Gentlemen, thank you for having taken the time to read my article.
@ Stephen Gerkin
Would you say that tools have to be difficult when their purpose is to create/make/build stuff ? I believe any tool ergonomy should not be related to its actual purpose.
Many creative tools are simple to use : paintbrushes, lego, etc. Even if you take complex creative tools, often their user don't need to understand how they work.
Take a landscaper for example. Do you agree this is a creative job ? If a landscaper makes a garden, he may use a chainsaw. Chainsaw are complex but he doesn't need to care about how it is working. He just needs to know how to use/operate it.
Same thing applies to logic. Excel or Access users don't need to be devs to make stuff that sometimes look close to a little app. Yet they don't actually need to understand what's under the hood. Many times using Macros isn't required. Using those tools requires a little practice, but I wouldn't say it is overkill.
I agree though on the fact it would be difficult using only HTML/CSS/JS to make modern apps, with very high standards (on team collaboration, reactivity, loading time, tests, etc). You are right on this one. But I believe that :
1) nowadays standards are overkill : gaining some milliseconds of loading time might make sense for some high-traffic website, but not for the little store around the corner. Writing TDD doesn't make sense most of the time as well. We haven't for years and yet many apps were user tested and working fine. As for SPA, many times it is not needed as well.
2) one may think that as long as it is possible to reach perfection we should go for it. I'd be careful with the tradeoff : it is not free, it implies time, it creates bugs, quite some maintainance, and therefore costs.
Thus, I think devlopment became complex because Modern dev standards became The default standard. I would be fine with it (after all we wanna be proud of what we are making) if it wasn't for the new cost. Given what it costs to use those standards, I think there is yet a long road to go towards simplification (which has begun though, as we can see with svelte or parceljs for example).
@ Abdul Rahim Shaikh
I like your Windows example, and talking about Car enthusiasts like you suggests makes sense. I also agree on the fact drastic shifts are happening for disruptive tools and new frameworks. It happened to AngularJS -> Angular. Thanks for your comments and ideas.
@ D3vil-hunt
"What if developing an app could be as simple as using it. At least for some people. I guess thats the point the article is trying to make." I couldn't say it better. Actually you summarized my point of you. The new dev Role I refered to as "Dev tools users" will eventually disappear : pushed to an extent (but we are not there yet) the app makers won't not be devs, but regular users using tools made by devs. Bubble.io, Flash (back in the days), or Excel are good examples to realize users dev skills are not mandatory to make stuff.
Thanks to you all. We may have different point of views but it feels good debating on those matters :)
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Gentlemen, thank you for having taken the time to read my article.
@ Stephen Gerkin
Would you say that tools have to be difficult when their purpose is to create/make/build stuff ? I believe any tool ergonomy should not be related to its actual purpose.
Many creative tools are simple to use : paintbrushes, lego, etc. Even if you take complex creative tools, often their user don't need to understand how they work.
Take a landscaper for example. Do you agree this is a creative job ? If a landscaper makes a garden, he may use a chainsaw. Chainsaw are complex but he doesn't need to care about how it is working. He just needs to know how to use/operate it.
Same thing applies to logic. Excel or Access users don't need to be devs to make stuff that sometimes look close to a little app. Yet they don't actually need to understand what's under the hood. Many times using Macros isn't required. Using those tools requires a little practice, but I wouldn't say it is overkill.
I agree though on the fact it would be difficult using only HTML/CSS/JS to make modern apps, with very high standards (on team collaboration, reactivity, loading time, tests, etc). You are right on this one. But I believe that :
1) nowadays standards are overkill : gaining some milliseconds of loading time might make sense for some high-traffic website, but not for the little store around the corner. Writing TDD doesn't make sense most of the time as well. We haven't for years and yet many apps were user tested and working fine. As for SPA, many times it is not needed as well.
2) one may think that as long as it is possible to reach perfection we should go for it. I'd be careful with the tradeoff : it is not free, it implies time, it creates bugs, quite some maintainance, and therefore costs.
Thus, I think devlopment became complex because Modern dev standards became The default standard. I would be fine with it (after all we wanna be proud of what we are making) if it wasn't for the new cost. Given what it costs to use those standards, I think there is yet a long road to go towards simplification (which has begun though, as we can see with svelte or parceljs for example).
@ Abdul Rahim Shaikh
I like your Windows example, and talking about Car enthusiasts like you suggests makes sense. I also agree on the fact drastic shifts are happening for disruptive tools and new frameworks. It happened to AngularJS -> Angular. Thanks for your comments and ideas.
@ D3vil-hunt
"What if developing an app could be as simple as using it. At least for some people. I guess thats the point the article is trying to make." I couldn't say it better. Actually you summarized my point of you. The new dev Role I refered to as "Dev tools users" will eventually disappear : pushed to an extent (but we are not there yet) the app makers won't not be devs, but regular users using tools made by devs. Bubble.io, Flash (back in the days), or Excel are good examples to realize users dev skills are not mandatory to make stuff.
Thanks to you all. We may have different point of views but it feels good debating on those matters :)