1/4 today…

I’ve spent my career being a developer/front-end developer and I can say that of all the types of development I’ve seen – front-end is the easiest. It’s easy to grasp and there’s a lot of room for error. Though that’s true of any kind of development when you get into it; it can be forgiving. There are an infinite number of ways to get to the best solution and the top 100 ways might not be clear unless you’re really good.

I’ve always thought that anyone who has done any development could do front-end development but I’ve often found that some developers I’ve met absolutely suck at front-end development. I see people doing crazy back-end stuff on their resume but still don’t know that a table shouldn’t be used for layout purposes.

I’d say that good front-end development, like any development, is like an art. There are ways to do things and ways not to. But they’re learned from experience. And that makes the difference between a good front-end developer and a bad one, despite it’s ease. Every kind of development has a box that must be played in. And it’s our job as developers to explore this box and discover how we can play inside (or outside) it. But anytime we play in or outside of the box, we’re creating development “art”.

I look at some pretty good back-end developers, still using tables for layout and I cringe. But they’ve obviously spent their careers learning the “art” of back-end development. And a front-end developer would be lost in this art. Such is “experience” and its value. (I’m almost saying that development “art” is gained through or IS experience).

My point is that, despite having spent a career in front-end development and thinking it’s the easiest of the developmentS, it is not without its unique rules, difficulties, and constraints. But I think the rules and difficulties are more artistically driven than conceptually, logically, or methodically driven. That is to say – you can do less with front-end development but it is, in its way, a skill that takes a lifetime to master.

Well, especially with a breath of new life to front-end. HTML5 and CSS3 both have some aspects to learn to even a seasoned front-end developer. HTML5 Canvas in particular is its own beast. But the new breath of life are the JavaScript frameworks introduced – jQuery, node.js, backbone.js (MVC) are all front-end tools/frameworks/techniques that can be explored with no less difficulty than any back-end language (that is, if front-end had a database…).