Some time ago, there was a lot of discussion in the community that "the front end is dead", and all kinds of bad words about the front end came one after another. It was really sad for those who heard it.
Recently, I heard that a large factory canceled the large front-end department, and the front-end was split into various business groups. Many front-end high Ps either left their jobs, were laid off, or transferred to the back-end.
Is this the sunset on the front end?
Let's chat nonsense today, whatever the chat is.
The development of front-end technology tends to be stable
In the past, the front-end was most criticized by developers for developing too fast. If you don’t learn the front-end for three days, you can’t keep up.
In my personal front-end experience, the technology stack has changed from Jquery to Angular, and then to React. The front-end technology has been rapidly switched, and the supporting front-end R&D system is constantly being overthrown and rebuilt.
Only React, from V14 to V15, and then to V16, iterated rapidly all the way, and each version has a qualitative leap. Especially after V16.8 hooks came out, various ecological tools had to be rebuilt.
But in recent years, the development of front-end technology seems to have slowed down. React 16.8 version was released in 2019, and it has been more than four years since now. In these four years, although React released V17 and V18, it did not What a qualitative improvement. For me, as long as Hooks can be used, it doesn't matter which version is 16/17/18.
The front-end ecology tends to be stable, is it a good thing or a bad thing?
I used to be very envious of my classmates who developed JAVA. Learning a technical system can be used forever. Now it seems that the front end can do the same. I think this is a very good thing and a sign of the maturity of the front end.
Only when the front-end technology system is no longer developed, can front-end engineers devote 100% of their energy to product construction. It is not always necessary to spend energy on learning new technologies and new wheels, and reuse past learning results and infrastructure to the greatest extent.
For example, there is a need to calculate the result of 43✖️5. We will use the existing method to calculate the result instead of thinking about whether there is a better calculation method.
In essence, our calculation method is very mature and stable, we only need to focus on the demand itself. When the front end is stable to this level, everyone will be happy.
The development of the front-end department in the company
Let’s talk about the positioning of the front-end team in a company.
- In the early stage of the company's development, during the high-speed period of product construction, the primary goal of the front-end is to build products. At this time, the front-end is usually in the business department, and everyone is working hard on the product.
- 随着公司发展，产品越来越多，各个业务部门的前端交流少，使用的技术五花八门，重复造轮子。这时候公司通常会搞一个大前端部门，使其研制出来一套在公司内成熟的前端解决方案，统一各种基建，提高人均效能。
- 当前端解决方案统一到一定程度之后，大前端部门的使命就结束了，这时候前端又会被拆分到业务部门中。
这里说说阿里大前端部门拆分，我认为原因有两个：
- 阿里前端基建相对已经成熟，拆分之后对前端研发效能影响不大。
- 公司不挣钱，不吃大锅饭了。以前是各个业务部门一起挣钱，一起养着大前端团队。现在公司不赚钱了，要改革，要求各个业务线自己挣钱自己花，所以前端开发也要回归到业务团队中。
最近并不只是「前端已死」了，我认为各个工种都在面临裁员潮，原罪是公司不赚钱了。在发展阶段啥问题都没有，一旦发展停滞，那什么都是问题，一个一个开刀。
对于个体来讲，如果想在这个公司发展，就要尽力帮助公司成长。另外就是居安思危，提升个人竞争力，只有跑的比别人快，才能在逆风中活下来，才能比别人更容易找到工作。
这里不得不吐槽下，很多人乐意躺平，你说要学习，要往前走一步，他会喷你卷，喷你带坏了风气，喷你是资本主义的走狗。大无语~
一个前端创业机会
之前在蚂蚁，前端基建非常完善，开发者真正的只用关心业务，不用去思考技术的东西。在公司内部基本上做到了只用关心 43✖️5 这个需求，不用考虑该用哪种计算方法。
从蚂蚁离开后，非常怀念蚂蚁的前端解决方案，但在社区上，并没有类似的收费或者免费方案。 据我所知，各个大公司，都会有自己的前端解决方案。但中小公司，基本上没有能力去自建一套类似解决方案。
阿里的后端解决方案，有商业化的产品「云效」。
蚂蚁的后端解决方案，有商业化的产品「SOFAStack」。
微软的后端解决方案，有商业化的产品「Azure DevOps」。
为什么后端有，前端没有呢？
我认为是后端技术栈稳定，基于这一套技术栈的生态也就稳定，发展多年下来势必会有成熟的解决方案。大公司产出商业化解决方案，给中小公司用。
前端技术栈过去发展快，生态不稳定，大公司内部的解决方案也是最近一两年才出来，所以前端目前还没有类似的解决方案。
所以我认为前端解决方案，是未来一个确定性的机会。
这个解决方案覆盖前端研发的整个生命流程，包括不限于：
- 产品：埋点、数据分析等等
- 开发：迭代协作、脚手架、组件库、逻辑库、联调、国际化、跨端等等
- 上线：灰度、回滚、CDN、监控告警、性能、SEO、SSR、SSG、离线包、安全等等
希望未来前端解决方案，像乘法解决方案一样，能成为行业统一规范，让开发者真正的只用关心业务，不用关心技术。
前端的未来
说几点自己的思考：
- 前端技术趋于稳定，开始有商业化的前端解决方案出来。
- 前端不会消失，但门槛会进一步降低，低端前端饱和。
- 高级前端依旧紧缺，因为高级前端并不是只是看前端技能，而是综合考虑技术能力、业务能力、沟通能力、情商、职业素养、工作经验等等，这个过去现在未来都不会变。
- 前端工程师可能会变成用户体验工程师，后端考虑存储并发等，前端考虑用户体验，为整体用户体验负责。
- 前端会进一步蚕食桌面端开发、移动端开发的生存空间。
- AI 可能会改变前端研发模式。
总结
也许前端技术栈稳定之后，才是真正的开始。
文中所有观点未经论证，纯属 YY，欢迎理性讨论。
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