

Ask HN: Are JavaScript developers divided into 'fron-end devs' and 'true devs'? - ipselon

Recently I have read the discussion in twitter between overlords of JavaScript about if they have to give examples of how to work with their complex tools in ES5 rather than in ES6, because ES5 is only for &#x27;front-end devs&#x27; but not for &#x27;true devs&#x27;.<p>So, I wander, is there such a deep division in JavaScript community ?
======
27182818284
It is just a common thing everywhere, not just in javaScript. It even has a
Wikipedia page:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman)

"Well, no _true_ developer uses ES5"

Ignore the haters. Use what is best for the job based on a variety of
criteria.

~~~
ipselon
I needed to ask about this division because I'm rather new in this community,
and I created the tool which is devoted to simplify development of UI (react-
ui-builder). And now I'm deciding if I need to switch generation of the source
code to ES6, or wait a bit.

~~~
davelnewton
You can still target ES6 and have people use a transpiler to hit ES5, noting
that not everybody is familiar with the tool chain(s) necessary to do that
efficiently.

------
louisswiss
I identify more with the front-end devs, even though I've spent the last few
years working with node, sails and meteor.js.

I think that a lot of javascript devs (compared to java, C etc) get into it
via web design and j query, whereas 'true devs' often have a real CS
background.

It seems like just another 'web dev isn't real programming' bias but on a
smaller scale.

~~~
ipselon
Aha, I got it. So, front-end developers may event don't know about nodejs ?

~~~
davelnewton
Sure, because they have no exposure to it. Doesn't mean they're not a "true
dev"; that's orthogonal.

------
supercoder
My take is that JavaScript development has never been viewed as 'real
development' and that devs that have felt insecure about this have latched on
to ES6

------
davelnewton
It's an artificial distinction. There are good ("true") and bad ("front-end")
in all environments. The language itself is immaterial.

