I'm curious about the future of frontend development. It seems like every few months there is a new SaaS or stand alone app that offers an easy way to develop responsive html5/css3 based layouts and designs e.g. Adobe's Edge Refow. Of course, I don't think these programs are up to par yet, but what will the field look like in two - three years?<p>Will frontend development/developers slowly be phased out by software or will the role of frontend developer transition into something along the lines of javascript specialist focusing on single page apps?
I predict somebody will create a killer javascript ide which which will propel the language forward like a rocket booster.<p>Good js is really really hard and it will take a killer tool to make all the poor and mediocre devs start producing awesome software.
The cognitive load needed to be a frontend developer is starting to explode a little bit. Pretty soon you'll need to know HTML/CSS/Visual Design, one high level JS-compiled language (CoffeeScript, TypeScript, Dart), and one JS MVC framework (Backbone, Angular, Ember) to call yourself a frontend developer.<p>I'm not sure how sustainable that is, and I often wonder if we'll see the rise of a "middle stack developer" that just deals with the JS intricacies.
Authoring tools haven't got any better in the last decade so I doubt you'll see anything that makes you obsolete for at least another decade.<p>The only focus these days is they are subscription/SaaS tools so are entirely about milking you easily rather than changing the landscape (despite what they think).<p>Youll be fine.