[Baypiggies] What's a web developer?

[Aahz]

On Thu, Oct 29, 2009, Meenal Pant wrote:
>
> I am new to the *real world web development* so to speak. I am
> wondering how many organizations actually use frameworks such as
> Django, Ruby on rails etc  ?  

Look at the job ads.  ;-)

> Also what is the technical difference between a backend developer,
> frontend developer and a web designer?  Isn't a frontend developer and
> designer the same thing ? What level of expertise does one need to be
> hired as a web developer, some of each ?

They all overlap.  Backend development focuses primarily on databases
and business logic; front-end development focuses mostly on coding to
present data to end-users; web designer focuses on the actual look and
feel (fonts, page layout, graphic elements, information design).

> I read on James Bennett's blog that "you are not a web developer if
> you do not know Javascript", so I am trying to understand what is an
> absolute must to make the cut.

Well, then, I guess I'm not a web developer even though my last 4.5-year
job was working on an app entirely delivered over the web and my current
one is primarily focused on a desktop web app.

OTOH, although I "don't know" JavaScript, I'm capable of writing it and
fixing bugs; if you know any C at all plus Python, JS is very easy to
pick up.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

[on old computer technologies and programmers]  "Fancy tail fins on a
brand new '59 Cadillac didn't mean throwing out a whole generation of
mechanics who started with model As."  --Andrew Dalke