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Comment by moconnor | Hacker News Reader

The first few times I heard the term "full stack" developer it meant somebody who could understand what's going on at all levels of the call stack.

That means from the kernel through C libraries, web server / JIT / high-level server langauge, through network layer, through browser implementation, javascript JIT, javascript / CSS / HTML interpretation and layout and so on.

Has this turned into "I can does the servers and the javascripts too" or did I encounter the term out of its original context?

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Full stack developers have definitely been watered down over the years. In addition to your list you had to know all the electrical engineering behind the hardware. Further you at least needed a minor in chemistry. I scoff at someone who calls themselves "full stack" developer and couldn't even draw the silicon molecule.

I just don't trust someone to write my web app who doesn't understand how electrons move.

Kids these days, sheesh!

I just don't trust someone to write my web app who doesn't understand how electrons move.

Fuckin' magnets. How do they work?

Note to self: Dont hire a pair of clowns to build a web app, if they answer "miracles" to that question

Indeed, magnetized needle and a steady hand is the only tool a full-stack developer needs.

Ah, but what about emacs?

I know you're tongue in cheek, but it really is true, that 'stack' depends entirely on your viewpoint.

For an electrical engineer, working in wireless communications, the stack starts with radio propagation, then radio transceivers, sampling/reconstruction, (de)modulation, error correction, medium access and ends at the kernel driver. Someone who is "full stack" above the kernel driver could be blissfully unaware of the layers of turtles below them.

Then, for the know-it-all communications engineers, there are the device engineers, whose stack starts at the subatomic level, and progresses through atoms, molecules, layers, devices, subsystems, circuits, packages and ends at the integrated circuit.

The term "stack" has been used to indicate the server OS, database and programming language for a while (i.e. LAMP). With client side code having really exploded from a few years ago I had just assumed, in the context of web development, "full stack" to mean somebody who can do both. It's probably only relevant recently when you could choose to be a "front end" developer that only does the browser code. A few years ago the browser code was just something we all did - which is why sites were often ugly!

Obviously we're dealing with stacks upon stacks if you want consider all aspects of computing. I would not think it was very common to find anybody who is truly skilled all the way from chip design up to the graphic design of a web page. Well, at least, I would not expect somebody to be great at every layer. Some of these areas are a career's worth of dedication to master and then also keep up.

I have only heard it in the "servers and browsers" context

Your understanding was my understanding. I wouldn't call someone that just does web development full stack, unless they also wrote the browser.

That understanding limits the term to uselessness.

> Has this turned into "I can does the servers and the javascripts too" or did I encounter the term out of its original context?

Haha, I cringed.

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