase we'll see plastered everywhere in 2013.
  • fatalerrorx3 14y ago
    I fall under the same definition as you...Full stack developer to me means that you can find your way around installing, configuring, maintaining and debugging things throughout the entire stack, not necessarily that you can develop/program things at each level of the stack. I have built servers, installed, config'd and maintained web servers (LAMP), setup mail servers, setup networks, built web applications (front-end and back-end), debugged operating system issues, network issues, database issues, recovered lost data...and I would consider myself to be a full stack developer, but according to other peoples definitions I wouldn't be if I hadn't done any major modifications throughout each level of the stack...which by that narrow definition would mean that there are probably very few "full stack developers" in the world