A frontend developer is a programmer who creates programs that are responsible for attractive appearance and smooth operation. He or she creates code that is also responsible for responsiveness, because nowadays all applications must work not only on a computer, but also on mobile devices and in all browsers.
What is frontend development and what does it do?
A frontend developers works closely with backend developers to create programs and applications. To clarify what exactly they do, it is important to point out that developers fall into several “categories” of workers. Some of them create the core of the website, i.e. what is not visible to the naked eye, including the correct recording of data and its proper processing so that the website can function and work in all browsers.
On the other hand, webmasters are responsible for the appearance of the site, while what they program is done by frontend developers. Based on the guidelines provided by webmasters, they design interfaces, graphics and interactive elements of the website that are visible to all users and affect the aesthetics.
Useful tools in frontend developers work
Frontend developers using many tools, frameworks and libraries, which makes the process of writing code easier. Here is a list of the most popular programs they use:
It is a community of developers that helps in solving different kinds of code related problems. In the work of programmers, there are times when they get stuck at a certain point due to an issue that they cannot solve. When this happens, the Stack Overflow community allows them to share their experiences and find an effective way to solve the problem.
Over the past decade or so, there has been a significant change when it comes to web solutions. Today, websites no longer resemble those that existed in the 1990s. This is what Chrome Developer Tools is for. It allows you to see what elements a website is made of, as well as edit and work on the styles that are assigned to them. What is more, it gives you a preview of all the resources that the website uses, which is very convenient because all the important HTML elements are gathered in one place. It also has other tabs, including the one that is responsible for monitoring network traffic on the site and monitoring the status of executed references, which is very convenient in terms of creating modern web applications.
– Saas
Sass allows for much faster and easier document styling when working on the frontend layer of an application or website. Sass, thanks to its architecture, maintains a clear division of styles, but also allows them to be combined into a global style file and compressed. Developers love it also for its many ready tools and rich community support.
– Webpack
This is a tool that gives the possibility to pack many different formats into one JavaScript file. The result is a file saved with a .js extension by transforming and removing unnecessary code. This is especially useful when building a large application with many images and elements. In a programmer’s work, it also significantly simplifies daily tasks.
This is one of the most popular and well-known libraries, having a type of font that contains symbols instead of traditional letters. However, what is important, even though they look like icons, they are still fonts, so you can change their colors, enlarge them, etc. It can be said that it is an indispensable tool in every programmer’s work. Recently, its new version 4.1, which contains 439 icons, has been released on the market.
Frontend developers also use text editors and IDEs, i.e. integrated development environments, on a daily basis. They are often chosen by trial and error and each programmer decides for himself which program suits him best.