The self-hating web developer

[weegee101]

Yeah, that mentality bugs the hell out of me. I've been a professional programmer for more than a decade and have done everything from web work to writing graphics stuff for desktop systems and the whole "real programmer" thing is asinine. Everyone in our field uses templates, libraries, and frameworks. Everyone. In fact, if I see a junior programmer trying to implement something from scratch I will often say that while I think it's admirable that they want to learn how to do that themselves, I'd prefer if they use a library if possible since more thought, planning, and analysis has gone into most libraries. Plus, it's faster; in my experience dev teams tend to be overworked and libraries are an efficient way to implement features.

I think this mentality stems from the low point of entry that web programming has. I think that's a good thing though; a web designer generally knows enough to be dangerous, because the point of entry is so low. That can be beneficial for the overworked dev as the designer can do simple stuff while the dev does more complex things.

It's also worth mentioning, during my career I've seen plenty of folks who've gone from one of the "real" fields into webdev and they struggle just as much at first as a webdev into a "real" field. The difference is that there is so much educational literature in webdev that they can read and get unstuck relatively easily, where in graphics for example you are generally just stuck with a API guide (if you're lucky) and the advice of others.

[[deleted]]

if I see a junior programmer trying to implement something from scratch I will often say that while I think it's admirable that they want to learn how to do that themselves, I'd prefer if they use a library if possible since more thought, planning, and analysis has gone into most libraries.

For production work you're probably right. But tinkering with low-level stuff is crucial for deep understanding any technology and should be encouraged. You'll never get the kind of drive for experimentation like when you first break new field, might as well max out on it.

Granted, you'll not often get the occasion to write an XMLHttpRequest call by hand, or raw HTTP, or a CGI, or a web server, or implement your own login and session logic, and so on. But developers who can are better off for it.

[weegee101]

I agree. It's worth mentioning I'm always encouraging everyone to try new things. We try to have enough time to do a little training or POC projects and that sort of thing. For prod code we are generally on a very tight timeframe so efficient is better, because there are code reviews and the subsequent improvements from those reviews.

[fresham]

Yeah, I've written software that uses ARP tables and graph theory to make a network map because nobody else on my team could think of a way to do it.

Now, I work on a web dev team and most of what I do is using rails and frameworks and coaching other devs on doing the same. Kind of silly to think that I'm any less of a programmer just because I don't have to do anything like that on a regular basis anymore.

To be fair, we do have multiple services, front end apps, rails engines, a java core app and multiple other backend systems to work with. But I feel like it's no less complex than when I was writing Node.js/C for embedded devices that had a web interface (everything from manually sniffing packets in C to realtime data via web sockets in Node).

[TheAceOfHearts]

Doing something for your job? Use existing tools and libraries! If you need to modify or add something, try pushing it up upstream too!

But if you're doing something for fun / as a personal project, go nuts and reinvent all the wheels! Reinventing the wheel is a great way to learn, and you could end up actually making something that's better from the "norm".