Let’s talk about Meteor for a second. If you don’t know what Meteor is, then I’m assuming you’re like me: a sad excuse for a Computer Engineering major who has had no prior experience of web or app development and has spent the last four years in college with their face to a screen, trying to figure out the best algorithm for storing values into ‘structs’ or spending the last half of your semester trying to find the best algorithm for an ‘exponentiating’ calculator program even though that problem has already been solved a million (roughly) years ago. When I first started using Meteor, it was a piece of well-frosted cake, I understood command line so there was no problem with installation and basic use. I liked the fact that I could edit it in IntellijIDEA and it seemed to me that my future projects would flow smoothly without any real complications. Wow, what a wonderful fairytale world I was living in
Meteor Did's
Here's a problem I solved as a Meteor User
Unfortunately,as time passed, and I was asked to download more applications in Meteor, it dawned on me that web development is no easy task, unless you think you could make a living off of creating one page websites that increase the amount of times the user presses a button on the screen . . . not possible.
One of the main issues I've had with Meteor is trying to find solutions for a user with Windows 10 (i.e. me) when a lot of upcoming web developers seem to be mac users (i.e. everyone else). One of the first problems in Meteor that I encountered was when I tried to install the meteor-application-template. Once I installed it, when I tried to run it, it seemed to be taking a unusually long time to build (based on my extensive two week experience with Meteor). I didn't really notice this until I logged onto Slack, which I use in my class for troubleshooting ideas and general communication in my class. It turns out that in Windows computers, sometimes our antivirus protection gets in the way of new apps being built. I was a little unnerved at having to disable Windows real-time protection (not as unnerved as my computer, judging from the multiple warnings popping up begging me not to), but it turns out it was for the best. I think the best part of all this is that, for a reason I still have my suspicions about, I never had to turn it off again. I had turned it back on after a few builds with my program and it seems that Windows learned this wasn't a bad app, and after enabling the protection again, it still builds with the same speed. Talk about a fix!
Meteor Did Not's
Meteor is super complicated, and I'm still confused about what I should be confused about.
I want to discuss all my problems with Meteor as well, but the big thing is, I don't even know what's a problem! Meteor is such an expansive tool, that I'm still wandering around beginner-man's land, and I'm not even sure what parts of Meteor I should be questioning or having a hard time with because for me, everything is hard. I'm still getting into the habit of using tools for web development, and web development itself, but I've been pretty impressed with Meteor so far as that, it kinda makes sense . . . if I was smarter?
I’ve come to the conclusions, though, that as I journey through web development, Meteor may likely become my best friend. This doesn’t seem like the end of the world for me, although I feel a little of the “growing pains”, but I think that what could have been my worst enemy (due to the fact that I’m too lazy), could be my greatest ally.