I worry this article misses a larger issue: "full stack" tends to mean an ignorance of client-side constraints (nevermind the tools and techniques). Therefore the default stack for unspecialised engineers is simply unfit for most purposes *and they don't even know it*https://twitter.com/LeaVerou/status/1069843450235895808 …
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Client-side eng is wicked hard because you're programming computers you don't control or spec over networks you can't predict. Not taking that seriously is how you get legacy, desktop-oriented frameworks deployed to mobile. It's like taking your Swing apps to Android: just no.
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Watching my industry decide that this is a good idea (throwing out decades of understanding) then being serially shocked at the poor results is a metaphor for our age. Technical I've-got-mine-Jack-ism is the mania, with no way to break the fever in sight.
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So this isn't CS vs. not-CS (apologies to
@heydonworks for overgeneralising his points), it's that these people are *bad* at programming the most perf-sensitive computers in the discipline (UI) that is *the most* latency sensitive.3 replies 3 retweets 15 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @slightlylate
Interesting points. I would suggest cross-browser design and client related performance bottlenecks etc are part of the peculiar 'web designer' role that is being eradicated by the influx of CS folks who (as you rightly point out) couldn't care less. Still CS vs not-CS.
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Replying to @heydonworks
Yeah, there's an under-valued aspect of learning the terrain that a CS degree doesn't prep you for. There's something here about missing analogies; can think about CSS and HTML as hyper-efficient ways of compressing content (when used well) vs. explaining them long-hand (JS)
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Replying to @slightlylate @heydonworks
Please do go on ... (I'm gearing up for writing "CSS for JavaScripters", and this sort of stuff is very useful to me.)
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Replying to @ppk @heydonworks
In the style of "the map is not the terrain", the devilish thing about frontend is that it *looks* like other programming when you layer on enough abstraction...except the constraints are fundamentally different in ways that only bite you in retrospect.
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CSS & HTML don't look like "regular programming"; they are specialized tools for a thing that is only _programming adjacent_. It's sort of how airplanes have things that look a little bit like steering wheels for cars, but if you bring your mental model for cars, people die.
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Frontend is different in just as many dimensions as auto travel is to air travel. Physics still applies, and rough rules of how the world work are still valuable, but mastery of one implies no skill in the other domain.
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The project of making the web more extensible has been something like a class in aerodynamics for physics majors: uncovering the hidden connections between what you know and how it works in this other area. Hopefully enabling more people to build good things.
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Can't say we've gotten what we hoped for out of it thus far. Lots of Yugo-looking "aircraft" are getting sold to unsuspecting buyers.
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...and the only reason they ever appear to "work" is that the showrooms are equipped with unreasonably large trebuchet's. Anything can be an "aircraft" if you throw it with enough force.
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