Ask HN: When did the terms Front-End, Back-End, and Full-Stack become prevalent?

[ncarlson]

I've always enjoyed meeting other software developers. When meeting someone new, I usually ask "what kind of software do you work on". I've asked and been asked this question countless times.

Recently however, I've had several exchanges like the following:

  X: So, you're a software developer too?
  Me: Yeah!
  X: Front-end or back-end?
  Me: Sorry?
  X: Ah! full-stack.
  Me: Not exactly. These days I mostly work on machine vision software.
  X: Oh. So you write systems code?
  Me: Yes. ...no! Wait! All of the above?

I take issue with being ask, especially by recruiters, "are you front end, back end, or full stack". This question seems presumptuous. It seems rather self-limiting to classify one's self in such a way. Are these classifications a recent phenomena? Perhaps there's a better way to interpret and respond to such questions. Any thoughts?

Thanks for the feedback.

[greenyoda]

I seem to remember that people were already using "front-end" and "back-end" in the 1980s when "client/server" computing was the big trend of the times. The front-end clients were GUI applications running on PCs and the back-end servers were mainframes or minicomputers. Some programmers worked on both, some programmers specialized on one or the other. Just like today.

The use of "front-end" in computing probably originated from its much earlier usage to mean the front part of some machine or vehicle, e.g., front-end loader, front-end alignment, etc.

[ncarlson]

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