Gone are the days of JSFiddle and ESLint as my sole development tools. It was a good run, but the software industry can be extremely dynamic and always has a new and updated version lying just around the corner. In this case, it’s Semantic UI. The front-end development framework built to streamline web development and make building user interfaces more user friendly. So far, I’m finding it to be an amazing tool that really stands out in terms of the rules of programming and syntax. It feels like a fresh and easy ways manifest as it comes closer to bridging the gap between human language and code.
Despite these advantages, Semantic UI still poses some challenges, some of which may lie in the very thing that gives it an edge. It’s more casual approach to what is considered accepted syntax allows a programmer to design classes that sound more like descriptions than strict class names. A class name could be anything from “ui left image” to “ui left orchid container topmenu menu grid” and either one could work, albeit, possibly not how intended. Which is exactly my problem with the development tool. This flexibility of this type of tool makes it easy to compile, but presents a challenge when trying to get it to do exactly what I want it to. Encountering this error is usually followed by me rearranging the words in the class title or replacing them one at a time with synonyms. This method has had mixed results, but almost always results in me accepting a webpage that does not look “exactly” like how I intended.
Of course, with all things, these issues can be solved with practice. Though, I am wondering how much practice I can get with my Semantic UI experience coming to a close and React UI coming to take it’s place. Like I said earlier, the software industry can be extremely dynamic, and our tools and methods come and go. To some, this probably looks like madness, why bother learning something if it’ll be obsolete by next week? Well I believe that even though the programs come and go, the skills instilled in me do not. I will use the skills I picked up practicing Semantic UI to help me with React UI, just like how I used my HTML and Javascript experience to help me pick up Semantic UI before that.
As you can see, this rapidly changing environment is a constantly growing and evolving structure, not a drawing in the sand. It continues to build on what came before it, putting out better products and better engineers with each new iteration. Who knows, maybe after going through so many new and revised tools, I’ll one day be able to contribute one of my own.