#Front End Overview

Mid-1990s:

• First website
• User expecting information
• HTML & W3C
• No such thing as a Front End Developer

Late 1990s: Make it look like this

• Homer's Web Page
• User expects information to be properly designed
• CSS
• JS? Written in 10 days. Nut just yet.
• Frontend as appendix to backend (PHP, JSP, ASP)

Early 2000s: Make it look like this on different browsers

• Audiogalaxy
• User expects information to look the same no matter where it's seen.
• JS Now? Microsoft doesn't agree.
• Flash Plugin
• Flash/AS Developers, the first Front End developers arise

Mid-2000s: Make it simpler

• Youtube
• User expects rich media and engaging experiences
• Web 2.0
• JS, sort of.
• jQuery (kudos to prototype)
• Frontend as a career

Late 2000s: Make it work on phones

• Facebook
• User expects engaging experiences in all devices
• Flash fails on phones
• ES5
• HTML5 & CSS3
• Responsive Layouts
• NodeJS/NPM (Grunt)
• Frameworks arise: AngularJS, Backbone and EmberJS
• Frontend professionals, clear skill set and growing industry need

Now: Make it do everything

• Netflix
• User expects anything and everything, games, movies, sharing
• ES6
• Web Components
• ReactJS, Angular, Vue
• Functional programming
• State Managers / Event Sourcing
• Service Workers and PWAs
• Backend as a Service / Serverless
• JS Developers / UI Developers

What's next?

• Neuralink?
• Users are beyond the smartphone, they want a smart web
• Mixed Reality, for sure
• Data Visualization, beyond D3, Dynamic infographics?
• A/B Testing powered by Machine Learning
• Even smarter Analytics
• JS is the safest bet