> This kinda crap is why the gmail tab uses a GB of memory.
Actually no, and the real reason is organisational.
It has been a pattern for years now for front-end projects to consist of multiple, independent modules developed by separate teams - banking apps are a prime example of this.
Gmail appears to have went the same route, because it now sends over 200 requests when loading - a hallmark of a highly modularized front-end.
The organisational benefit is less knowledge required per developer, which in turn brings other advantages like resistance to turnover.
You can say that about any engineering problem and be right 99% of the time. Because it’s always true, it’s not a super useful analysis.
Somehow, software on embedded, the kernel, graphics, flight control, etc. is all developed by equally large organizations and while they’re far from perfect, they produce far better software than the vast majority of web UX organizations.
Something about web dev is uniquely terrible, in addition to the common factors you mentioned.
I think you judge it like that because errors in UI are usually the most visible.
Meanwhile I can't get my laptop into sleep mode at times because such a seemingly simple feature can't be reliably implemented for some reason and it's been like that for years - that's just one out of many instances of non-web software being terrible.
There's a lot of great software that's not written by people who work with web development. There's also plenty of utter garbage software that's not written by people who work with web development. I don't think web development sticks out enough to make it unique
Actually no, and the real reason is organisational.
It has been a pattern for years now for front-end projects to consist of multiple, independent modules developed by separate teams - banking apps are a prime example of this.
Gmail appears to have went the same route, because it now sends over 200 requests when loading - a hallmark of a highly modularized front-end.
The organisational benefit is less knowledge required per developer, which in turn brings other advantages like resistance to turnover.