Why Full-Stack Now? | Seika Hirori

Seika Hirori

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Why Full-Stack Now?

Date: 20 Aug 2022

Category: blog Programming Journey

Tags: Journal

Abstract: Oh yeah… PWAs exist… and what’s this? Full-stack elements fulfills my needs for personal projects? I am interested :3

I did not expect to set my sights on Full-Stack Development at all. I thoroughly enjoyed coding back-end via Python and Java, but my previous attempts to get into web-related stuff put me off it. Before committing to learning the basics with the [MOOC.fi’s Java course]{.underline}, I tried out some web introduction courses via [The Odin Project]{.underline} and [Free Code Camp]{.underline}. Unfortunately, both of these things were difficult to understand. It also did not help that I was not interested in the Front-end aspects at the time. Even before starting these web intro courses, a mate introduced me to Python long ago and the aspect of “lul you can make 2+2 = 4” was so fascinating to me. As a result, the web intro courses did not fit my learning desires at the time. After completing the Java course, I attempted to get into web by using [Spring Boot (a Java Framework)]{.underline} for an ill-prepared personal project. Unfortunately, I was very confused as I had no idea what was happening (despite reading the documentation).

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I wrote the backend with Python for my personal project ([miru]{.underline}). I had an issue: “... so how do I display information to the user?”. My initial thought was to develop STRICTLY for one platform. Next, I narrowed it down to mobile devices as it would be the most accessible device for myself. Finally, Android seemed to be the best option as I could test on an older device OR through a Virtual Machine (VM). HOWEVER, I quickly realized that the learning curve and period was too drastic for my liking on the available tools for Python.

Then, two things hit me. First, I randomly had the thought of “o, it would be nice to have a personal site to display links to my projects on Github, blog posts, and so on…” a while back. For a brief period, I lightly went through [MDN’s web doc]{.underline} before I shifted focus elsewhere. Second, it hit me again when I used a few Progressive Web Apps (PWA) on my phone and desktop: “... Oh yeah, PWA exists! :3”. This stemmed from a media site and [DevDocs.io]{.underline} being PWAs. The latter especially reintroduced AND showed me that PWAs made progress to where it can download and contain offline data. When I tried PWAs on Android in 2018, it amazed me about its functionality… but I quickly forgot about it since the performance was sluggish compared to using the app’s native version. This led me to learning about web frameworks for Python, which was Django.

Now, I tried to follow Django’s tutorial docs BUT I needed supplemental material. I realized that CS50w (Web Development) uses Django for the course. This was perfect as the course provided a great explanation of how web development works and the synergy between front-end and back-end.

To conclude: Did I expect to dive in the world of Full-Stack? NOPEEE, but aspect seems like the best option for where I am at in my journey. Let’s get it.

I did not expect to set my sights on Full-Stack Development at all. I thoroughly enjoyed coding back-end via Python and Java, but my previous attempts to get into web-related stuff put me off it. Before committing to learning the basics with the [MOOC.fi’s Java course]{.underline}, I tried out some web introduction courses via [The Odin Project]{.underline} and [Free Code Camp]{.underline}. Unfortunately, both of these things were difficult to understand. It also did not help that I was not interested in the Front-end aspects at the time. Even before starting these web intro courses, a mate introduced me to Python long ago and the aspect of “lul you can make 2+2 = 4” was so fascinating to me. As a result, the web intro courses did not fit my learning desires at the time. After completing the Java course, I attempted to get into web by using [Spring Boot (a Java Framework)]{.underline} for an ill-prepared personal project. Unfortunately, I was very confused as I had no idea what was happening (despite reading the documentation).

Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I wrote the backend with Python for my personal project ([miru]{.underline}). I had an issue: “... so how do I display information to the user?”. My initial thought was to develop STRICTLY for one platform. Next, I narrowed it down to mobile devices as it would be the most accessible device for myself. Finally, Android seemed to be the best option as I could test on an older device OR through a Virtual Machine (VM). HOWEVER, I quickly realized that the learning curve and period was too drastic for my liking on the available tools for Python.

Then, two things hit me. First, I randomly had the thought of “o, it would be nice to have a personal site to display links to my projects on Github, blog posts, and so on…” a while back. For a brief period, I lightly went through [MDN’s web doc]{.underline} before I shifted focus elsewhere. Second, it hit me again when I used a few Progressive Web Apps (PWA) on my phone and desktop: “... Oh yeah, PWA exists! :3”. This stemmed from a media site and [DevDocs.io]{.underline} being PWAs. The latter especially reintroduced AND showed me that PWAs made progress to where it can download and contain offline data. When I tried PWAs on Android in 2018, it amazed me about its functionality… but I quickly forgot about it since the performance was sluggish compared to using the app’s native version. This led me to learning about web frameworks for Python, which was Django.

Now, I tried to follow Django’s tutorial docs BUT I needed supplemental material. I realized that CS50w (Web Development) uses Django for the course. This was perfect as the course provided a great explanation of how web development works and the synergy between front-end and back-end.

To conclude: Did I expect to dive in the world of Full-Stack? NOPEEE, but aspect seems like the best option for where I am at in my journey. Let’s get it.

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