acmqueue portrait #04 Nicholas Zakas

In this video interview conducted by Kate Matsudaira, Nicholas Zakas discusses the current state of front end engineering and Web development.

Front end engineering and web development used to be scoffed at by back-end engineers. However, working in the front end of a Web application is so much more than just HTML and CSS these days. Many Web applications can have a whole MVC inside the view, and understanding the client is paramount to delivering expected performance and app-like interaction. Nicholas Zakas takes us through his journey working on the client side, explains the evolution of front-end engineering, and answers questions like "when should you use jQuery?" Nicholas currently works at Box, and was previously the front-end tech lead for the Yahoo! homepage and a contributor to the YUI library. He is also a keynote speaker, and author of 4 books: Maintainable JavaScript, Professional JavaScript for Web Developers, High Performance JavaScript, and Professional Ajax.