Does web development make any sense at all? Is there something I’m missing that I should know regarding front end development, or is it really just this bad? https://www.quora.com/Does-web-development-make-any-sense-at-all-Is-there-something-I%E2%80%99m-missing-that-I-should-know-regarding-front-end-development-or-is-it-really-just-this-bad

No, it doesn’t make a lick of sense anymore.

I’ve stopped calling myself a developer. I build websites. I can’t honestly say I develop them anymore.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with HTML/CSS/JS. I’m highly experienced in all three and they make perfect sense to me. I know exactly how to build a website. But I no longer have any idea how to develop one.

I’ve reached the point of expertise where I do not need to look up how to do something in HTML or CSS (except for maybe cutting edge properties like CSS grids). That doesn’t mean I can stop learning - it just means I learn the new things and get to work.

But with today’s web, I need to spend enormous amounts of time to figure out how to set up a project, figure out which bundlers, frameworks, component libraries, dependency injectors etc. to use just to help a development team fix their typography issues.

Maybe I’m the one who’s missing something. The level of complexity and expense in time and money needed to do simple things is astounding. I understand complex apps need these things, but not every site needs to be a complex app. And not every tiny quirk CSS might have needs to be solved with more and more complex libraries and frameworks.

I understand if you’re scaling microservices for some mission critical app. But what it takes just to do a simple UI on a form button using whatever today’s popular buzzword technology stack might be, no longer makes any sense to me.

A member's comment:
Exactly. And when another build tool or bundler is created, promising to fix this exact problem, it adds hours to development, in the form of discussing which one we should use now. And it adds miles to the learning roadmaps for new developers. And for experienced devs – it adds things inside a blackbox of npm scripts and tooling where they don’t understand everything that’s going on when it works, and less when it doesn’t.

Just follow the trend.

Give dem waht they want.

The frame work madness has made many people millionaires. ( soo much jobs,etc)

People who have this reasoning are people who are scared to learn

LikeAking:
Just follow the trend.
Give dem waht they want.

The frame work madness has made many people millionaires. ( soo much jobs,etc)

True, it has created more programming jobs as there are now dedicated front-end teams for theses new JavaScript frameworks

BlaqFaze:
People who have this reasoning are people who are scared to learn

not really, not every web app needs to be built with a firework or library, if the app is simple enough you can implement your design using vanilla JavaScript.

TheOgaBoss:
not really, not every web app needs to be built with a firework or library, if the app is simple enough you can implement your design using vanilla JavaScript.

Yh, Todo list apps doesn't need a library

TheOgaBoss:
not really, not every web app needs to be built with a firework or library, if the app is simple enough you can implement your design using vanilla JavaScript.

You are right. Using a JavaScript framework for a simple application is like using a heavy goods trailer when all you need is a car to move about.