Tuesday, February 8

Being A Full Stack Developer


Full stack developers are the Swiss army knives of the development world. As masters of multiple programming languages, these savvy professionals are capable of transitioning seamlessly from one development environment to the next. 

A boundless sense of curiosity drives full stack developers — it’s not enough to know that something works, they need to understand the how and why behind each functionality.

Full stack technology refers to the entire depth of a computer system application, and full stack developers straddle two separate web development domains: the front end and the back end.

The front end includes everything that a client, or site viewer, can see and interact with. By contrast, the back end refers to all the servers, databases, and other internal architecture that drives the application; usually, the end-user never interacts with this realm directly.

The easiest way to put the full stack into perspective is to imagine a restaurant. The front end encompasses the well-decorated, comfortable seating areas where visitors enjoy their food. The kitchen and pantry make up the “back end” and are typically hidden away from the customer’s view. 

Chefs (developers) gather permanently stored materials from the pantry (the database) and perform operations on it in the kitchen (the server), and then serve up fully-prepared meals (information) to the user.

Front end developers work to optimize the visible parts of an application for web browsers and mobile devices. Front end platforms are usually built with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript; however, they can also be made via pre-packaged code libraries or content management systems like WordPress. 

Back end developers, in contrast, refine the software code that communicates with servers, databases, or other proprietary software that conveys information to front end interfaces.

Those knowledgeable in both front end and back end are called full stack developers, meaning they are well versed in both disciplines.

The term “full stack developer” originated during the early days of the web, when websites were small and uncomplicated enough to allow a single person to tackle every aspect of site-building. But in the decades since those initial days, the web has grown ever more complex. 

The rise of machine learning, predictive computing, and responsive design has made it challenging — but not impossible! — for a single developer to handle every aspect of building and designing a site or application.

Today, modern businesses often rely on entire teams of developers to operate network equipment, work with virtual machines, and manage enormous databases. It takes time to develop a comprehensive, nuts-and-bolts understanding of all these emerging technologies. 

The developers who do so are, for that reason, versatile enough to shift fluidly between front and back end development and take on any task that their team might need them to tackle.

According to a 2020 Stack Overflow survey of 65,000 developers worldwide, roughly 54.9 percent, identify as full stack.  READ MORE...

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