I don’t think it causes confusion, but there doesn’t seem to be any consensus on how we write out the word front end. I had to make a choice right there. My preferred style, for now, is just that: front end. But I figured it would be a fun and potentially interesting poll to see what everyone thinks. Voting in the widget in the sidebar (large screen) or somewhere-down-there (small screen).
New Poll: “front” “end” ughck.
Chris Coyier
on
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Wouldn’t that actually depend on the grammatical role of the term? One can talk about “techniques used in the front end”, or one can talk about, say, “front-end techniques”. In that, it’s no different from “front seat” (the thing you sit on) versus “front-seat” (the sort of view you have through the windshield).
That’s the standard best practice among professional editors.
This. I voted “front-end” since I see it most often in the phrase “front-end developer” in which case it’s an adjective modifying “developer” and thus should be hyphenated. But it should be “Chris made changes on the front end”. Capitals are right out it’s at the beginning of a sentence.
This is how I use it. I tend to focus on the
front end, but I describe myself as afront-end librarian.Anyway, for the record, I voted “front end” because I feel like we are describing the noun, not the adjective.
Trick question!
Stan is correct. You need to make front end a compound adjective if it is describing developer. (Front-end developer)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_modifier
Oops! Too many people already chimed in with the same thing. I wish I could delete my post; I just got too excited to write my answer.
Yes—usage depends on context.
To echo what others have said, it definitely depends on context. The term “front-end” is correct when used as a compound adjective, and the term “front end” is correct when used as a noun.
It’s not hugely important, but front-end is AFAIK the most correct (technically) best way to spell.
Stan Rogers is correct. Also, I suppose you should only choose “Front-end” or “Front end” if you would capitalize anywhere, not just at the beginning of a sentence?
Where is client-side?
I prefer sticking to the GCC Coding Convention, where “front end” should be used as noun and “front-end” should be used as adjective.
The words “Front end” are adjectives since they describe development. Generally speaking, you want to hyphenate words together when they compound adjectives preceding the noun they describe. “I do front-end development.”
However, to say “The development I do is front end.” is also acceptable since the two words are adjectives following the noun they describe.
“Front-end” is a compound adjective, like two-year-old. I capitalized it because it’s at the beginning of a sentence. If you title-case it, as in a job title, it can become “Front-End Developer”. It is a modern trend to drop the hyphen for compound nouns, so “front end” and “frontend” are also accepted, but “front-end” is the one that follows grammar rules. This poll is stupid.
Gosh that was an interesting comment until the last sentence.
I’m confused. How is ‘frontend’ which neither carries capitalization nor hyphen, the leading vote getter?
Because there’s really no need for either. It’s not a proper noun. And leaving out the hyphen keeps it nice and simple, which is no bad thing.
It’s not a bad thing, unless you care about grammar.
I suppose if it catches on you have an argument to use against the prescriptivist, but “do it wrong until it becomes the new right” hardly seems a professional stance.
It would be interesting to see if people refer to the “back-end”, “back end” or “backend”.
I’ve never seen people refer to the back-end technologies as “backend”. You would think it would work like front(-)seat and back(-)seat.
I prefer frontend but I choose Front-end because that’s how I see it in most titles and on resumes and LinkedIn.
I almost exclusively use frontend. However I noticed Wikipedia has decided to use Front End:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Front_and_back_ends
Front End also seems to be the choice used by most of the top google search results
Fro ‘n Ten’d
I use frontEnd, FrontEnd or _frontEnd depending on the language and usage. :P
I have been using Frontend (capitalized in German) and frontend lately, simply because it fits with Backend/backend which is the preferred spelling for that side of the coin in the communities I am part of.
Putting aside the grammar behind proper hyphenation, why are there capitalized and not capitalized versions as separate options? Surely, the capitalization would depend on content?
Depend on context, not content.
FrontEnd, so my vote was frontend.
is missing in the list.
“developer developer–front–end”
OMG this is ugly :/
Your poll has un/capitalized versions of all options except for “Frontend”. Isn’t this inconsistent?
Personally I don’t really like the term however you spell it. I’d much rather we just used different words, like “user interface developer”, which can be understood by people outside of the industry. I know that’s maybe not an exact substitution but it’s not really got a nailed down definition anyway.
Front and back stage are my preferred terms, much more sophisticated
“Frontend” isn’t a word.
Wow, that’s the dumbest thing that I’ve read on the internet for a long time.
Good job!
“The war between the ‘gif’ and ‘jif’ pronunciation factions is not going well. We need a distraction, something else for nitpickers to focus on.”
Chris: “Hmm… I’ve got just the thing.”
I prefer “frontend”
So there are Front End Developers and Back End Developers. Does that make a Full Stack Developer also an End Developer? #deep.
Figuring out which to put on your résumé is the worst.
Usually just go with Front-end
Tom Harley wrote in (comments were closed before he saw this):