The State of JS and CSS

Each year, I receive a survey about my JavaScript and CSS habits, preferences, and knowledge. That data is then compiled into 2 reports: The State of JavaScript and The State of CSS. I don't think enough people are aware of these reports. So, I wanted to point them out to you all here. If you do any front-end work, this is extremely relevant to your career. Here are a few of my thoughts about the 2020 reports:

The demographics section of the JS report shows that the typical respondent is:

  • from the US
  • Male
  • White
  • 5-10 years of experience
  • full-stack
  • Expert-level JS
  • Advanced back-end

A section that I find particularly useful is the JS resources page. Stack Overflow is (to no surprise) still the #1 source of information for developers. I haven't really listened to many development-centered podcasts. So, I am looking forward to trying out the top-rated Syntax podcast.

And, the Other Tools section shows me that I should give VS Code a try again. I'm still using Sublime Text and PHP Storm - both on the list but I remember liking VS Code when I tried it. Might as well give it another shot if so many people are using it.

In the technologies section of the CSS report, I was surprised to see the that Less is in the bottom right quadrant and SASS is in the top left. So, more devs are using Less but they don't particularly like it. Switching between views of the CSS Technologies Rankings was fun. Look at how Bootstrap jumps from top of the list for "Usage" to closer to the bottom for "Satisfaction". And, look at Tailwind CSS. It has had a huge rise in interest and usage in the just the past year. I'm still on the fence about this one. When I learned HTML, it was important to keep the visual rules away from the HTML so that the markup could be reused and updated easily. Tailwind has always seemed like the exact opposite of that to me. Apparently, a lot of developers disagree with me. Hey, I'm game. I'll give it a try.

Take a look at the reports. See if you agree with the findings. Look up some of the references. I bet there is something on there that you were not aware of before.

And, share your thoughts about the reports and the state of Web Development in general in the comments section below.