No matter the App you're building, “Full-Stack Development” plays an incredibly important role

Modern applications are made up of "layers" also called "tiers". All "layers" assembled in an application are referred to as a "technology stack" or "stack" for short.

Full-Stack developers must possess a deep understanding of each application layer and how layers communicate with each other.

Full-Stackers should also know how App tiers (layers), database servers, web servers, operating platform, hardware and network components work together as a system.

August 12, 1981 the IBM Personal Computer was released. Prices on all desktop computers dropped. IBM heavily promoted & popularized desktop computing in businesses worldwide. The era of Multi-Tier Architecture design patterns and concepts began.

My first 2 programming languages were BASIC & Pascal in grade school. Thanks to a technolocially advanced science teacher my school purchased new TRS-80 & Apple II computers the Fall of 1981.

During my four decade evolution many new technologies were conceived. I picked the best ones to learn at their inception. Today many are primary technologies for constructing sophisticated multi-tier applications.

Rapid advancements & increasing reliance on digital solutions requires a holistic approach & whole-picture perspective on App design.

My goal is combine Best Technologies & Great Ideas into App creation.

My technology timeline 1986 to 2015
Technology
Released & Initial Use
C++
In 1979, Bjarne Stroustrup, a Danish computer scientist, began work on "C with Classes", the predecessor to C++. Fall 1986 I took a college C++ programming course and was hooked. The concept of abstract classes, multiple inheritance, member functions and protected members were an exciting progression from procedural coding. Got an A in class and did a project for professor.
xBase
Started in 1979 with the VULCAN project. XBase is a term that refers to a family of programming languages derived from the original dBASE language. Spring 1987 my career began at Ahlstrom Kamyr (engineering firm) on college breaks. I worked in project management creating charts, schedules, spreadsheets and discovered Ashton-Tate's dBASE III+ preinstalled on new office computers. A wide-ranging knowledge of dBASE, Clipper, FoxBASE, FoxPro & Visual FoxPro followed.
SQL - Structured Query Language
1979 implementation & standardized in 1986. I learned SQL in 1988. The engineering firm I worked for had as AS/400 system with embedded version of DB2. In 1991 I began using FoxPro 2.0 MS-DOS which incorporated SQL in desktop app.
Microsoft Windows
Windows 3.11 was released January 1994. A hard-core DOS developer, this version finally convinced me to commit to using Windows over DOS. It was clearly the future for business computing. My main development computer is Windows 11 Pro but multi-monitor Linux & MacOS workstations are on each side of it.
Java
January 1996 Sun Microsystems released Java 1.0. Summer 1996 Java Software Developers Kit for Windows 95 was released. Fall 1996 I dove into Java devouring tech documents found online. January 1997 I bought a book "Inside Java" at Barnes & Noble marking pages with sticky notes.
JavaScript
First released on December 4, 1995. I started learning JavaScript from online documents Winter of 1996. 2 months prior I began learning Java but Java did not run in browsers and JavaScript did. Even though they sounded similar Java and JavaScript are totally different languages.
HTML - HyperText Mark-up Language
July 1994: HTML specification for HTML 2 is released. November 1994: Netscape is formed and The World Wide Web Consortium forms. While learning JavaScript I started learning HTML. Coming from programming languages I found RAW HTML foreign and unusual. Now I read & write it like English.
Oracle Database
Initially released in 1979 and since 1998 I've developed many databases, stored procedures, PL/SQL packages & functions in Oracle. There are applications in production today I developed 25 years ago. I have more Oracle development hours than most people have when retiring.
MySQL Database
Initial release May 23, 1995. Version 5.0 was released in 2005 with cursors, stored procedures, triggers & views. Coming from Oracle background I had no interest in MySQL until 5.0. In 2006 I began creating databases in MySQL for comparison to Oracle. MySQL is my primary database for current development projects. MySQL is not as robust as Oracle but most applications do not require the processing complexity.
Python 3.0
Python reached version 1.0 in January 1994. Python 3.0 was released on December 3, 2008 and when I began learning it. Python was my first game changer on how I thought about software development. It is very powerful with no variable declaration or initialization rules.

The fastest-changing industry is technology; particularly in areas of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity & software development.

Continuous learning latest tools, languages & methodologies is vital for Full-Stackers.

Web and Cloud Development

January 1, 2016 I stopped being a Microsoft Developer and started becoming an Open Source Developer. On new year day I installed Ubuntu Linux as a dual boot on my Windows workstation.

At the time, all my development had been on the Windows platform and mostly client server architecture.

My technology timeline 2016 to present
Technology
Released & Initial Use
Ubuntu Linux
Ubuntu was first released on October 20, 2004, known as "Warty Warthog" and my first installed version was Ubuntu 14.04. Linux was my second game changer in software development and running applications. Ubuntu hosts all my Apache HTTP servers and web applications.
Apache HTTP Server
Initial release 1995 but I used Windows Internet Information Services (IIS). 2016 I switched from IIS to Apache. Since August 2024 I am immersed in learning all Apache modules & functionality.
Node.js
Initial release was May 27, 2009. I began learning in 2016. Node.js was my third game changer on how to build applications and think about software development. This opened up a whole new level of application possibilities.
Express - Node.js web framework
Initial release November 16, 2010. Express was my final game changer in development. By end of 2016 I was committed to Express after spending 12 months learning Java Spring, Hibernate, Vue.js, React and Next.js frameworks, reading tons of articles, taking online tutorials, downloading many sample applications and building several prototypes.
TypeScript
Designed by Anders Hejlsberg architect of Tubro Pascel and Delphi. Released October 1, 2012 by Microsoft as free and open-source software. TypeScript is a high-level programming language that adds static typing with optional type annotations to JavaScript. It is designed for developing large applications and transpiles to JavaScript.
PostgreSQL Database
The object-relational database management system derived from the POSTGRES package written at the University of California at Berkeley in 1986. My PostgreSQL experience is limited to a 4-month data migration project in 2018 for UnitedHealth Group. PostgreSQL Version 11 implemented Stored Procedures and my Python and Oracle Stored Procedure Experience was required for data conversion.
Go
Go was designed at Google in 2007 and first released in 2009. In 2020 as a database consultant on project migrating many VPS & VM to Kubernetes I took on another role that required learning Go. Kubernetes is written in Go. I quickly learned how powerful & important the language is in Cloud Computing.
Apple MacOS
MacOS technical knowledge is essential to qualify as a Trifecta Full-Stack Developer. This little Mac Mini M2 Pro box is a monster processing machine with 32GB. A major upgrade from the Apple II Plus I had in 1980.
Swift
Swift was first released in June 2014. Created by Chris Lattner in 2010 for Apple and maintained by the open-source community. Month of May 2024 I spent engrossed in several "Develop in Swift" Tutorials and working on iPhone App Node.js integration.
MariaDB Database
January 30, 2025 I attended a MariaDB webinar and was very impressed with the technical knowledge and passion the four presenters conveyed about MariaDB. I spent that night converting a current MySQL data processing project to MariaDB. The processes execute in less than half the time of MySQL. MariaDB is a community-developed, commercially supported fork of MySQL over its acquisition by Oracle Corporation in 2009. MariaDB is intended to maintain high compatibility with MySQL, with exact matching with MySQL APIs and commands and function as a drop-in replacement for MySQL.
NGINX HTTP Server
In October 2004, Igor Sysoev a Russian software engineer released NGINX under the 2-clause BSD License. March 18, 2025 I installed NGINX to gain hands-on knowledge. Configuration is simpler than Apache. Access and Error logging functionality is similar to Apache. NGINX ("engine x") is an HTTP web server, reverse proxy, content cache, load balancer, TCP/UDP proxy server and mail proxy server. Enterprise distributions, commercial support and training are available from F5 Inc.

At its core, a Full-Stacker is proficient in handling both the front-end (multiple browsers, multiple devices, Internet APIs) and the back-end (web servers, databases, OS platforms, API services).

Programming was my first passion until I started running tractors, loaders, dump trucks, bulldozers, fixing equipment and building race cars. During that time Engineering became my main emphasis.

Since quitting my engineering job to become a computer systems consultant my concentration has been on database & data processes. Both are engineering tasks imperative to application flexibility & functionality.

The "jack of all tiers" in application development!