Throwback to the Top 5 Programming Trends of 2016

2016 is shaping up to be a very exciting year in the world of programming. New programs and design choices abound as developers are experimenting with all of the possibilities this year has brought with it. Now is the perfect opportunity to learn about what’s “in” this year.

Single-page web apps

Website developers are continuing to ditch the traditional web page to web page design of the past in favor of a more streamlined browsing experience. The main difference between a single page web app and a typical web page is that all of the necessary information for the entire website is retrieved at the same time; no additional pages need to be accessed.

There are many advantages to designing a single page web page. For starters, your information is organized, simple, and understandable for all of your visitors. Putting all of your pertinent info on a single scrollable page divided into sections based on the subject is much easier on the eyes and users can tell what you’re talking about with just a glance.

GitHub

Github is the latest and greatest for coding projects. Whether you want to work on something alone, with a small team, or with your entire staff, Github can let you experiment and work together on all your most important coding endeavors.

The open source nature of the service allows programmers to observe other projects and even offer up their services to help it along. GitHub acts as a repository of code that can be accessed at any time. It works as a source control tool, making sure to keep track of every version of an app as well as who on the team implemented it.

It can also be a great learning tool for budding programmers to watch experts build apps right in front of them. Those same experts can review the amateur’s work and give them helpful advice to improve their coding skills. You can pick up valuable skills just by watching the experts at work. Working on any of the millions of projects available from other Github users will help you gain experience for your projects.

Material design

This modern philosophy combines flat colors with simulated shadows and flashy animations, of which Google been the biggest proponent. Not to mention they even coined the term. Fluid animations help in-app actions flow together and provide a more vibrant experience. 2015 introduced us to the new mobile designs of Google’s main line of services like YouTube, Gmail, and Google Maps featuring their new layout. It’s apparent that they are quite proud of what they have come up with, judging from their widespread implementation.

Developers are taking notice of this new trend, too. Now that it has become the standard in the latest Android operating system Marshmallow, devs want to create apps that look congruent with the new design. Thankfully Google has published their entire design document with all of the dos and don’ts on how to make the best looking and feeling app with their design philosophy in mind.

Backend as a service

App developers are adopting BaaS faster than ever, and that trend is expected to continue for the rest of the year. The olden days of coding demanded that if you wanted a server for storing user data, you would have to craft the infrastructure from scratch. Thanks to the vast improvements brought by the internet and cloud storage in particular, devs no longer have to trouble themselves with that mess.

The backend is composed of three interconnected parts: the application itself, a database on which the information is stored, and a server that houses the database. Connecting to the backend isn’t always the easiest process, but the cloud has made it infinitely easier for developers to focus on making outstanding applications without spending so much time tweaking the nitty-gritty parts of their apps.

Cloud Computing

More and more applications are relying on internet-based systems to function. Cloud computing is the future of web development. Rather than buying or renting rows upon rows of dedicated servers that you may or may not use, you can simply use the power of the ecloud through services like Amazon Web Services to pay only for the computing power you need.

One of the main draws of cloud computing is its scalability. If you notice that you’ve gained an influx of users to your site or app, you can easily get more capacity so your app stays stable and all of your visitors will have a smooth experience. No one likes a slow web page and cloud computing can bring some much needed speed to your service.