Latest news about Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies. Your daily crypto news habit.
Is front-end development having a identity crisis? — Part II
Late in 2018 I wrote Is front-end development having an identity crisis as the first part of this series. I was surprised by how popular it was not because of it’s obvious click-bait title (guilty); but by how well it resonated with the community. When I gave Part II as a talk early in 2019, the nods in the crowd were almost unanimous — this is clearly something we need to talk about. Ultimately many developers feel the same: Front-end development as a role has become ambiguous.
A short summary of Part I
Species evolve into many variants or sub-species as a result of natural selection. These sub-species all have different attributes and qualities and ultimately make each of them unique.
Technology is no different. In a way, technology has given rise to hundreds of sub-species of programming languages, paradigms, frameworks and libraries, each with its own unique properties and challenges.
Take JavaScript as an example.
Credit to reddit user u/TheDoctorWumbology
JavaScript has evolved into several massive technologies for both the back- and front-end. The problem with this is that the lines between front-end and back-end, or application and website, or designer and developer, have become blurry. The concept of “front-end development” has almost lost its meaning.
So what is a front-end developer anyway? We need to ask ourselves three questions:
1. What platform are we developing for? — As developers we have the option of building for multiple platforms: Mobile, desktop, web or server. Front-end traditionally dealt with the user interface of an application but the rapid development of JavaScript has shifted the role into almost all of these platforms.
2. What language are we developing in? — This shift in platform contributed to the rise of technologies like React and Angular, each with their own set of rules and paradigms. Languages like PHP, Python and C# have also become part of the front-end stack in many organizations as they enable us to build services and APIs.
3. What is my skill level and job title? — The lack of clarity on platforms and languages result in a mixed bag of job specifications that takes away from our understanding of the title. Some front-end roles require back-end skills and some engineering roles require UI design skills. None of these roles are standardized.
So why does any of this matter?
Ambiguous job specs
In the example below, on the left, the developer is asked to know both Angular and Ionic. Granted there is some overlap between the two technologies, but they are both large frameworks each with their own nuances. Pair this with the graphic design requirement (which has nothing to do with front-end) and you've got yourself a very demanding role.
Example of front-end job posts on LinkedIn. You can read more about my findings in Part I.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.