I can't believe that in 2014, web development is still getting this mindless, indiscriminate bashing. The kind of web development you might have seen, or done, may have been simpler, but please don't generalize it to everything. Every field has its low ends and its high ends.
I'm generally speaking a web developer, I work in bioinformatics and I can assure you that what I do is not "simpler" than most other programming, please get over yourself.
Your microwave example actually undermines the point you're trying to make. If microwaves are indeed so far more technically advanced, why then is it so hard to upgrade them? I know it's a stupid question, but so is the point that brought it up.
I've spent 15 years having to justify the worth and quality of my work to non-web developers, a lot of whom I wouldn't even trust with the most basic programming tasks. That included some of my teachers at University (!), who not only undermined me all the way through my dissertation, but actually proceeded to steal my work and use it as a teaching base for years after. This was after they admitted that they could not, in fact, fully understand my work, mostly because they disregarded it for the longest time.
I'm pretty damn proud of being a web developer, and even though I do or have done other kinds of programming, I'll stick to web development, if only to prove to people like you that we, too, are programmers.
> To me it sounds like you have a bioinfo library that you've integrated with a website.
??? This is the hostility the above poster commented about; why did you assume that they were using unsafe / uninventive practices? From what? How did you read their development of a complex piece of software as "you made glue code", without external information, or, perhaps, internal bias?
> If your bioinfo code is actually mixed in with your web code then this is exactly what real programmers talk about when we trash web programmers.
Why would you frame a hypothetical situation, unrelated to their comment, as evidence of your beliefs? How does this make sense?
It's pretty clear people use "web programmer" as a synonym for "poor programmer" or "lesser programmer".
Oh, you work on hard problems and complex software? I wouldn't call that web programming!
I promise there are enough hard problems and complexities in the "web" for any programmer in existence to choke on. HTTP/CSS is just a small part of the "web"; it doesn't speak to the complexities of the system behind the curtain.
Well, he has a point. From your description, it seems tenuous to classify what you do as 'web programming'. So why don't you describe how your bioinfo work relates to the web part, because all I can think of is that you have software for which you simply have a web frontend.
From his current job's description (Clinical Genomics Database Web Developer) [1,2]:
"The Clinical Genomics Database/Web Developer performs a variety of duties in the development of interactive websites, databases and interactive tools for the interpretation of genetic assays performed in a clinical setting. The Clinical Genomics Database/Web Developer also participates in the development of interactive tools for interpretation of genetic and genomic assays in support of developing high-throughput, clinically accredited pipelines to aid in identifying known variants in hereditary cancers, and in assisting in research towards the development of personalized treatments for other cancers.
Duties/Accountablilties:
1. Development of interactive websites to allow for sample submission, clinical report retrieval, and analysis interpretation.
2. Development of databases for tracking of patient samples, and preparation of reports for Clinical staff and physicians.
3. Development of interactive tools to allow for interpretation of results from genetic and genomic assays.
4. Quality-assurance testing for websites and databases.
5. Development and assessment of bioinformatic tools for detection of genetic variants implicated in oncogenesis."
Quite intense. Far from a mere "presentation layer", it seems in this case the work involves developing actual clinical research tools --which just happen to be web-based.
I'm generally speaking a web developer, I work in bioinformatics and I can assure you that what I do is not "simpler" than most other programming, please get over yourself.
Your microwave example actually undermines the point you're trying to make. If microwaves are indeed so far more technically advanced, why then is it so hard to upgrade them? I know it's a stupid question, but so is the point that brought it up.
I've spent 15 years having to justify the worth and quality of my work to non-web developers, a lot of whom I wouldn't even trust with the most basic programming tasks. That included some of my teachers at University (!), who not only undermined me all the way through my dissertation, but actually proceeded to steal my work and use it as a teaching base for years after. This was after they admitted that they could not, in fact, fully understand my work, mostly because they disregarded it for the longest time.
I'm pretty damn proud of being a web developer, and even though I do or have done other kinds of programming, I'll stick to web development, if only to prove to people like you that we, too, are programmers.
Rant over.