WTF

[bertine]

I am reading the results of the A List Apart 2010 Survey of People Who Make Websites and this is one of the graphs of their results:



Um... 4.6% of Developers have a skill gap of backend programming languages? I guess they could be a front end developer but that would just be weird!

Comments

[sterlingphoenix.livejournal.com]

Maybe a skill-gap means they haven't learned HTML5 yet or something?

[bertine.livejournal.com]

The survey asked if they knew ANY backend language.

[sterlingphoenix.livejournal.com]

So they, uh, know 95.4% of them?... (;

[bertine.livejournal.com]

Wait, did you take this survey?

[sterlingphoenix.livejournal.com]

No, as a matter of fact I have NO idea what I'm talking about (;

[sithlet.livejournal.com]

I know a fair number of developers and I don't think that is an unfair number amongst people whose job title is "developer" - they're not all 100% competent. And given the huge drop in percentage between that and the other job titles, it's still pretty miniscule. Says someone who has a pretty huge skill gap of programming language.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

I suppose I run with a group of people that are developers that do mostly backend programming. It just stuck me as really weird.

Do you want to learn programming?

[jayp39.livejournal.com]

What do they consider a back-end programming skill gap? At Grooveshark we have pretty clear divisions between front end engineers and back end engineers. Grooveshark is more of a web app than a web site, so maybe we're a bit special in that regard...but our senior Javascript Engineer wouldn't want to touch the server side stuff with a 10 foot pole, although we often describe what she works on as the "backend of the front end."

[bertine.livejournal.com]

The question asked if you knew any backend programming languages (asp.net, ruby, php, python, etc.)

Most of the non-micro websites I have worked on are more of a web app then a website. However, I am not sure where "developer" falls in their title list. They actually need more titles because front-end and back-end are very different.

So you just hand her data objects and she never goes in and tries to learn them to see how they work?

[sithlet.livejournal.com]

I've considered the idea on occasion, but never really seriously.

[bertine.livejournal.com]

It is fun, however, you sort of have to like it to be good at it. It is a good profession