I've always enjoyed meeting other software developers. When meeting someone new, I usually ask "what kind of software do you work on". I've asked and been asked this question countless times.<p>Recently however, I've had several exchanges like the following:<p><pre><code> X: So, you're a software developer too?
Me: Yeah!
X: Front-end or back-end?
Me: Sorry?
X: Ah! full-stack.
Me: Not exactly. These days I mostly work on machine vision software.
X: Oh. So you write systems code?
Me: Yes. ...no! Wait! All of the above?
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I take issue with being ask, especially by recruiters, "are you front end, back end, or full stack". This question seems presumptuous. It seems rather self-limiting to classify one's self in such a way. Are these classifications a recent phenomena? Perhaps there's a better way to interpret and respond to such questions. Any thoughts?<p>Thanks for the feedback.
I seem to remember that people were already using "front-end" and "back-end" in the 1980s when "client/server" computing was the big trend of the times. The front-end clients were GUI applications running on PCs and the back-end servers were mainframes or minicomputers. Some programmers worked on both, some programmers specialized on one or the other. Just like today.<p>The use of "front-end" in computing probably originated from its much earlier usage to mean the front part of some machine or vehicle, e.g., front-end loader, front-end alignment, etc.
These Ask HN's can really be a crap shoot.<p><pre><code> Ask HN: When did the terms Front-End, Back-End, and Full-Stack become prevalent?
1 point by ncarlson 2 hours ago | past | web | discuss
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1 point by ncarlson 1832 days ago | past | web
Ask HN: Is it just me, or are HN comments becoming more and more negative?
74 points by ncarlson 2497 days ago | past | web | 157 comments</code></pre>