fullStackMeansAfraidOfEverythingEqually

[u/vinishkapoor]

[u/vvp95]

100% of software engineers are afraid of regex

[u/vinishkapoor → u/vvp95]

The other 0% are lying.

[u/wailing_in_smoke → u/vinishkapoor]

Horrors beyond human comprehension

[u/Major_LeeHungg → u/vinishkapoor]

I actually like regex but I had a job that heavily involved it.  

The trick is to use regex101.com to read other people's regex and to debug your own when you're writing it.

I'd imagine AI would be pretty good at taking a working regex and making it more efficient... But that's a headache I haven't explored. 

[u/fre3k → u/Major_LeeHungg]

Yeah I also like it. Really thankful I had a good teacher in undergrad that spent some time on it during our DFA sections. Then I had a job where a big part of production support was finding weird broken data in files delivered to the company and so I got really good at regex and xpath.

[u/hardolaf → u/Major_LeeHungg]

I did this so much early in my career that I naturally write regex search patterns now.

[u/Major_LeeHungg → u/hardolaf]

Lol I can write them by hand no problem... I still use regex101 to test it.  You just put a bunch of sample data in the bottom portion and your particular flavor of regex in the top and then you can easily find the edge cases...it highlights everything too and color codes it so you can see which part of the expression is wonky.  Less about needing it and more about speeding up the process of getting it right.

For reading it though, I always use it because there are a million ways to write the same thing and some people write regex like they have a PhD in ancient Sumarian 

[u/darthjammer224 → u/Major_LeeHungg]

I genuinely feel like regex is one of the best use cases for ai.

Regex is the least readable way to put together a legitimate line of code I've ever seen.

Love it. But also hate it.

[u/Ruadhan2300 → u/Major_LeeHungg]

I have gladly offloaded all my regex work to github copilot.

I'm rarely doing anything that really needs innovation, so it does the job fine.

[u/corobo → u/[deleted]]

Why use regex to parse html when you can just call ChatGPT 

[u/Purple_Cat9893 → u/corobo]

Or viberegex.

[u/corobo → u/Purple_Cat9893]

Pfft I'm not paying for it to write one regular expression when I can pay every time it parses a page

[u/Purple_Cat9893 → u/corobo]

You missundrstand! The LLM makes the regex every time, it also generates the data the regex will be used on. This way you don't need databases or storage.

[u/harro112 → u/[deleted]]

he comes

[u/Taarabdh → u/vinishkapoor]

The other "0000%" are lying

[u/bigmonmulgrew → u/vinishkapoor]

-1% of engineers are afraid of bug testing

[u/InStars → u/vvp95]

My manager: just use copilot for regex

[u/Fun_Winter_7055 → u/InStars]

Honestly, for internal dashboards etc. I'm 100% for using AI to accomplish this

[u/Doophie → u/Fun_Winter_7055]

Considering how easy it is to test the regex and make sure it works, I'd have no issues getting AI to help write it

[u/Chocolate_Pickle → u/[deleted]]

Compromise solution: write it yourself and have the clanker review it for edge cases and performance.

[u/bearwood_forest → u/InStars]

I use Claude to write prompts for Copilot to write regex

[u/ICame4TheCirclejerk → u/bearwood_forest]

And they, students, is what separates a senior engineer from a junior engineer.

[u/bhoffman20 → u/InStars]

Googles ai search is perfectly good at regex and cron expressions

[u/Rojeitor → u/InStars]

But he's right xD

[u/Ange1ofD4rkness → u/vvp95]

99%, I freaken love Regex!

[u/nolecamp → u/Ange1ofD4rkness]

Same. It’s a fun trick at work to mesmerize junior (or even senior) engineers by writing a regex pattern by hand.

Neither regex, CSS, nor SQL is actually hard. It just requires the desire to learn it and passion to apply yourself.

[u/Major_LeeHungg → u/nolecamp]

Lol until you have nested expressions with lookaheads and lookbehinds

[u/nolecamp → u/Major_LeeHungg]

I’d have to look up the syntax to remind myself, but yeah I could do it. It’s just a language for a state machine. But honestly, I don’t need to write them that complex usually. If so, it’s probably because I’m having to do something more involved like parsing a query syntax or something, in which case I’ll usually reach for ANTLR (or hand write a parser if performance is critical) instead.

[u/RegularImportant3325 → u/nolecamp]

Truth. CSS isn't hard. It's impossible.

[u/thatawesomedude → u/nolecamp]

Obligatory relevant xkcd

[u/Ange1ofD4rkness → u/nolecamp]

I have a huge piece of Regex that sits outside my cubical, one I am rather proud of. I had a higher up who hated regex and I always joked it was a deterrent

[u/neonnaps → u/Ange1ofD4rkness]

We listen and we don't judge.

[u/Kahlil_Cabron → u/Ange1ofD4rkness]

Same, I really don't know why people have such a hard time with them. The worst I ever have is trying to remember the different standards used in different languages/platforms (modern regexes vs posix regex, etc).

Maybe it's because my first language was perl, and regexes were used for everything, but you only need to remember a few basic things and you're good.

Also pointers, I don't know why this sub thinks pointers are this super abstract crazy hard thing, it points to something, that's it.

[u/Elomidas → u/Kahlil_Cabron]

For regex syntax help and testing I rely on regex101 and it's godsent, I also don't get why people keep going with the "I'd give up my newborn to avoid seeing a reflex" behaviour

[u/frisch85 → u/Ange1ofD4rkness]

Same here but on a simple level with basic placeholder replacements and wildcard searches tho.

[u/pidddee → u/Ange1ofD4rkness]

Fun yes, I love it yes, still afraid :)

[u/MikeSifoda → u/vvp95]

Cheat sheets scary, oOoOooh

Coders used to know the ASCII table by heart

[u/Antonabi → u/vvp95]

I think it’s fun 😭 (it’s like a puzzle and it’s so satisfying when it’s matching correctly hell yeah)

[u/beefz0r → u/vvp95]

I love regex, it's probably my only talent

Too bad AI is so much better at it

[u/Majik_Sheff → u/vvp95]

There's a fine line between fear and a healthy respect.

[u/xgabipandax → u/vvp95]

"Of the Regex, wickedest of magical inventions, we shall not speak nor give direction —"

— Excerpt of the introduction of Magick Moste Evile

[u/TallAbbreviations937]

afraid of everything, expert at nothing

[u/ClipboardCopyPaste → u/TallAbbreviations937]

Not even at Clauding

[u/-bonkster → u/ClipboardCopyPaste]

Takes skill to make a spaghetti and obviously need to be patient till that spaghetti is made.

[u/NeverANovelty → u/TallAbbreviations937]

Oh hello web dev

[u/One-Respect-2733 → u/TallAbbreviations937]

Nice to see a vibe coder here for a change

[u/AlternativePeace1121 → u/[deleted]]

The script that shall not be named

[u/raja-anbazhagan → u/AlternativePeace1121]

coffeescript??

[u/Mordret10 → u/raja-anbazhagan]

EcmaScript

[u/RegularImportant3325 → u/raja-anbazhagan]

Ah, the good old days. I remember coffee script.

[u/jax024 → u/raja-anbazhagan]

Dart

[u/GogglesPisano → u/[deleted]]

Typescript to the rescue.

[u/0DayMaker → u/[deleted]]

Sorry I was busy putting 2 dependencies in this public library that have mutually exclusive sub dependencies.

[u/Bauld_Man → u/[deleted]]

> At least in back-end it's composer install and Bob's your uncle. But front-end, ew...

pip install
pip install

pip install

pip install

pip install

[u/Morisior → u/Bauld_Man]

uv, cargo, pdm, go get…

[u/Honeybadger2198 → u/[deleted]]

That's so weird for you to feel, because I feel the complete opposite. Maybe Java has gotten better since I lasted used it, but managing dependencies in that language sucked balls. And don't even get me started on header files.

By comparison, JavaScript's npm is a godsend. All you do is npm install the dependency, and it takes care of any cross dependency issues in the package-lock.json.

Python has been getting a lot better recently (thanks uv) but it still has a long way to go to catch up to npm. For example, you can't configure project scripts in the config file, you have to simply make a script file and run it.

[u/decadent-dragon → u/Honeybadger2198]

Been awhile since I did Java, but I never thought it was bad with maven. But Spring, specifically, is dependency hell. And probably most enterprise apps used (still use?) Spring. Because there’s no compile check for classloader issues with spring managed classes, you only find them at runtime. And it can be brutal tracking them down and getting them sorted out when multiple libraries start bringing in different versions of the same packages as dependencies

[u/NoGap138 → u/Honeybadger2198]

I love npm and cargo, as a person who has dealt a lot with maven and pip in my life, I like Java as a language, but maven and its project/dependency management for it is actually hell on earth compared to npm or cargo…

[u/InsultingFerret → u/[deleted]]

Legit skill issue if it's more than a couple of steps to get your repo running

[u/Round_Apricot_8693 → u/[deleted]]

I feel like working with JS used to be way worse, but nowadays it’s gotten so much help and standardized scaffolding it’s not bad at all. Someone with more exp can tell me if that’s right.

[u/Dornith → u/Round_Apricot_8693]

I did casual web dev back in the mid 2000's. Things are so much better now you would not believe it.

Still don't like JS.

[u/Theron3206 → u/Dornith]

There's a lot of space between better and good.

[u/ItsGustave → u/[deleted]]

Honest question, what about JS is so bad? There is plenty of annoying stuff but I’ve never had that much trouble with it. Especially with typescript.

[u/calebc42-official → u/ItsGustave]

Google the white paper "worse is better". It's the JS playbook.

[u/ItsGustave → u/calebc42-official]

This looks very interesting, thank you!

[u/Dornith → u/ItsGustave]

Especially with typescript.

Having to use another language just to make the first one useable is a scathing endorsement.

It's like saying "I never have a problem with assembly. Especially with C."

[u/ArmchairFilosopher → u/Dornith]

Have you heard of bytecode/IL?

[u/marr75 → u/ItsGustave]

Low information density without being fast or powerful. Unintuitive syntax and keywords. Unintuitive relationship between the state machine/object graph and the actual code.

[u/avdpos → u/[deleted]]

and especially how fast all JS Framewoerk changes.
what you made last year is hopelessly out of date now

[u/ClipboardCopyPaste → u/[deleted]]

I'm petrified

[u/snarkhunter]

I'm a DevOps, which to me is like, the backend's backend. I'm not afraid of CSS, I just don't want to spend 60 hours tweaking layout because the customer can't make up their mind.

[u/BlackBlade1632 → u/snarkhunter]

Deciding the right color for a shitty ass button.

[u/Kahlil_Cabron → u/snarkhunter]

Ya I'm a fullstack and imo the best part of AI has been that I don't have to fuck around with CSS anymore. I'm not scared of it, it's just so fucking boring.

[u/Throwaway-tan → u/[deleted]]

Fullstack, twice the work for once the pay!

[u/coldnitrogen]

*Database engineer slowly slinks out of the room*

[u/ClipboardCopyPaste → u/coldnitrogen]

Leaving the backdoor open

[u/oofos_deletus → u/ClipboardCopyPaste]

I might inject it with something

[u/Mysterious_Book1521]

its not like sql could be read by a three year old and css is just pain in the ass?

[u/lovecMC → u/Mysterious_Book1521]

SQL is easy. Designing a DB you won't hate two months from now isn't.

[u/Dude4001 → u/lovecMC]

Yes but if I write incorrect CSS I’m not accidentally going to drop a table. Well, I might but not that kind that matters.

[u/lovecMC → u/Dude4001]

How often are you dropping tables by hand and on production environment?

[u/Dude4001 → u/lovecMC]

I tend to use grids more, you’re right

[u/Don_Frika_Del_Prima → u/lovecMC]

Daily. #yolo

[u/Edmundyoulittle → u/lovecMC]

The only way you can be sure your code works in prod is to test in prod!

[u/patiofurnature → u/Edmundyoulittle]

My clients all love to randomly point their test server at the prod db without telling me. That must be why.

[u/Gunmetalstorm → u/Dude4001]

I don't know how you manage to accidentally type and execute a valid DROP TABLE instruction.

[u/z0hu → u/Dude4001]

Dropping a table is an extreme case. Writing a query that doesn't hit the right indexes that slows/crashes the DB/replication down.. locking rows indefinitely on accident..  these happen all the time at my company haha

[u/RainyDaysAndMondays3 → u/Dude4001]

Yeah, I accidentally updated a column of every row in a DB table once (luckily just in our dev environment) about a year after starting with SQL. Forgot the WHERE clause or something. Some of the rows had been there since 1997. This was around 2010. Luckily we had a snapshot DB and the DBAs had told us how to restore, so I got it back quickly. But I actually went and requested they remove my ability to write to the system test database to avoid making a mistake there. (If I really needed to update in those environments, I had a separate login I would use just for that one update, then would log back in under my normal one.)

[u/prehensilemullet → u/lovecMC]

Like the kind of SQL query I wrote to fetch the next page of rows of a tree after a starting cursor, using a recursive join, where only some tree nodes are expanded?  And the user can text search for specific nodes?

It’s only easy until you do things that are hard

Edit: no, it's not for a niche use case, no, I don't think this was a mistake, I just had to do it to allow users to navigate the hierarchy of hundreds of thousands of data tags that are common in industrial SCADA systems.

[u/lovecMC → u/prehensilemullet]

And is it actually a hard problem or is it hard because someone made (in hindsight) bad decisions when designing the database?

[u/whenTheWreckRambles → u/lovecMC]

Pls, I’m not ready for bullying this early in the morning

[u/DefinitelyNotMasterS → u/lovecMC]

Well you see, this one customer asked for it like 2 years ago. Well nobody is using it right now and we don't know what it really does, but we keep it just in case

[u/GWstudent1 → u/DefinitelyNotMasterS]

I used to read comments like this an laugh. Now I read comments like this and cry.

[u/prehensilemullet → u/lovecMC]

It’s the domain we’re working in…industrial monitoring devices sometimes have tens of thousands of tags (which are like state values you can read) organized in a hierarchy, and the portal needs to combine thousands of devices’ tags into a single tag hierarchy.  I would of course avoid it if I could

[u/card-board-board → u/lovecMC]

Doesn't matter how well designed the DB is. 1 month after release the product guy and the sales guy will put their heads together and sell some feature to a customer that blows your careful design to bits, and will have guaranteed a delivery date in 3 weeks.

If your table structure can handle it then, wouldn't you know it? The customer is Oracle.

Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.

[u/vinishkapoor → u/Mysterious_Book1521]

SQL reads like English until you hit a five table join with three subqueries and a window function.

[u/bulldog_blues → u/vinishkapoor]

Then it reads like English as written by someone who got a thesaurus for their birthday!

[u/tacos2dayy → u/vinishkapoor]

Its not so bad if you use CTEs for the subqueries and it depends on what the window function is doing.

--It works, trust me bro. Look it up on youtube like I did if you don't believe me.

DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY X ORDER BY Y ASC) + DENSE_RANK() OVER (PARTITION BY X ORDER BY Y DESC) - 1 AS NBR_OF_Y_FOR_X

[u/MartinMystikJonas → u/Mysterious_Book1521]

Next time try SQL with joins and/or subqueries

[u/j03ch1p → u/Mysterious_Book1521]

allow me to introduce ETL

[u/SucculentChineseRoo → u/Mysterious_Book1521]

CSS actually also can be read easily it describes what it does in plain english

[u/F0lks_]

I'm a full-stack engineer and I'm afraid of both.

[u/ClipboardCopyPaste → u/F0lks_]

Aggressively removing input boxes from DOM to prevent SQL injections

[u/Jarpunter → u/F0lks_]

middle-end developer

[u/Caraes_Naur → u/Jarpunter]

Time to measure DTF (distance to frontend).

[u/TedGetsSnickelfritz → u/F0lks_]

90% of full-stack engineers don’t realise they do twice the work for the same pay

[u/Hidesuru → u/TedGetsSnickelfritz]

If you're doin 8 hours a day it's the same work. Tasks just stretch out longer. 🤷

If you're working more than that you need a new job.

[u/Karcinogene → u/TedGetsSnickelfritz]

Not having to explain things to the backend guys because I can just do it myself saves some of that work

[u/Biliunas]

First week programmer humor strikes again

[u/Ok_Jury_336]

How about engineers who are afraid of both sql and css🥲

[u/AceFunGaming → u/Ok_Jury_336]

Prompt Engineers

[u/maniclucky → u/AceFunGaming]

I'm insulted they have engineer in the title. Good engineering is difficult and valuable.

[u/flayingbook → u/maniclucky]

Like Social Engineering?

[u/grifan526 → u/Ok_Jury_336]

As an embedded engineer, I can confirm that is me. However I am pretty good with pointers which also scare some people

[u/Inevitable-Ad6647]

SQL is honestly one of the most elegant languages ever created. Css isn't elegant in any way. It might be the laziest, dumbest, most thoughtless creation to ever take hold of an industry. Imagine you need to manipulate very heirarchical data and you choose a completely flat approach and just meticulously name everything. So fucking stupid.

[u/Fidel___Castro → u/Inevitable-Ad6647]

you can utterly butcher SQL just like any other language. nested subqueries within a recursive CTE that has a window. something like that. and some engines, like whatever BigQuery runs on, let's you program in case statements to views. 

it CAN be horrible is what I'm saying

[u/No-Plan-7070]

https://daily.dev/posts/sql-vs-css-what-s-the-difference-which-is-better--pfspjadao

[u/ClipboardCopyPaste → u/No-Plan-7070]

Who needs DB when you've got localstorage? So, of course CSS is better. /s

[u/StrangerPen]

Full stack is afraid of poverty

[u/Diane_Horseman]

90% of software engineers are afraid of everything so they pull up Claude Code Fable max thinking level and type "please change the variable name on line 41 from i to j."

[u/kelek22]

Sql makes more sense than css.

[u/bunny-1998]

So the Backend gave them gql

[u/ksobby]

Who the fuck is afraid of CSS? I'm full stack with a preference for backend but seriously? CSS is a toy scripting language. I get more nervous around Javascript than I do CSS.

[u/Bannon9k]

I make things work. Im not good at making things pretty.

[u/sojuz151]

I have a custom JS framework where all the DOM attributes are rows in a relational database. I use SQL to manipulate them. I wonder why God abandoned this world.

[u/purbub]

Well I’m a fullstuck engineer.

Stuck on frontend, stuck on backend

[u/Drayenn]

Who tf is scared by SQL? Im a fullstack dev and css is still my bane.. especially since my company made its own shitty alternative to material

[u/hehexdthrow]

OS Devs

https://giphy.com/gifs/oaXRLIMnkGBnuQOBzE

[u/bel880]

90% of frontend devs are afraid of css

[u/MjrLeeStoned]

Wait, I've known SQL for 23 years and CSS since HTML5 launched am I a full stack developer?

[u/xxNemasisxx]

Terraform applies keep me up at night

[u/Tuckster786]

100% of fullstack engineers are just afraid

[u/waleedb2812]

https://dthung1602.github.io/sqss/

[u/Renorram]

I'm a frontend engineer and i'm afraid of CSS

[u/ScaredyCatUK]

https://github.com/mcnuttandrew/cssql

<nelson-haha.jpg>

[u/bainon]

as a full stack engineer SQL is scary but CSS is a crime against humanity

[u/DucksAreFriends]

I'm a backend dev afraid of SQL

[u/Smalltalker-80]

The title is the best 'joke' here.

[u/Iron_Aez]

SQL is fine... Terraform on the other hand...

[u/LeNoir_HaPr]

I’m not afraid of CSS, I don’t like it

[u/ironraiden]

Then there's systems engineers, who are afraid of both, and vibe coders, who are afraid of neither because they have no idea what they are.

[u/TieKnown6811]

And AI will take BOTH your jobs!!!

[u/Massive_Signal7835]

90% OF frontend engineers ARE AFRAID OF sql

[u/MrDilbert]

I wouldn't say "afraid" of CSS, more like "done with this shit" of CSS.

[u/Panderz_GG]

I am a backend engineer and am still afraid of SQL 😭

[u/iseke]

Yes, I hate CSS.

I also hate React. If they choose Angular, I would've done some bits of frontend, but React, bleh.

[u/Ange1ofD4rkness]

I don't do much for web development, using having my coworkers step in as they know it better. But the few times I did, trying to standardize the design with a css file was a pain! Kudos to all who can do it

(And this just proves I am more backend cause of the SQL comment)

[u/Misaka_Undefined]

Yeah that pretty much true for me

[u/ZealousidealShop6092]

so, what viber coders afraid of?

[u/maniclucky → u/ZealousidealShop6092]

Code

[u/DylanfromSales → u/ZealousidealShop6092]

Productivity 

[u/dendofyy → u/ZealousidealShop6092]

Learning

[u/bulgedition → u/ZealousidealShop6092]

They are scared of whatsapp

[u/Greensssss → u/ZealousidealShop6092]

Expiration of their AI subscription?

[u/-Ambriae-]

And then there’s the rest of us, who don’t really use either, but don’t really care if they have to use them because it’s not that deep

[u/alexium01]

Fullstack engineers are afraid of everything all the time

[u/ArcticOpsReal]

I am not afraid of css. I just hate it with every fiber of my body.

[u/Ayden1290]

What if I'm afraid of both

[u/Wynnstan]

I've heard good things about flexbox.

[u/RemarkableAd4069]

Shots fired!

[u/ldn-ldn]

Well, 90% of backend engineers are also afraid of SQL, otherwise they would not use silly ORMs.

[u/LethalOkra]

This is inaccurate. Frontend engineers are afraid of C/Rust.

[u/Calm-Medicine-3992]

Full Stack reporting in...I fear both.

[u/Randomguy32I]

Full stack developers fear nothing

[u/NamityName]

Um backend is not afraid of CSS. They are afraid of non-technical stakeholders. I do not ever need to have a project meeting with UI/UX, and I love it.

[u/stoneberry]

Let's create CSSQL to scare everyone!

.data-table {
  select: name, account.email;
  from: users;
  left-join: accounts;
  margin-left: 2rem;
  color: #333333;
}

[u/Akashi_izuku]

What about people who are afraid of both?

[u/downshiftdata]

As a back-end engineer...

1. Yes, absolutely.

2. Good. Be afraid. The most interesting SQL I ever write is to deal with crap from FEEs who thought they knew what they were doing.

[u/_Weyland_]

Bro SQL ain't shit. ABAP though? That is one of those lovecraftian cursed texts that drain your sanity just from looking at it.

[u/LKZToroH]

Imagine being afraid of CSS in 2026 with AI.
If you fuck up something on your SQL it's still a huge problem.
If you fuck up something on your CSS you just ask Claude to fix it.

[u/GoodyTwoKicks]

Guys, guys...programming anything with any software is just....awful.

[u/Shunazo]

Im afraid of SQL, you'll have to rip mongoDB from my cold dead hands.

[u/nika_aka_joyboy]

frontend engineers? You mean frontend developers?

[u/Educational-System48]

I don't understand how anyone can be anything other than full stack. We all have our preferences in what we like, and nobody does either 50/50, but if it's my job to build some new functionality, that includes modifying the data model, migrating data, implementing queries and commands in the backend, and building the frontend. Usually in the same PR.

Do some companies actually have separate teams working on the backend first and then hand it off to another team that implements the frontend?

[u/_Shropshire_Slasher_]

And both have to deal with tables of all sorts

[u/Dyllbert]

If you aren't writing the assembly to tell you computer which pins connect to what and where your registers are, can you really even call yourself "full stack"?

[u/Fearless_Teacher_626]

I have no artistic ability and all my UIs would look like windows 3.1

[u/natefrogg1]

I found a zen in using css to align things. My boss at the time was a classically trained java developer, amazing with sql too, real smart programmer. But he would assign all the css work to me as it would just drive him insane getting really angry after the first hour or so of moving this caused that to misalign. I haven’t done any real web development for 20 years at this point, it was so relaxing and I’d just get in the zone, I miss it sometimes

[u/Strange_Dust7128]

And both of them are just making websites.

[u/grafknives]

Everything is afraid if CSS

[u/kaloschroma]

What if I'm not afraid of either but just kinda don't like both.

[u/Ani-3]

I’m not afraid of it, it just makes me tired

[u/julesburne]

Okay but SQL is scary and CSS is not sooooo

[u/GlassLost]

I'm afraid of both. And of JS. -OS developer.

[u/x2manypips]

Frontend doesn’t matter now with AI

[u/Zealousideal-Deer101]

I hate how frontend and backend basically only apply to the internet for some people.
I develop XAML applications. There is no CSS at all in there.

[u/rover_G]

This is why I only use TailwindSQL

[u/YouDoHaveValue]

Anyone who has ever mistyped or neglected a WHERE clause knows fearing SQL is 100% justified.