Why do you think front-end is seen as less value than back-end developers

[Qubit]

Just out of curiosity why do you think front-end is looked kind of down upon compared to of sects of Computer Science. Also do you think that the way we look at front-end is justifiable? 

[Token]

Because back-end developers require more low level knowledge about the architecture the software will target.

[Bobrocket]

 

Typically front/back end refers to websites, gonna assume this for the rest of my post.

 

Answer these questions:

• What kind of languages are "front end" languages? (JS, HTML, CSS etc.)
• What kind of languages are "back end" languages? (PHP, RoR, CGI etc.)
• If you could rate JS (or any back end lang) on a scale of 1-10 on its difficulty to learn, what would it be?
• If you could rate PHP (or any back end lang) on a scale of 1-10 on its difficulty to learn, what would it be?

In short: it takes a monkey to learn HTML or CSS, and JS is so intertwined with HTML you'd be a fool to not learn it alongside HTML.

However, PHP and so forth are harder to learn (especially PHP, some of the functions are kinda messy, especially since it types a lot like a procedural language but has very strong OO capabilities that people often overlook).

 

Also, back end development needs immaculate security. Anyone can write a JS form validator, but that form validator will only protect against actual requests.

 

 

 

[Final]

In addition to what Bobrocket said, the back-end is about 99% more work too, front-end programming is childs play, requires next to no logic or knowledge in the language to produce the desirable effect. Plus, you are always going to want to invest more into the actual functionality (in most cases), than the front-end.

[Flamezzz]

Yes, in most cases it's rather trivial, and a lot of frameworks exist to make it even easier. It also has very little to do with Computer Science, more with design, user experience, usability and all of that crap.

[Bobrocket]

In addition to what Bobrocket said, the back-end is about 99% more work too, front-end programming is childs play, requires next to no logic or knowledge in the language to produce the desirable effect. Plus, you are always going to want to invest more into the actual functionality (in most cases), than the front-end.

 

I don't even know this guy but I like him

 

What I said applies to any form of front/back end (ie not just web), for example in a business infrastructure you might have some central server written in C/Java and the front end written in C# or something.

C# is incredibly easy to make intuitive, clean, and working GUIs. It also minimises the time programming considering it (typically) runs on some form of MS virtual machine (C# code w/ .NET is compiled in to MSIL, an intermediate language, hence why it's platform-dependent)

On the other hand, it takes a real genius to read the language of the gods ©, as well as considering some of the pitfalls of C (variables don't need to be assigned types if they're integers because they'll just turn into integers, for example), and the fact that it's such low level.

 

With that being said, C# is actually rising and rising in competition. It's an easy language to learn, and because so many companies rely extensively on MS, there is more and more demand for C# programmers. Another incredible bonus is that WinAPI calls are done relatively easily in C#, it's quite literally possibly one of the best languages for rapid development and is being incorporated more and more in infrastructure.

Alongside this, as soon as .NET is ported to Linux/Mac, C# programmers are going to be in such demand due running on multiple platforms without external libraries (re: Mono)

 

However, remember that a programming language is not a swiss army knife, per say, it's a tool for one set of jobs. If I were to write a web service, I'd use PHP. If I were to write another form of server (re: not necessarily web), I'd go Java all the way. If I were to write a client-sided application, I'd use C#.

This is what separates a coder and a programmer/engineer: a coder can write for a set of jobs, a programmer can adapt and write for any job (using the right tool too!)

[Botre]

Ehm.

 

In most enterprise scenarios I've experienced, front-end was never ever just a matter of "let's write some cute CSS and throw in some hipster javascript library for super 1337 effects".  People often mistake "front-end" for "aesthetic design".

 

Creating a proper scalable and dynamic  view architecture that is compatible with one or multiple template systems is not easy.

 

I joined in on an interview the other day were the interviewee randomly started dissing front-end, when asked to mock a simple Spring MVC + FreeMarker facebook clone, he froze.

 

TLDR: front-end is not equal to hobby-web-design.

Edited May 27, 2016 by Botre

[Final]

Ehm.

 

In most enterprise scenarios I've experienced, front-end was never ever just a matter of "let's write some cute CSS and throw in some hipster javascript library for super 1337 effects".  People often mistake "front-end" for "aesthetic design".

 

Creating a proper scalable and dynamic  view architecture that is compatible with one or multiple template systems is not easy.

 

I joined in on an interview the other day were the interviewee randomly started dissing front-end, when asked to mock a simple Spring MVC + FreeMarker facebook clone, he froze.

 

TLDR: front-end is not equal to hobby-web-design.

 

Most front-end jobs require HTML, CSS and JS knowledge. Of course front-end development is not limited to these three, but it's the vast majority of jobs which are limited to these languages in their responsibilities and therefore are valued less.

[liverare]

Both ends are complimentary. Without a front-end, a layman would be clueless as to how to use a programme. Conversely, without a functioning back-end, you simply have a pretty package but no actual content. Just out of pure bias I would say back-end requires more effort, but there can be some really stunning and beautifully designed front-ends too.

[Botre]

Most front-end jobs require HTML, CSS and JS knowledge. Of course front-end development is not limited to these three, but it's the vast majority of jobs which are limited to these languages in their responsibilities and therefore are valued less.

 

It's mainly frowned upon by people who, just like you, think it's nothing but fancy-hobby-aesthetic-photoshop-webdesign.

 

I can tell you this, front-end isn't valued less by the people who have actually worked with front-end developers

[Final]

It's mainly frowned upon by people who, just like you, think it's nothing but fancy-hobby-aesthetic-photoshop-webdesign.

 

I can tell you this, front-end isn't valued less by the people who have actually worked with front-end developers

 

I don't know whether you do this on purpose, put you read a question or a discussion and flip it on it's head to completely oppose what other people are stating, do you do this to make sure you are always correct? I really don't get it.

 

I never stated such, you are presuming that I look down on people who are front-end developers, that isn't the case at all; however, objectively speaking, front-end developers generally have less responsibilities and much less knowledge required within their job when compared with a back-end developer.

 

EDIT:

 

Just to clarify, when someone's role is less important to the actual project, they generally need less experience, less of a skill-set and generally will be paid less as a result of this, therefore we have this sort of dilemma where back-end developers are paid more and required to be more knowledgeable in their field as a result of their importance, creating this sort of issue. And the fact people bring the point up that html and css are scripting not programming.

 

Easier roles = less value in salary = less value to company and computer science, obviously there is cases in which front-end developers are required to be better equipped than the average.

Edited May 27, 2016 by Final

[Botre]

I don't know whether you do this on purpose, put you read a question or a discussion and flip it on it's head to completely oppose what other people are stating, do you do this to make sure you are always correct? I really don't get it.

 

I never stated such, you are presuming that I look down on people who are front-end developers, that isn't the case at all; however, objectively speaking, front-end developers generally have less responsibilities and much less knowledge required within their job when compared with a back-end developer.

 

Have you ever worked as a back-end developer in an enterprise setting?

[Krys]

true

[xather]

good point