Alright programmers, developers, coders, or whatever you want to call yourselves. It is time for someone who isn't very good at coding to give a once in a decade opinion on the state of coding. To be specific, open source web coding. (That someone is me.)
In the early 2000's and even early 2010's I would browse the web for website software and this is an example of what I would find:
- Here's a zip file
- Unpack it on your server
- Navigate to this URL
- Install
The most popular website softwares are still like this. Such as, WordPress. However, if you go to GitHub or elsewhere and look for a more "modern," fun, and open source web software, the instructions are now:
- You probably can't easily use shared hosting
- You need to know command line basics
- You need to know special commands for the command line which vary depending on the package manager, software coding language, and how the planets are aligned
- There are always dozens of dependencies
- If PHP, there's a chance it will be relatively easy-ish, if any other language, good luck
The way "modern" web coding seems to work is the developer(s) use a lot of command line type stuff (very technical phrase) because it is easier for them. Plus, GitHub. GitHub likely popularized this style of web building. Plus, if it's PHP for example, using Composer ensures everything is nice and organized and you don't accidentally install something that isn't compatible with something else. Plus there are many other reasons but I'm trying to be brief.
Look. I get it, developers.
But.
Your open source software will never be popular unless an average person can install it without command line, and on shared hosting. These are facts. Maybe this is not important. There are plenty of small open source projects that don't want to be the next WordPress. They have no desire to get super popular. And that's cool. I respect you and your project.
However.
If you have an open source project, and you want more support, funding, and overall popularity, don't go too far down the command line dependency package rabbit hole. Because in that hole you will stay.
There's no other way now you say? Because all of those popular packages equal a more secure web? Well, well, well... look what you've done... You've created a monster. You are now stuck with the Laravels of the world, and that's all you get. Some complain about the fact that a few social media giants took over the web. And, that is being combated by using these oligarchical frameworks? Interesting. Actually, I really like Laravel. I'm just adding in some extra hyperbole here.
Finally, this website was installed with and is maintained via command line. I'm using all of the things I disagree with. Because, that's what's available. So, again, at some level I get why developers have gone this route and I agree it can be fun and sometimes fast. But, I still stick by the fact that web software used to be like: point, click, boom. Now it is like: let's build a circuit board from scratch, make everyone learn a new language, require VPS type hosting, and get the RedBull ready because it's going to take a long time to figure out.
I may change my mind within the next decade. But, this is how I feel right now. What I say doesn't matter so don't let this post upset you if you are really into the modern coding ways. It's a cool way to do things. I just think it could be made easier for average web civilians who want to install a new website of some sort.
Therefore, the state of code (for the web) as of 2022 is: 😧 with a dash of 🦄.
