Webdev seemed so easy, but now it seems so hard...
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.
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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.
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.
~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.
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