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Ask HN: How much JavaScript do you know as a back end dev?

14 points by jozi9 ↗ HN
Does it make any sense being a real full-stack engineer? Client-side JS is getting more and more complex with all that AngularJS/React etc stuff, it really pushes the limits of the one-man show approach for web development. How many JS do you know as a web/backend developer?

16 comments

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jonaldomo
You should look at node, its back end javascript and its popularity is booming.
jozi9
As soon as I got the same feature set and easiness/productivity as in Django, I switch! Maybe with coffeescript and some mature web framework later.
phektus
Try Express or SailsJS. You'd be surprised.
thisGuysAccount
Legit question, no snark intended:

How well does node scale? It's running in one thread, and from my use (a very small amount of experimentation and reading), it doesn't look like it could handle more than a few hundred concurrent users without stringing together some more robust queuing outside of the node code.

iends
Node.js scales horizontally just as well as Ruby and Python (if not better).

Some of the services I've built in Node.js handle 1000 req/s fine without the need for multiple instances or threads.

angersock
Add snazz in layers...Angular or React or whatever gets a lot of air time, but I'd say most day-to-day web development doesn't use it yet.

At the very least, learn some basic VanillaJS, jQuery, and lo-dash. You can get fancier later.

jozi9
Yeah, to be honest, clientside could easily get more complex than the backend in some cases.. happened a lot of time to me in Django with Angular.
WWWade
As a backend dev I must state: "fuck javascript"
thisGuysAccount
I used to say the same thing. I had the opportunity to work with some decently talented frontend developers and a tech lead with a strong preference for engineering over creative development.

I spend a lot more time improving my javascript skills now.

omegaEpsilon
Can you debug JS easily? Is it worth the time to play around with JS? Is JS even a programming language? Can you get earn more respect (moola) by learning JS?

The answer is NO! JS is a dead end. JS is the shit of the shit. Sooner or later people will realize that JS is just an abomination, something that shouldn't even exist in this world.

jozi9
What's your favourite programming language?
filipedeschamps
@jozi9 sure! Not all projects will be complex in a way that you can't handle both sides.

@omegaEpsilon I with I could downvote you.

Best regards.

thisGuysAccount
JS has some kludges. They aren't disappearing in ES6. They might be marked for deprecation in ES7. They might be gone if Javascript makes it to JS8.

Most of the really truly shitty parts of js development are caused by the lack of cross-browser standards.

mavsman
Haha I don't know if I agree but I love your response. Over the last year, I've gone from loving JS to hating it and now I'm in between. I'm mainly a backend dev but dabble in front end.
xpto123
Check out Firebase, its a ready to use backend that targets making backend development easier.
jgj
As a real full-stack engineer, I see more job postings for front-end than full-stack. And most of the full stack postings I see are for Ruby, which I don't have a lot of experience with, and Java, which I'd rather not do.

And JavaScript, of course. Usually these are titled "JavaScript Developer" but they really mean "CoffeeScript Developer" and no thanks.

All of the opinionating is really to say it only makes sense if it's what you want to do. I happen to like programming (including JavaScript) so I do back and front end. If you don't like JavaScript don't do front end because it can and will get complex, and JavaScript doesn't help you manage complexity.

That said, if your plan is to work on web applications, the more JavaScript you know, the more valuable you'll be (in theory) to your employer/client.

tl;dr maybe