Talk in English - US at Madison PHP Conference 2017
Track Name:
Grand Canyon
Short URL: https://joind.in/talk/06555
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Web development (or web programming as I like to call it) is filled with illusions. These illusions, masquerading as common sense, are things like attempting to be "time saving" and tidbits like "don't re-invent the wheel" that are widespread among programmers and web developers. Though good intentioned, these illusions mislead us as web programmers to take the wrong path when building a website. In this talk, I want to bust some of these illusions and mistakes; like using content management systems for single page websites when a simple HTML page will suffice, or installing ultra heavy CSS frameworks when just 500 lines of CSS will be needed, or using a standard shopping cart that your cousin's best friend's sister uses and you want it for your ecommerce shop when you are selling just one product and don't need it (true story). I want to talk about things like that. I see websites being built in a horrible fashion daily and this is not how web development was supposed to be.
Comments
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This talk was too negative. It was too focused on bashing CMS's and did not spend enough time discussing actual solutions. It's clear that the speaker was very passionate about the topic, but the speaker did not take scaling issues into account during the talk. I think this speaker has potential, but needs to work on researching the topic more in-depth and keeping the talk positive.
I disagree with the anonymous commenter who said the talk was too negative. The speaker wasn't bashing CMS's just for the sake of bashing them—she was merely saying that a CMS is overkill for many applications. In fact, even a framework can be overkill in some situations. Overengineering is definitely a common problem in our industry.
In one example the speaker gave, a client wanted a website which was pretty much just a representation of a business card. It was done with WordPress when some HTML and CSS would not only have sufficed, but would've been faster to produce and faster to load. To call this bashing WordPress is like saying that it's bashing shotguns to say you shouldn't use a shotgun to kill a mosquito—it's just overkill!
Agree with anonymous. Of course in a world of unlimited resources the speaker's points are very valid. But when you factor in limited staff time/resources along with many clients demanding applications they can make simple updates themselves then custom coding for each project is unrealistic.
Maybe the speaker did not intend it but I also had the perception that it was CMS bashing. I am sure she is a very talented developer but the industry is moving towards CMS's to meet client needs. I feel like more time could have been spent on how to effectively and safely use these products rather than flat out saying don't use.
Everything comes with risk, as IT professionals our mission is to mitigate those risks, not bury our head in the sand. By the logic used in this presentation then why wouldn't we all just develop our own operating systems? Many of the issues she covered for CMSs are the same.
Overall I thought the speaker was very knowledgeable, maybe I just missed the point. But I know I'm not the only one that felt this way.