Ask HN: Are JavaScript developers divided into 'fron-end devs' and 'true devs'? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are JavaScript developers divided into 'fron-end devs' and 'true devs'?

6 pointsipselon8 comments

Recently I have read the discussion in twitter between overlords of JavaScript about if they have to give examples of how to work with their complex tools in ES5 rather than in ES6, because ES5 is only for 'front-end devs' but not for 'true devs'.

So, I wander, is there such a deep division in JavaScript community ?

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It is just a common thing everywhere, not just in javaScript. It even has a Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

"Well, no true developer uses ES5"

Ignore the haters. Use what is best for the job based on a variety of criteria.

I needed to ask about this division because I'm rather new in this community, and I created the tool which is devoted to simplify development of UI (react-ui-builder). And now I'm deciding if I need to switch generation of the source code to ES6, or wait a bit.

You can still target ES6 and have people use a transpiler to hit ES5, noting that not everybody is familiar with the tool chain(s) necessary to do that efficiently.

I identify more with the front-end devs, even though I've spent the last few years working with node, sails and meteor.js.

I think that a lot of javascript devs (compared to java, C etc) get into it via web design and j query, whereas 'true devs' often have a real CS background.

It seems like just another 'web dev isn't real programming' bias but on a smaller scale.

Aha, I got it. So, front-end developers may event don't know about nodejs ?

Sure, because they have no exposure to it. Doesn't mean they're not a "true dev"; that's orthogonal.

My take is that JavaScript development has never been viewed as 'real development' and that devs that have felt insecure about this have latched on to ES6

It's an artificial distinction. There are good ("true") and bad ("front-end") in all environments. The language itself is immaterial.

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