Introduction

Python has long been a stable of web development. In the recent world of “web apps”, though, the browser is playing a larger role. More of the application in a web app is done in JavaScript – in the “frontend” – with Python running UI-less data services in the “backend”.

This is a series aimed at the Python developer, to explain this JavaScript frontend world, from the perspective of Python. It’s a polyglot view, aimed at a Python perspective. We’ll be using PyCharm throughout, showing how it excels at both the backend (Python) and the frontend (JS, HTML, CSS) due to its IntelliJ foundation.

Remain Calm

I’m the oldest of oldsters in Python. I’m sympathetic. Python is beautiful, and this new world...well, isn’t. At every step along the way, you’ll say “This is stupid.” I feel ya’. But rather than howl at the moon in defiance, embrace the suck and dive in, because realistically, you don’t have a choice.

I think you’ll find that, much to your surprise, there’s a lot of normalcy in modern JavaScript development. And in fact, there are places where their toolchain excels in areas where we are banging multiple heads against various walls. But, as this series will show, it is a universe that is rebuilding the airplane in mid-flight, on a minutely basis, and thus it takes a thick skin to get to a decently Pythonic happy spot.

So with that inspirational message, let’s press on.