Backend Developers Might Just Save Nigeria. - Issue #11

Hello from the Netherlands…

Hi

Hello from the Netherlands. The weather is chill here and I have a Twitter connection. Crowwe and Koo calling me here and there, but I stay focused. 

Some weeks back, we did a short series about frontend development and now it’s time to do ‘Dorime’ for the guys behind the scenes: backend developers.

PS: The subject of this mail was just clickbait. I hold no opinions on the supernatural abilities of backend devs and I’m not in any way saying they’re more hardworking than frontend devs🌚 I promise. 

Anyway, now that we’ve settled down, let’s get into the newsletter. 

If frontend is concerned with how users interact with a website, backend development is concerned with how the website works. Everything the frontend devs do to ensure users can interact with the website is fueled by backend devs that create the platform for those things to function.

A backend developer is usually busy writing APIs, creating libraries, working on data architecture and writing a chunk of code.

So, as we did before, we’ll start with backend programming languages before going into frameworks. Like every field in the tech industry, there are many languages to learn. However, I’m only going to talk about a few popular ones. 

It’s a general belief that anything that has Java in it is going to be a tough nut, while also being comprehensive and popular. Na the exact same thing with Java. Izz a family problem.

However, a number of people swear that when you understand the concept around Object-Oriented Programming, Java becomes relatively easy to learn.  

Java is a language that is easy to manipulate and allows for a lot of extensions. It also allows multithreading and it minimizes error-phone code. 

Java works great across platforms and it’s great for android, web and desktop development. 

Brands that use Java: Uber, LinkedIn, HubSpot, eBay

Truth is, it doesn’t get easier to learn than Python. If you’re looking for easy to understand, Python is probably one programming language you want to learn.

It’s easy to write and maintain asynchronous code with python. 

One of its biggest selling points is that each unit of code in Python runs separately and this removes deadlocks from the equation when using it.  

Python is an interpreted language, so you don’t need any compilation to run it.

Also, you can easily integrate python  with other languages like C and C++. 

It’s probably in the top 3 most popular backend languages and chances are, if you’re collaborating on a project with other devs, they can speak pythonese.

Brands that use Python: Pinterest, Netflix, Spotify, Quora etc.

ASP.NET was created by Microsoft. It’s used to build websites with other languages like C#. It’s pretty stable and great across platforms. 

Now, you should know that there ain’t nothing created by Microsoft that’s ever going to leave you stranded with questions. The community support is there.

C# is a high-level computer language that has really cool syntax. 

In music, C# is probably one of the most used keys in songs. Similarly, in programming languages, C# is loved because it has all the qualities of C++ but it error-proofs commands and that makes it much easier to use. 

VB as a language uses a graphical user interface to modify BASIC code. It has a straightforward syntax and it’s pretty easy to understand. It’s often used for prototyping, big data, desktop applications, mobile apps and much more.

Brands that use .NET: Microsoft (obviously😂😂), Starbucks, Stack Overflow etc.

Festoffost, I love Ruby.

That’s one endearing name, not something scary like a snake.  Aseju ni python, Ruby ti wa okay. 

Anyhoo, one cool thing about Ruby is that she can reduce the time you need to develop a website by 25%, compared to other programming languages.

Some haters will say Python is still faster than Ruby but honestly, ariwo ko ni music. 

Moving on, Ruby has a large support community, works on Model-View-Control-Format, superb for eCommerce sites, content-based sites and database solutions.

Ruby is pretty stable and she makes it easy to add new features to your project. 

Ruby also has open writing methods. This basically means that Ruby classes and methods can be ended with a question mark and exclamation mark.

Brands that use Ruby: AirBnB, Hulu, Scribd, AngelList.

Word on the streets says that close to 70% of server-side programming languages are powered by PHP. 

It’s one of the few languages made exclusively for backend. You might not even need to learn a framework to get started with PHP.

Anyhoo, one cool feature of PHP is that it has inbuilt website development capabilities. It easily automates tasks like URL mapping, session management, caching etc.

It’s also pretty secure and it’s open source.

Other cool things about PHP: It’s great with integration, extensive libraries, multi-platforming adaptation. It’s an interpreted language and one beautiful thing about it? Most of the keywords, methods and user functions in PHP are not case-sensitive when a variable is declared.

Everyone hates bugs, yeah? Well, PHP has an internal error reporting system, which is pretty awesome.

Brands that use PHP: Facebook, Lyft, WordPress, HootSuite etc.

SQL is one of the OGs of backend development. Like it’s oldddd. It’s a query language and it’s used to create databases.  

Data is a huge part of the web and mobile applications and that’s where languages like SQL; that help devs work with data, come in handy.

It’s wonderful for beginners because it’s also a declarative language. This means that devs can ‘declare’ the results they want to see without necessarily specifying the process.

An addition to learning SQL is if you ever want to delve into Big Data, it’s great for you. 

There are a number of SQL based systems like Oracle, MySQL etc.

Festoffost, this is different from Java, but it still carries that family curse. Really popular language with an extensive library but it might not be the easiest piece of cake to master.  

One of the family problems that JavaScript share is that just like Java, JavaScript wasn’t originally intended for backend but Node.js was built and the rest is history.

One of the beautiful things about Javascript is its multifunctionality.

If you’re ever looking into becoming a full stack developer, you better learn JavaScript. 

Frontend devs use JavaScript, so do backend devs.

Again, JavaScript has huge community support and is great for literally everything: website, mobile apps, desktop apps, games etc

Brands that use Javascript: Google, AirBnB, eBay, Square, Asana etc.

So, that’s it for this week. Again, there are other languages like Kotlin, Golang etc, but just remember the factors to consider when choosing which language(s) to learn:

And that’s on periodttt!

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Opportunities.

Love and Light,

Precious from Consonance.