Being able to control a fuller stack allowed me to express my digital creativity better.
For instance, what I could do, but I won't: Build a backend REST api, with a nice interface in javascript etc. Then hook it up to my own server, open some ports and run some websockets or mqtt. Then design some hardware and solder it together. Write some software to the hardware so it can send messages through mqtt to the server. At that point I could start thinking about home-automation. So then you could start a NativeScript or whatever project and hook it to your services and start switching off the lights at home for example.
And I personally think the stack also includes being comfortable doing photoshop, illustrator stuff and also being able to do some video editting and 3d modelling.
The transition to a fuller stack is probably not a choice, but some natural thing that comes from a person's need to build stuff without bothering other people.
The last decades were fun, so I hope for the future decades that the fun will stay and that the stack will grow and creativity will flourish.
frontend is absolutely great. Without it, the rest would be invisible. Back in the days when I did Flash, I was so happy that I had one interface in which code, design and animation all came together.
Both, front end and back end are equally important. Because without one the value of other is zero. This is not a good idea to think which one is better, because that will harm the relationships between developers. And that will not contribute to the success of your product, business, career, etc.
I have started as backend developer, slowly transitioned into frontend developer. And now I want to be full stack as this would give more freedom and date and better api/graphql growth. Unfortunately there are a lot of backend developers who have small or none of understanding how browsers and other clients work. And frontend developers expertise may be very useful.
I understand you. It's amazing that you have this will to transition to a fullstack developer 👍
Well, sometimes people want just to do their job and not dive in details deeper.
I've started from front-end stack and found that transition to full-stack is a natural process which gives me much more freedom on what I can develop. As I always wanted to be a little too much independent from other people I've just forced myself to learn few more technologies ... and that wasn't that hard. With Python background I could finally start thinking about great features like implementation of global search in out app ie. ElasticSearch. Once I have back-end that will fit in my front-end ideas it is just like assembling more advanced Lego bricks ;)
Also being full stack gives you ability to understand and be able to read more code of other people which I think if super valuable when it comes to codes review.
I also think that every back-end developer should at least refresh some knowledge about front-end as technologies and tools evolve so quickly. Also having a little glimpse inside UX and UI won't hurt anyone.
But human nature is so complex, and everyone is so different that we can't measure everyone same. At the end it comes to how comfortable you feel in your own comfort zone and if you are willing to step outside it ;)
I have very similar thoughts to yours ✌️Being a fullstack developer implies independence and the opportunity to work remotely or freelance. And you are right! It wouldn't be bad if the back end developers learn a little bit front end.
I'm a self-taught Front End & JS Dev and professional learner with accessibility expertise. I'm passionate about breaking down concepts into relatable concepts, making it more approachable.
I think I would like to learn more backend, mostly for better communication with backend developers and being able to understand what's going on under the hood. Or as a single person hustler and building my own products.
But as an employed developer, I'd prefer to stick with front end. There's otherwise too much for me to keep up with haha!
Likewise, I had the same reason to start with backend learning. Nowadays, the front end is much complex and sometimes takes much more time to solve the problem 😅
I'm front end professionally but have been writing back end code as a hobby for over a year. It has helped me a huge amount in understanding how clients and servers interact. It's also opened opportunities to work in the SSR world professionally! It's another skill to have and I hope to get properly stuck in this year!
While learning back end I also started understanding how clients and servers interact with each other. Yeah, SSR is a nice technique to improve web app UX and SEO 🙂
I was a fullstack developer during the monolithic age. Your client/employer will let you do just about anything and everything they could think of. I also moved up and down the stack a couple of times. Now I am convinced to finally settle working on the frontend.
To the end user, the user interface is the system. Thus, I get more satisfaction on the work I do on the frontend. I don't think that being fullstack is appropriate in this day and age where systems are moving away from the monolithic setup.
However, I would still like to work on fullstack Javascript/Typescript technologies.
You are a user-centric developer! It's great 😃especially if you are doing front end currently. I also think that TypeScript is a trend in 2019 and it's worth to learn it to control the types in JavaScript on the front end and back end.
Sometimes though, to be user-centric is not only about UI/UX but also about the value that the user gets. Quite often there is a ton of user value to gain on the backend side.
I enjoy knowing more about how things fit together. At the moment I want to focus on the front end, but realize there is no way to create a solid app that accommodates more than a few users/entries without planning the backend. :[
These days i love doing just frontend dev. But the concepts of requests, ORMs, models and schema I learnt from doing backend dev gave me the added advantage of working really well with backend developers on team projects.
Hmmm I'm not into becoming a full stack developer... I like my craft... But there's always that moment when you envy people calling themselves full stack... It's a cool title tho🙄😎
I think we should change it to "stacked developer" or operating a "fuller stack".
The fuller stack may very well include many things like machine learning and data-analyses for instance.
I think about this a fair bit. For me, it's ultimately about finding out the difference between things that make me go "hey, that's really sweet!" and things that make me go "OK, I guess I could learn that." I've often thought that I should be looking at fullstack, and some day, maybe I will. Over the past few months, however, I've learned that I'm more excited about user-focused frontend stuff--I like seeing things change on the screen!
Plus, while I think I can say I "know" HTML and CSS, by no means have I mastered them. There's so much more that I would like to be able to do with frontend interfaces, so I'm really not in any rush to start moving to the backend.
I am a software development engineer in test for Infosys. My job is officially to write automated tests in Selenium Webdriver. I'm also a web developer as a hobbyest
I like knowing how things work. When I was a kid, I broke open my parent's old VCR. No worries, it was in the basement collecting dust having been replaced by these "new fangled DVDs" that were then replaced by Bluerays a few years later. Anyways, I found it fascinating to see how all the interconnected parts were wired to some circuit board and motors with gears that turn the tape or eject it from the drive. I also remember way back when when my parents had some computer person open up our first computer. I remember being amazed by all the guts on the inside.
Knowing the back end is similar. It's often some sort of black box. There's this webpage here and you do stuff and there's a database there that reflects changes. But what's the thing in the middle that handles the changes? The back end. I want to know how it works. I want to know how everything connects together.
How best to know those things than to actually build one?
I made my first back end last summer. An old school Java Servlet back end to handle requests between my Vue front end and an Amazon RDS back end. It was for a bootcamp, or I would have picked Express as the back end. Wrote my first express back end about a month ago, between another Vue front end and a mongo back end.
There's such a great satisfaction to be found once you've got your rudimentary back end set up and your first test hit to the database is a success.
As Xander rightfully explained, if you want to be in control or if you're on your own there's no other option. Also, I'm forced to be a fullstack dev as in my small company I'm the only one that can handle such tasks, from building small embedded electronics and its firmwares to back/frontend apps (mainly CLI) to help us automate some repetitive and tedious tasks (I'm glad python exist for pretty much everything).
My suggestion is that everyone should at least try to be one sometime, as that would give a really close and personal insight of what's going on around the other side
Pawan is working as Sr Web developer at JCP, loves to make impact to the customers or masses, comfortable throughout the stack, but presently making difference at front end and devtools.
Being able to control a fuller stack allowed me to express my digital creativity better.
For instance, what I could do, but I won't: Build a backend REST api, with a nice interface in javascript etc. Then hook it up to my own server, open some ports and run some websockets or mqtt. Then design some hardware and solder it together. Write some software to the hardware so it can send messages through mqtt to the server. At that point I could start thinking about home-automation. So then you could start a NativeScript or whatever project and hook it to your services and start switching off the lights at home for example.
And I personally think the stack also includes being comfortable doing photoshop, illustrator stuff and also being able to do some video editting and 3d modelling.
The transition to a fuller stack is probably not a choice, but some natural thing that comes from a person's need to build stuff without bothering other people.
The last decades were fun, so I hope for the future decades that the fun will stay and that the stack will grow and creativity will flourish.
Wow. Look at this. It's just amazing the amount of things that a full stack developer can do but... Still, I love frontend stack
frontend is absolutely great. Without it, the rest would be invisible. Back in the days when I did Flash, I was so happy that I had one interface in which code, design and animation all came together.
Both, front end and back end are equally important. Because without one the value of other is zero. This is not a good idea to think which one is better, because that will harm the relationships between developers. And that will not contribute to the success of your product, business, career, etc.
Me either ✌️The more we know, the more we are competent and productive 🙂
I have started as backend developer, slowly transitioned into frontend developer. And now I want to be full stack as this would give more freedom and date and better api/graphql growth. Unfortunately there are a lot of backend developers who have small or none of understanding how browsers and other clients work. And frontend developers expertise may be very useful.
I understand you. It's amazing that you have this will to transition to a fullstack developer 👍
Well, sometimes people want just to do their job and not dive in details deeper.
Thank you for the detailed response! 🙏Yes, I agree, that being a fullstack developer gives you autonomy and freedom to do your best work 🙂
I've started from front-end stack and found that transition to full-stack is a natural process which gives me much more freedom on what I can develop. As I always wanted to be a little too much independent from other people I've just forced myself to learn few more technologies ... and that wasn't that hard. With Python background I could finally start thinking about great features like implementation of global search in out app ie. ElasticSearch. Once I have back-end that will fit in my front-end ideas it is just like assembling more advanced Lego bricks ;)
Also being full stack gives you ability to understand and be able to read more code of other people which I think if super valuable when it comes to codes review.
I also think that every back-end developer should at least refresh some knowledge about front-end as technologies and tools evolve so quickly. Also having a little glimpse inside UX and UI won't hurt anyone.
But human nature is so complex, and everyone is so different that we can't measure everyone same. At the end it comes to how comfortable you feel in your own comfort zone and if you are willing to step outside it ;)
Peace!
I have very similar thoughts to yours ✌️Being a fullstack developer implies independence and the opportunity to work remotely or freelance. And you are right! It wouldn't be bad if the back end developers learn a little bit front end.
I think I would like to learn more backend, mostly for better communication with backend developers and being able to understand what's going on under the hood. Or as a single person hustler and building my own products.
But as an employed developer, I'd prefer to stick with front end. There's otherwise too much for me to keep up with haha!
Likewise, I had the same reason to start with backend learning. Nowadays, the front end is much complex and sometimes takes much more time to solve the problem 😅
I'm front end professionally but have been writing back end code as a hobby for over a year. It has helped me a huge amount in understanding how clients and servers interact. It's also opened opportunities to work in the SSR world professionally! It's another skill to have and I hope to get properly stuck in this year!
While learning back end I also started understanding how clients and servers interact with each other. Yeah, SSR is a nice technique to improve web app UX and SEO 🙂
I was a fullstack developer during the monolithic age. Your client/employer will let you do just about anything and everything they could think of. I also moved up and down the stack a couple of times. Now I am convinced to finally settle working on the frontend.
To the end user, the user interface is the system. Thus, I get more satisfaction on the work I do on the frontend. I don't think that being fullstack is appropriate in this day and age where systems are moving away from the monolithic setup.
However, I would still like to work on fullstack Javascript/Typescript technologies.
You are a user-centric developer! It's great 😃especially if you are doing front end currently. I also think that TypeScript is a trend in 2019 and it's worth to learn it to control the types in JavaScript on the front end and back end.
Sometimes though, to be user-centric is not only about UI/UX but also about the value that the user gets. Quite often there is a ton of user value to gain on the backend side.
I like that term. Indeed, I just realized that I am.
I agree, it depends on which product you are working on and who are your product owners.
I enjoy knowing more about how things fit together. At the moment I want to focus on the front end, but realize there is no way to create a solid app that accommodates more than a few users/entries without planning the backend. :[
It's not a big problem to build a proper app if you are working in a team, then you can learn the back end in a while and try to contribute later 🙂
These days i love doing just frontend dev. But the concepts of requests, ORMs, models and schema I learnt from doing backend dev gave me the added advantage of working really well with backend developers on team projects.
Thank you for the answer! 🙂It's definitely a huge advantage to be able working with other people better!
Hmmm I'm not into becoming a full stack developer... I like my craft... But there's always that moment when you envy people calling themselves full stack... It's a cool title tho🙄😎
I think we should change it to "stacked developer" or operating a "fuller stack".
The fuller stack may very well include many things like machine learning and data-analyses for instance.
I guess it's a more precise name. it's not as marketable though 😅
On LinkedIn I put my profession as "Stacked Webchef". Works fine.
Thank you for the reply! Then what is your interest right now? 🤔
I think about this a fair bit. For me, it's ultimately about finding out the difference between things that make me go "hey, that's really sweet!" and things that make me go "OK, I guess I could learn that." I've often thought that I should be looking at fullstack, and some day, maybe I will. Over the past few months, however, I've learned that I'm more excited about user-focused frontend stuff--I like seeing things change on the screen!
Plus, while I think I can say I "know" HTML and CSS, by no means have I mastered them. There's so much more that I would like to be able to do with frontend interfaces, so I'm really not in any rush to start moving to the backend.
I like knowing how things work. When I was a kid, I broke open my parent's old VCR. No worries, it was in the basement collecting dust having been replaced by these "new fangled DVDs" that were then replaced by Bluerays a few years later. Anyways, I found it fascinating to see how all the interconnected parts were wired to some circuit board and motors with gears that turn the tape or eject it from the drive. I also remember way back when when my parents had some computer person open up our first computer. I remember being amazed by all the guts on the inside.
Knowing the back end is similar. It's often some sort of black box. There's this webpage here and you do stuff and there's a database there that reflects changes. But what's the thing in the middle that handles the changes? The back end. I want to know how it works. I want to know how everything connects together.
How best to know those things than to actually build one?
I made my first back end last summer. An old school Java Servlet back end to handle requests between my Vue front end and an Amazon RDS back end. It was for a bootcamp, or I would have picked Express as the back end. Wrote my first express back end about a month ago, between another Vue front end and a mongo back end.
There's such a great satisfaction to be found once you've got your rudimentary back end set up and your first test hit to the database is a success.
Thank you for your story! It's exciting to hear about it 🙂
I agree it's the ultimate way to learn how things work—to build them yourself! 🚀
I hate doing full stack if there is static typing involved.
Thank you for sharing how you feel. Why do you think it frustrates you so? 🤔
All the unessary code and tooling ide abstract classes interfaces 1 minute compile time between each change and all the types
As Xander rightfully explained, if you want to be in control or if you're on your own there's no other option. Also, I'm forced to be a fullstack dev as in my small company I'm the only one that can handle such tasks, from building small embedded electronics and its firmwares to back/frontend apps (mainly CLI) to help us automate some repetitive and tedious tasks (I'm glad python exist for pretty much everything).
My suggestion is that everyone should at least try to be one sometime, as that would give a really close and personal insight of what's going on around the other side
I want to use graphql at server , also tired of listening front end is ready, backend is pending and vice versa
Good job and great start! 👍