Developer Library Dependence
There is a library for just about everything you could possibly want to achieve as a web developer. You see it on Stackoverflow all too often, someone asks a general question about how to do something, and like clock-work, in comes a hero stackie suggesting the OP was wasting time and should just library X. While there are times when it just makes sense, for instance I have no desire ever to try my hand at home brewing moment.js, I have found that most of the things I want to do are very much within my wheel house if I just take the time to explore the problem.
This is one of my favorite things about Codesandbox, being able to whip out a quick environment and test some ideas. Plus it makes for a nice repo to pass to employers showcasing your code style and ability. “Put up or shut up”, I believe is the phrase.
As modern web developers, we already start off with a very bloated friend I call “Bubba” that follows us around daily: you may know him as node_modules. You can gitignore him all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that he’s along for the ride. Because of Bubba, I became leery of wanting to import MORE libraries into my dev environment without good reason.
Now, don’t get me wrong, in production sometimes you need an immediate, proven, tested, solution: go get it my friend -> like I said right from the start, there is a library for everything, no shame in that game! However, I believe as modern developers we should lean towards figuring out how we can implement our own solutions to those library problems whenever possible, for most certain not bemoan someone trying to do the same. You delivered the web site to the applause of a delighted client? Great, now see which library you can remove by solving the problem you circumvented originally when you imported someone else efforts. I’m not trying to belittle the use of libraries, but rather encourage you to find it within yourself to accept a new challenge.
I remember when I was confronted with using Bootstrap for the first time. I could not understand why anyone would want to import a whole library to handle simple css tasks. Of course, as an artist, one of the first things I learned was how to use css, and I understand that is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I struggled to get my head around justifying the import all that nonsense for such an easily achievable end result. After being scolded for not using it in my stories — how dare I add my own valid css to the css file sitting right there next to the jsx file, gasp! — I did start to see the benefit of very quickly laying out my pages WITHOUT having to write any css code. Score one for the libraries!
However, as my personal projects began to grow, I grew tired of installing bootstrap, going to their page, copying the link for the css to import, and the other scripts that you need to copy in order for it all to run properly. I just want get developing! Plus, out of the entire Bootstrap library, I maybe would use 5% of it. This was when I started excavating unnecessary libraries from my personal tool set.
Look at your personal list of go-to libraries, and see which one you think you could tackle. Not only will you personally learn an incredible amount on that journey, but you’ll keep Bubba on a diet!
Try your hand at making your own Dropzone, Calendar picker, Customized Select input, your own Table, etc. You have nothing to lose, and only knowledge to gain.