Web Programming Likes and Dislikes

Since they’ve never been enumerated before, here are things I do and don’t like about web applications programming.

Dislikes - Least to Greatest

• That no real debugging environment exists, so code has to be written to temporarily print out variables and data structures in an effort to track down bugs
• Many projects don’t contain enough abstraction, making standard tasks time-consuming
• Writing CSS
• When code is interspersed with HTML
• Writing JavaScript

Likes - Least to Greatest

• It often requires knowledge and experience with many different technologies: scripting languages, data structures, databases, XHTML, CSS, JavaScript
• Can provide experience in dealing with deadlines, changing requirements, feature creep, and clients that assume features not mentioned in the original spec
• It serves as an excellent starting point for coders wishing to develop their skills. Working on a variety of web-based applications is a great way to become better at problem solving, critical thinking, working with others.
• Though it’s often regarded as less-difficult than developing non-web-based applications, there are many complex problems begging to be solved by clever means. Most of those I see are related to good code design.

Some Reflection

For more than a year I’ve been wanting to improve my skills in non-web-applications programming. However, since there’s still much to be done in the field I don’t envision ever leaving it entirely. The experience I’ve gained since I started writing HTML in 9th grade has landed me several jobs and enabled me to earn money while going to college. It’s the field of computing with the least barriers to entry, shallowest learning curves, and the most job opportunities. Experienced coders that also have an eye for design should have no difficulty finding work, since most smaller shops prefer to hire a single person willing to fulfill both needs.

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