> I am however feeling so overexposed to new libraries and frameworks that I can hardly muster the energy to even look at it.
That's the nature of the job. In the front-end new frameworks are born all the time, new apis are created, new paradigms are "invented". Coming up with the "perfect" framework is clearly a work in progress.
Here is a list of the techs I had to learn and work with during my career :
- flex
- jquery
- extjs
- backbonejs
- angularjs 1.x
- Reactjs
- angularjs 2.X
And i'm only talking about "view frameworks" here. Not even about the crazy js pipelines involving build tools, running on nodejs , 3 different CSS pre- processors , ...
And in 1 year i'm pretty sure i'll have to work with yet another new framework because managers think framework Z isn't cool enough anymore.
Again that's the nature of the job,because front-end techs are evolving. Everybody was praising backbone 3/4 years ago. Then everybody was praising Angular then everybody is praising React as the new hot stuff.
In the front end, either you keep on learning new stuff, or you're out of job.
Those who believe they have "job security"(as I read in this thread) because they chose angular are lying to them self.
Being a front-end developer means having to learn a shit tons of libraries , techs and apis everyday. You can't just tell yourself , "I'll learn X and i'll be all set" like with server-side techs.
Yet today the biggest challenge isn't even choosing a framework, but more like choosing how to transition from ES5 to ES6. Because the tools aren't ready.
I'm not even going to try to equate the pace of backend tech libraries with frontend, but you can't just learn one stack and be set on the backend. SQL->NoSQL, various queuing methodologies, diff. Automation platforms, different scripting languages rising and falling..,
You can be a Java developer on hibernate the same way you can be a frontend dev doing jquery for almost a decade but being on the cutting edge is the same deal on frontend as it is backend.
I totally agree with the point about always needing to learn on front-end because things are always changing...but having recently been exposed to the Java world there is a huge amount of stuff there too and if you're a server side dev then it's constantly changing e.g. you're org has a django app now but what about Go, Clojure, Scala, Haskell, etc, etc, etc. Different tech for different use cases but there are constantly evolving options out there.
Things are always changing but that's the beauty of it, isn't it?
I don't see the frustration so much about job security as about not being able to really get the most out of a technology before it becomes obsolete. It's one thing to be able to simply use some technology to get the job done. It's something else to deeply understand it and to become fluent in its paradigms and write code that is idiomatic and elegant. When a developer has to spend half the time learning new frameworks, it isn't so much about the loss of job security, it's the loss of craftsmanship.
The obvious followup question (not necessarily directed at you) is why do front-end technologies appear to be so much more transitory than back-end ones?
Probably because javascript engines (since 2008ish) are constantly improving and each new ES version adds new specs/features so there are opportunities for the smart, brave and foolish to build libraries and frameworks for these.
I think it's good that there is so much fervour around it. Time and use will flush out the things that don't work and we'll be left with the bits that do (well mostly)
That's the nature of the job. In the front-end new frameworks are born all the time, new apis are created, new paradigms are "invented". Coming up with the "perfect" framework is clearly a work in progress.
Here is a list of the techs I had to learn and work with during my career :
- flex
- jquery
- extjs
- backbonejs
- angularjs 1.x
- Reactjs
- angularjs 2.X
And i'm only talking about "view frameworks" here. Not even about the crazy js pipelines involving build tools, running on nodejs , 3 different CSS pre- processors , ...
And in 1 year i'm pretty sure i'll have to work with yet another new framework because managers think framework Z isn't cool enough anymore.
Again that's the nature of the job,because front-end techs are evolving. Everybody was praising backbone 3/4 years ago. Then everybody was praising Angular then everybody is praising React as the new hot stuff.
In the front end, either you keep on learning new stuff, or you're out of job.
Those who believe they have "job security"(as I read in this thread) because they chose angular are lying to them self.
Being a front-end developer means having to learn a shit tons of libraries , techs and apis everyday. You can't just tell yourself , "I'll learn X and i'll be all set" like with server-side techs.
Yet today the biggest challenge isn't even choosing a framework, but more like choosing how to transition from ES5 to ES6. Because the tools aren't ready.