On being a "JavaScript framework developer"...
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Creating "vanilla websites" moved out of the mainstream. Today, an entire industry focuses on doing things with a particular framework. And that's only logical.
Reach for the mainstream framework, and you get developer productivity for free! They say. If you need a new feature, anything is only one npm dependency away.
Every website I've worked on in the last years (maybe even a decade?) is annoyingly complex (and brittle). Do you need a sticky header — npm install. Do you want to validate a form — npm install. Do you want to show a modal — npm install...
The result is bloated websites built by framework developers. And you can't blame all the new developers for that. When all the job postings require framework experience, people joining the web dev world focus on becoming framework experts.
However, is focusing on one particular framework the best approach?
Here's Maximiliano Firtman with some wisdom:
[Framework] developers are less comfortable moving between frameworks and libraries.
[Framework] developers don’t have a full understanding of how the browser works, what it offers, and what “magic” their framework provides.
[Framework] developers often rely on a limited toolbox, using the same solution for every problem, even when it’s not the most efficient option.
Sometimes we end up using the wrong solution for a problem, leading to slow user experiences and too much complexity.
Knowing the DOM, modern CSS and semantic HTML is invaluable for building good websites! General web dev knowledge will lead to a better, faster and more accessible web.
I'd love the industry to follow Alex Russel here:
Never, ever hire for JavaScript framework skills. Instead, interview and hire only for fundamentals like web standards, accessibility, modern CSS, semantic HTML, and Web Components.
A dev knowing the web platform will produce great websites regardless of the tech stack. At the end, there's "just" web stuff below all the framework magic, right?
A framework developer, on the other hand, might have a hard time switching frameworks, reaching for simple solutions or delivering high-quality websites without the entire JavaScript ecosystem. And I've seen this exact problem plenty of times.
So, if you can, focus on becoming a web developer rather than a framework developer! And if you're hiring, focus on bringing people on who know the web. They'll be a much bigger help when you migrate your site to the next trending framework in five years... (and we all know it will happen).
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Frontend nerd with over ten years of experience, freelance dev, "Today I Learned" blogger, conference speaker, and Open Source maintainer.