Keeping Up with Coding Ecosystem
Okay, this is very much a general discussion topic, but it's something I've long discussed with other engineers and I'd really appreciate HN's input. It seems like a vast amount of extremely hyped up new frameworks quickly fall off for use in real production applications. For example, Vue was extremely hyped up but React quickly won out for most real world applications. Same goes for numerous new frameworks and libraries, as I'm sure you all know. My question is if we could come up with some sort of a framework of criteria to help us determine if and when we should start trying to apply the 'next big thing' in our real projects. It's so important to keep our skill sets up-to-date, but obviously we can stay current with everything to a substantial level of expertise and actual understanding without trying it in a real world application. Looking forward to hearing how everyone approaches this. It is not important to keep your skill sets up to date, if by "up to date" you mean "having used everything that got a fair amount of press for a couple of months". You don't have time for that. Nobody does. So don't chase press releases and puff articles. Chase real world results that fix your problems. If framework X fixes problems Y and Z, and you don't have problem Y or Z, then skip framework X. It's a waste of your time. I'd say that once every 5 to 10 years, there's something worth moving on to even if it doesn't fix any of your current problems. The rest of the time, skip it unless you know why not. You should not ever, under any circumstances, apply the 'next big thing' to your project if your criteria for success is "other people are using it". You should evaluate your needs and pick a tool based on those. There aren't "winners". There are tools. Some of them are more effective at certain things than others. If you are asking how to evaluate "which framework is going to win", then I'd argue you have no business making these decisions. I'm not saying to use what frameworks win in popularity. The problem is; how are you supposed to know which framework/library tool is going to be the best for your project without actually trying it in said project? I've heard a lot of stories of startups going down a path of using a new library because they initally thought it would be the right tool to fit their needs, but after actually implementing it they find it was the worst decision they ever made. They inevitably end up needing to rewrite everything (eventually) using the more appropriate tool. With that said, I'm looking for advice on how to avoid that scenario, but yet stay current with tech. Prototype! Use frameworks that are at least 3+ years old for production