Tag: software development

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The majority of software is not frontend code running websites

The frontend code running in your browser for the web page that you’re looking at right now is immediately visible, so it’s easy to understand why new developers are overly focused on becoming a mobile app or web developer. The go-to skills every new developer wants to learn today are HTML, CSS and JavaScript (plus any frontend specific framework/library like React, Vue or Angular).

We’re lucky in our industry that the majority of tools a developer needs to build a website are freely available right there on your computer already. With a web browser and only a text editor (although realistically you should be using an IDE, but even many IDEs are also free) you can write HTML, CSS and JavaScript and test it in your browser. For free. As long as you can afford even a cheap laptop, there are no other commercial products or tools you need to purchase to get started. It’s no wonder in recent years we’ve been seeing a ‘Gold Rush’ with so many new developers rushing in to get a start in the industry. As with any other Gold Rush in history though, just because others before you have ‘made it rich’ doesn’t mean that you’ll also be successful.

It’s common to see new prospective new developers discussing online and sharing advice on how they are building a website to show in interviews as a portfolio project. Given the ubiquitous nature of websites and the fact that it’s relatively cheap and easy to get started with website development, it’s really no surprise that this is where new developers are focusing their skill development and job searches.

The thing that gets overlooked though, is that the large majority of software developed today is not for websites, and most large software systems don’t even use HTML or CSS (since they don’t have a web frontend). it’s also likely most large systems are not built with JavaScript (although NodeJS is being used more widely for backend processing). If you pause to take a look around you, unless you are standing in the middle of a field, you’re likely surrounded by electronic devices that are dependent on software control systems, almost every electronic device in your home has some sort of system that controls it’s features: TVs, clothes washers/dryers, microwave ovens, regular overs

If you have a car , it has an engine control system that runs 100M lines of code, likely developed in C or C++, systems that have no visible frontend or user interface. Screen based entertainment systems, sat nav, and digital dial displays (replacing analog speedometer and tachometer dials) only add additional systems on top of this with additional millions of lines of code.

It’s easy to see why HTML/CSS/JavaScript gets the attention and focus that is does because of the tools are mostly free (other than the cost of a laptop) and the highly visible nature of the websites we use every day. In terms of volume of code developed for the devices that surround us in our every day lives, websites and frontend tech are still only a fraction of what we interact with in the electronic devices we use every day.

View at Medium.com
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Use every situation as an opportunity to learn

Tip for the day:

Software development is a career of continual learning. There’s always something new to learn, and always someone to learn from. Use every situation you find yourself in as a new opportunity to learn. Everything you learn now will at some point be useful to you at some point in the future, even if it’s not immediately obvious right now.

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Investing in your skills development – how do you choose where to invest? (part 2).

I’ve written before about the importance of keeping your skills up to date, and this is a followup to a previous post, answering the question ‘how do you decide where you should spend your time?’

You can never keep up with everything, every new programming language, every new tech stack, every new trend; you need to understand and acknowledge that first.

Next, decide what matters to you, and where you want to spend your (limited) time keeping up to date. This is different for everyone, but it could be any combination of:

– keeping up to date with the tech you’re currently working with (all or parts of)

– keeping (or getting) up to date with ‘something else’ that maybe next on your horizon

– keeping an eye on upcoming and emerging tech trends. Trends come and go over time, some last longer than others. You can’t jump on every new thing that comes up, so you need to make your own decisions on whether something is likely to be part of your future or not. In other words, would it be worth investing your time in this trend or not?

The last point is hard when starting out because you have no past experience to compare against, but spending some time reading the chatter online will give you a rough feeling of whether something is increasing in popularity or not.

As with everything, you need to sensibly assess tech trends in order to work out what is pure hype and will never go anywhere, vs things where there’s some substance and is likely to evolve into something you should get more familiar with.

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Principals and techniques are more valuable that specific skills

It seems like everyone wants to learn to program and become a developer nowdays, which is great, but there’s a noticeable trend online of people asking how to learn language xyz in the shortest amount of time imaginable and get a job by next month, which is a completely unrealistic expectation.

We all have bills to pay, I get it. However, whereas learning how to build a simple HTML page today may get you your first job and keep you busy for a few months, it may not keep you employed for long if you’re not prepared to keep your skills up to date and keep up with the industry trends.

Technologies in software development change quick. What’s hot this year may be out of date the next year. You need to commit to investing in keeping your skills up to date and to stay current with the current skill demands. If you’re a relatively new developer or are just getting started, it would help to do some research about programming languages and frameworks to get an understanding of how quickly things have changed in the past. In the early 2000s for example, every Java based web application was built with Apache Struts and it was replaced with Spring MVC (and a few others) in the space of a couple of years. Web frameworks have a significantly quick turnover. JavaScript based web frameworks and libraries have come and gone in the last few years at an alarming rate – jQuery used to be everywhere and is now is a second choice (or not even considered) over the main frameworks dominating this space, Angular, React and Vue.

It’s important to keep in perspective that programming languages are tools, and learning a programming language alone does not make you a developer. A comparison is learning to use a hammer when intending to get a job as a framer building houses – it’s more obvious to see how ridiculous that expectation is, but the same thing applies to only learning a programming language.

Principals and techniques are reusable and transferrable skills, no matter what programming language you are using. Focus on developing your software development skills first, and secondly a programming language.

A career in software development is a career of continual learning and keeping your skills up to date. Regularly invest in your skills and you’ll be able to enjoy a long and rewarding career in software development.

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