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Ask HN: Has anyone gone back to boring technology (ex: Java/Spring)?

11 points by freelancelot ↗ HN
There are different uses for different tools, I understand that.

I'm just wondering if anyone got framework/buzzword fatigue and switched back to a less bleeding edge, and more boring tech stacks?

I'm trying to see if anyone has consciously done this and how they feel about that. This might be a fleeting thought for me given the release of Java 20.

34 comments

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cableshaft
Java/Spring is being used for the backend for a client at work. But it also uses Azure DevOps and Kubernetes and Docker and Terraform and React and all those other fun things, so it's not so 'boring' in other ways.
mostlysimilar
Ruby on Rails continues to be stable and productive, despite what the detractors on the Internet would have you believe.
baremetal
I'm a huge rails fan.

I can spool up a prototype in lightning speed.

dieselgate
Still lots of jobs available in the space as well. RoR can pay the bills at the very least
devKnight
I'm kinda getting bored of JS/react/vue/express, thinking of learning golang and microservices
RoddyEmily
I've gone to ocaml and never looked back to do java
_448
Yes, I have gone back to C and C++ :) Using Wt[0], FoundationDB[1] and gRPC C++[2] for my side project. One thing to rule them all :)

[0] https://webtoolkit.eu

[1] https://www.foundationdb.org

[2] https://grpc.io

ethicalsmacker
I appreciate sticking to your guns, but I would be terrified writing anything web facing in C or C++.

Furthermore, after looking at the WT documentation it seems horrific to construct frontends in... maybe not so bad for APIs though.

_448
> Furthermore, after looking at the WT documentation it seems horrific to construct frontends in...

The front-end is jQuery and plain CSS or Bootstrap; and if JavaScript is not available then it falls back to complete server-side rendering, else it is hybrid server-client rendering.

> maybe not so bad for APIs though.

According to the creators of Wt, though you can write APIs, it is not yet architecturally optimised for REST API development.

aprdm
I've never left !
mbowen_ivajob4u
My team and I just placed a new full stack dev team in a start-up with this tech stack:

- Next.js, Vercel, Node.js, Java (Spring Boot) - JavaScript, Tailwind, React, Angular - Microservices, REST APIs - Docker, Nginx, Postgresql - AWS - EC2, S3, RDS, Lambda, VPC, IAM - Docker, GitLab, Github

Everyone seems to be enjoying it so far! mbowen_ivajob4u

baremetal
That stack sounds like a random pile of detritus someone found on the side of the road.
nagyf
If you already use Docker, why don't you go with ECS-Fargate, instead of EC2 or Lambda?
cableshaft
I don't think this qualifies as boring technology.
mostlysimilar
Brand new account created just to post this message. Bot?
cableshaft
Doesn't seem like it based on their comments, just a new account. They were replying to others with relevant comments.

Of course that doesn't guarantee anything nowadays, but that's about all we have nowadays. Just about anything can be faked online now, from pictures to video to audio to text.

quickthrower2
Why both Node and Java? Why both React and Angular? Why both Github and Gitlab?
mobilio
PHP - good mix between speed and scalability. Boring but with combination of SQLite or MySQL can be hosted cheap everywhere.
peruvian
I'm working on a Django app where most of the frontend is old school Django templates with some JS on top. Kinda comfy.
AlexITC
While Scala isn't as boring as Java, I commonly work with PlayFramework which is our version for boring technology, it gets the job done, it is well-documented, not as nice as other libraries but it is rare to find an unsupported use case.

I have had to deal with html templates in Scala and Rust, to my surprise, I'm enjoying going back to these boring web apps.

margorczynski
Well Play was and is aimed mainly at people who are used to Java and OOP. You can take a look at http4s and ZIO Http for something more modern based on FP.
dith3r
using vertx and kotlin for 7 years. still entertaining.
karmakaze
Java I could go back to. Spring (or more specifically Hibernate) I have no intention to use again. It's a 20 year old solution to a 1990s problem.
lurker919
Had my flings with the young and exciting frameworks, but I've matured now - my home will always be with a reliable stable spouse like java :)
leros
I've stayed pretty boring. I went from Java/Spring to Typescript/Express.

I appreciate using a single language between my backend and frontend.

dieselgate
“Boring” technology isn’t boring if you’re using it for the first time. Still get a kick out of playing old video games and seeing “19xx” or something on the screen and it’s the first time I’ve ever played it
koevet
I struggle to understand what do you mean with "boring" technology. For me, what could be boring is a project or a "vertical". I have of course preferences around which language or framework to use, but I wouldn't label a techology boring: rather unproductive or complicated or not suited for the task.
factorialboy
Django. It is easily the most productive technology for me to build small to medium scale web apps.

Not mucking around with containers and K8s either. An optimized VM can go a long way.

rozenmd
I've been building products on React, Node, and Postgres since 2016 - nice to not be the only one on the internet with a problem (I worked for a startup using elixir, this was a common occurrence back then)
exabrial
Yes.

Java (Latest LTS), Tomcat, EclipseLink, Apache ActiveMQ, CDI (via Apache TomEE), and JSF.

Working to try to do the same thing on Quarkus: ActiveMQ, CDI, JSF.

Lokalpod
I have settled on Go for all and any backend work and sveltekit for the UI. Over the last six or seven years have worked with many different technologies.

It is super easy to work with svelte (mostly typescript + html/css and a few svelte specific things) and Go has a nice balance between productivity and high performance. Both are super easy to deploy.

Not sure if that’s “boring” enough but I’ve done everything from pre official support angular 2 SSR to react, microservices and micro front ends. I just prefer simplicity and contracts.

preordained
Do Clojure, so I use Java (directly anyhow) sometimes...through the bars of a cell where I keep it in my attic. Despite that, I'm not big on chasing frameworks or trends, and I think plenty of the community is that way (Rich Hickey himself has described the language as somewhat being for old programmers who are tired of it all). I'm not sure I could go back full-time to a curly brace language, though.
OsintOtter69
I went and got a flip phone and trashed my Iphone. So, Yeah i guess. Feels great by the way.