Backend and Frontend Development
Introduction
Half-way through my bootcamp, I found it challenging to stay motivated as my focus became keeping up with the pace of the material. I thought I would use this opportunity to remind myself of my goals and research more about the web development industry. I will be trying to explain in my own words the breakdown of two major worlds in web development, front-end and back-end development. This blog is intended to explore the skills and technologies that are used.
I assume most of my readers understand a little bit about front-end and back-end technologies. If you do, feel free to skim ahead. Below is my conceptualization from information I’ve come across and I’m sure you’ll have a better way to help yourself understand after reading.
Front-end Development
Front-end development to me is like the clothes we wear. It is often referred to the “client-side” and a front-end developer needs to teeter along the lines of functionality and style. I feel the ability to be a successful front-end developer hinges on the ability to make choices that provide users with a unique experience, while not compromising on functionality. In addition, making sure the quality of the user-experience is the same across devices and browsers. Users use the front end to interact with the backend. At the heart of it all front-end development is building how a user is interacting with the website, web application, software etc. that developers build. Below is a list of Front-end technologies and I’m sure more will be added to the list and will come up in job hunts.
JavaScript, HTML, CSS, React, Vue, Angular, React Native, Bootstrap, AngularJS, EmberJS, jQuery
Back-end Development
Back-end development handles the functionality and capability of whatever application or website that is being built. Often referred to as the “server-side”, the code in the backend can be thought as the engine or brain for the web application. Back-end development is extremely open ended because functionality is pretty much an evolving and infinite concept. However, I think one can think of skills needed to be a successful back-end developer is the ability to design an applications functionality. Because web applications have so many kinds of functionalities, one must enjoy solving function related problems. Back-end is less visual but is rewarding because of the problem solving nature behind it. List of notable back-end technologies are below.
PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python, Java, Node.js, PHP, SQL
Conclusion
In conclusion, there’s a lot of technology out there use to build the web and new ones are constantly being introduced. At the current moment web development is broken down into front-end and back-end worlds. Who knows when or if in the future that will change but I think knowing which technologies exist, skills needed, and the nature of the kinds of problems that a developer can encounter will help one formulate their career goals and keep an aspiring developer motivated.
