Today I pushed the penultimate version of the web site I've been working on for Farmer Frog to the test site for testing. If all goes well, we will be launching at some point in the next couple of weeks and that will bring the current development cycle to an end. I've always found it fascinating to reflect on the journey that each development cycle brings because I always learn something about myself.
My day-to-day job does not involve front end web development, and to be honest, it's not something I was too keen on given the multitude of differences between all of the browser implementations. I realize that there are "web standards", but there are still enough variations that creating a web site that works well across all browsers usually requires the use of JQuery or some other framework that abstracts the differences away. However, many of the frameworks feel more like a bandaid than a real solution. With a couple of exceptions, I have managed to create the entire site in HTML 5, CSS 3, and vanilla Javascript. While I'm sure I may have saved some time had I used a framework, I would not have learned the underlying technologies and would likely have ended up hacking away mindlessly until something sort of worked. While I have struggled at times, through patience and perseverance I have grown to understand much more than I knew at the beginning. In short, it's all about the journey, not the destination.
That being said, there are always new features, emerging technologies and other ideas to be explored so life will never be dull.
At least for me!