Just last week, it seemed like all I was going to need was a webserver and something to run TypeScript, now there's all this stuff about tech stacks and databases and endless tools to run frameworks to manage tools for running frameworks, then I've gotta figure out how to deploy all of it...
It seems like full-stack web development is a lot harder than it probably should be. I'm starting to understand why out of the 4ish billion people on the internet, there are only a few thousand developers actively making cool things on the net.
On the other hand, Django looks very appetising, though I don't write in Python, I'm willing to learn.
I've never used Django, so can't comment on that. Depending on what you're trying to do, there may well be ready-made frameworks/programs that are more specialized (and easier to use).
As an alternative, I'm currently working on a tutorial (from calhoun.io) that walks you through building a web app from scratch in Go. I like Go quite a bit, and because it was built with web apps in mind, getting at least basic functionality is very quick.
This tutorial seems very appealing, as it contains pretty much everything I need to do, but a $249 price point is too much for me. The book-only package... a bit more reasonable. I've put this in the bookmarks for now. Thanks~
Sure thing. I caught it on sale (so it was about half that), but probably wouldn't have jumped at that price, either. You can get some samples of the course if you sign up for his newsletter (which I've actually found pretty good, as it's typically been nothing more than a daily tip or discussion of a specific feature of Go). These may help jump-start you enough that you can use other resources going forward. It'll also include at least part of the book, so you can see if that's at all worth it.
life is too short to waste it chasing the frontend world. i don't mean to discourage you, just that i wish i hadn't spent so much energy into it. godspeed friend
~bartender, a White Lady for me, please -- and some sweet cream for Smudge.
I've been making websites since college in 1996, and I do webdev at my day job, but I refuse to do any sort of webdev that involves server-side code, databases, JavaScript, TypeScript, Node, React/Vue/Angular, etc. unless I'm damned well getting paid.
Not when I can build my own static website (with a blog and RSS feeds) with pandoc, sed, awk, HTML-XML-utils, rsync, a bunch of shell scripts, and a makefile. That's one self-inflicted First World Problem I can do without. And it doesn't cost me that much to run. I deposit twenty bucks with NearlyFreeSpeech.net every 2-5 months and I'm fine.
There's some good replies on this thread..!
I'm mostly trying to find the right balance between "doesn't take ages to make" and "efficient with as few problems as possible". A lot of these frameworks and libraries and stuff do look appetising, but always ends up as a new way to smash together stuff I don't understand.
Though I'm a bit too superstitious to use PHP, I reckon Django w/ nginx & MySQL (no CSS or JS preprocessor) should work fine,
It appears the fire alarm has gone off near me so I'll write the rest of this later...
(later edit: Whoops, forgot what I was going to write.)
I genuinely love pure Javascript. It's such a freeing language to code in, I just detest all these horrible frameworks that people impose on it to turn it into something it was never meant to be.
A static website, a shell script to obfuscate some of my JS, and all my code and/or extra libraries are hosted by me instead of linked to via some external site.
yeah for real... i'm in school for software engineering and i hate every second of it because i've realized they're just trying to teach me to fix problems that shouldn't exist in the first place... i've only been doing web dev for 6 years and i kind of gave up on it after taking a step back and realizing what was happening. now i run an openbsd server and use c + httpd, relayd, and more. it's way more fun for a traditionally "lesser" outcome.
This whole post reminds me of a certain motherfucking website.
I'm not actually saying your shitty site should look like this. What I'm saying is that all the problems we have with websites are ones we create ourselves. Websites aren't broken by default, they are functional, high-performing, and accessible. You break them. You son-of-a-bitch.http://motherfuckingwebsite.com
It really does feel like most problems in our trade are either self-inflicted or inflicted upon us by ignorant management who drink whatever koolaid is on offer.
absolutely. i saw another post in a similar vein that said essentially make it look like craigslist or you're doing it wrong. i wholly agree with this because it clearly doesn't take much to make something good, so why go so hard to end up at the same result? with a lot of the projects i've done where i asked people for feedback on the design, the number one criticism was it was too much - even though it really wasn't, in my eyes (back then).
i also saw a site that fits perfectly into this:
https://xhtml.clubI know that site, and I have Bradley Taunt's feed in my reader.
I like to say that if a web app doesn't work in lynx then it just doesn't work.
~bartender I'll take a decaf coffee. Yea yea, I know, gotta work in the morning though.
Started making sites when I was a kid, first couple jobs out of college were PHP sites running Apache and MySQL. Now I wouldn't say that stuff was *easy*, but it was a heck of a lot easier than what we have now.
Local development was as simple as install Apache and MySQL locally. Drop some files in /var/www and you're off to the races. FTP to your server, drop it in, and you're live. Now of course as you scaled things got a little more complicated, but the basic premise was the same. I've worked for multiple medium size companies that did this, wrapped in version control and automation scripts.
And you know what? That method still works, and probably covers most side projects you'd want to build. My last "successful" side project was plain old PHP files (not even Laravel) SFTP'd on a Digital Ocean $5/month VPS. Made a couple hundred dollars a month, good beer money. I built it in a few days and it did the job. Would've taken me months with a modern tech stack, and probably cost more. Not saying this to brag by any means (it went belly up in a few months), but just demonstrating that the old ways still work.
The old ways are a heck of a lot more fun too. You focus on your idea, not tech stacks and frameworks.
I wrote about this on my capsule if you're interested.
=>gemini://alextheuxguy.mooo.com/2023-06-14.gmi Link