4 ms·

I'm gonna be "that guy" and complain again that developers (web developers in particular) really need to learn the basics of scaling. There is no point having y

I'm gonna be "that guy" and complain again that developers (web developers in particular) really need to learn the basics of scaling. There is no point having your app publicly available if you're not prepared for small spikes like this. Edit: At the time of posting, the service was 503ing.

mattmanser 13y ago
Learning to be a developer is still a hodge-podge, unstructured process, scaling is definitely not taught and often talked about in extremely abstract terms because a lot of authors have no clue themselves what is and isn't scalable. A small VM can take huge amounts of traffic thrown at it. If you happen to be running basic PHP. But install wordpress and it's a whole other story. Often until you've been hit by a spike like this you won't even know what is and isn't scalable.
- rhizome 13y ago
  That's because scaling is not in the domain of developers, as much as Heroku/AWS/etc. strive to blur the lines. It's in system administration and architecture.
  - mratzloff 13y ago
    It's a collaborative process between all three. There are a thousand different ways developers can prevent (and conversely, enable) scalability.
    - rhizome 13y ago
      My point is that they are separate skills.
      - mratzloff 13y ago
        Only in the sense that making your software secure is a separate skill.
        rhizome 13y ago
        That's an extremely reductive argument.
vitalique 13y ago
Well, this link is also on Reddit's front page now.
coldtea 13y ago
>I'm gonna be "that guy" and complain again that developers (web developers in particular) really need to learn the basics of scaling. Why, would anything bad happen to the developer if his toy app breaks down under the pressure?
- fauigerzigerk 13y ago
  Because the reason he made it is probably that he wants it to be used. If it can't be used that is bad.
dasil003 13y ago
Web developers are learning the basics of scaling. Hell, this guy is learning right now.
troels 13y ago
Scaling, like security or maintainability, is a really fluffy and cross cutting concept. It's hard to get it right without having a gradual increase in load. So talking about the "basics" is a bit unfair, I think.
gizzlon 13y ago
Is there a service that tests the scale of web apps? I'm not thinking of software, rather a service that web developers could use to test their app with simulated "real" traffic..
- taylan 13y ago
  There is Loader.io from SendGrid (http://loader.io/ http://loader.io/) that lets you load test your web apps with thousands of concurrent connections.
  - gizzlon 13y ago
    Thanks.. I wonder if there's a marked for (helping to) optimizing sites and web-apps..
- wldlyinaccurate 13y ago
  I've used https://www.blitz.io/ https://www.blitz.io/ with some success
rajbala 13y ago
In other words the developer should prematurely scale?
chris_wot 13y ago
Needing to scale is a good problem to have.
- cinitriqs 13y ago
  I second that!
stef25 13y ago
Only the lucky ones need to scale :)
mhurron 13y ago
Is there a place to learn how to scale? Even just the basics or a getting started or something? As someone else pointed out, learning to program is often done on your own, so where would someone go to learn this on their own outside of the hot seat?
- gmu3 13y ago
  I really like reading posts on High Scalability: http://highscalability.squarespace.com/start-here/ http://highscalability.squarespace.com/start-here/
hadem 13y ago
Perhaps their budget (both in terms of time and money) doesn't allow for it...? Don't default to the web developer incapable or disregarding scalability.

mattmanser 13y ago

Learning to be a developer is still a hodge-podge, unstructured process, scaling is definitely not taught and often talked about in extremely abstract terms because a lot of authors have no clue themselves what is and isn't scalable. A small VM can take huge amounts of traffic thrown at it. If you happen to be running basic PHP. But install wordpress and it's a whole other story. Often until you've been hit by a spike like this you won't even know what is and isn't scalable.

rhizome 13y ago
That's because scaling is not in the domain of developers, as much as Heroku/AWS/etc. strive to blur the lines. It's in system administration and architecture.
- mratzloff 13y ago
  It's a collaborative process between all three. There are a thousand different ways developers can prevent (and conversely, enable) scalability.
  - rhizome 13y ago
    My point is that they are separate skills.
    - mratzloff 13y ago
      Only in the sense that making your software secure is a separate skill.
      - rhizome 13y ago
        That's an extremely reductive argument.

vitalique 13y ago

Well, this link is also on Reddit's front page now.

coldtea 13y ago

>I'm gonna be "that guy" and complain again that developers (web developers in particular) really need to learn the basics of scaling. Why, would anything bad happen to the developer if his toy app breaks down under the pressure?

fauigerzigerk 13y ago
Because the reason he made it is probably that he wants it to be used. If it can't be used that is bad.

dasil003 13y ago

Web developers are learning the basics of scaling. Hell, this guy is learning right now.

troels 13y ago

Scaling, like security or maintainability, is a really fluffy and cross cutting concept. It's hard to get it right without having a gradual increase in load. So talking about the "basics" is a bit unfair, I think.

gizzlon 13y ago

Is there a service that tests the scale of web apps? I'm not thinking of software, rather a service that web developers could use to test their app with simulated "real" traffic..

taylan 13y ago
There is Loader.io from SendGrid (http://loader.io/ http://loader.io/) that lets you load test your web apps with thousands of concurrent connections.
- gizzlon 13y ago
  Thanks.. I wonder if there's a marked for (helping to) optimizing sites and web-apps..
wldlyinaccurate 13y ago
I've used https://www.blitz.io/ https://www.blitz.io/ with some success

rajbala 13y ago

In other words the developer should prematurely scale?

chris_wot 13y ago

Needing to scale is a good problem to have.

cinitriqs 13y ago
I second that!

stef25 13y ago

Only the lucky ones need to scale :)

mhurron 13y ago

Is there a place to learn how to scale? Even just the basics or a getting started or something? As someone else pointed out, learning to program is often done on your own, so where would someone go to learn this on their own outside of the hot seat?

gmu3 13y ago
I really like reading posts on High Scalability: http://highscalability.squarespace.com/start-here/ http://highscalability.squarespace.com/start-here/

hadem 13y ago

Perhaps their budget (both in terms of time and money) doesn't allow for it...? Don't default to the web developer incapable or disregarding scalability.