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Ask HN: Are JavaScript developers divided into 'fron-end devs' and 'true devs'?
Recently I have read the discussion in twitter between overlords of JavaScript about if they have to give examples of how to work with their complex tools in ES5 rather than in ES6, because ES5 is only for 'front-end devs' but not for 'true devs'.
So, I wander, is there such a deep division in JavaScript community ?
- 27182818284 11y agoIt is just a common thing everywhere, not just in javaScript. It even has a Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman "Well, no true developer uses ES5" Ignore the haters. Use what is best for the job based on a variety of criteria.
- ipselon 11y agoI needed to ask about this division because I'm rather new in this community, and I created the tool which is devoted to simplify development of UI (react-ui-builder). And now I'm deciding if I need to switch generation of the source code to ES6, or wait a bit.
- davelnewton 11y agoYou can still target ES6 and have people use a transpiler to hit ES5, noting that not everybody is familiar with the tool chain(s) necessary to do that efficiently.
- louisswiss 11y agoI identify more with the front-end devs, even though I've spent the last few years working with node, sails and meteor.js. I think that a lot of javascript devs (compared to java, C etc) get into it via web design and j query, whereas 'true devs' often have a real CS background. It seems like just another 'web dev isn't real programming' bias but on a smaller scale.
- ipselon 11y agoAha, I got it. So, front-end developers may event don't know about nodejs ?
- davelnewton 11y agoSure, because they have no exposure to it. Doesn't mean they're not a "true dev"; that's orthogonal.
- davelnewton 11y agoIt's an artificial distinction. There are good ("true") and bad ("front-end") in all environments. The language itself is immaterial.
- supercoder 11y agoMy take is that JavaScript development has never been viewed as 'real development' and that devs that have felt insecure about this have latched on to ES6