May be we should try 1990's style waterfall dev shop. Play Radiohead and Pearl Jam in the office. Everyone wears shorts + tennis shoes with super long white socks. Monthly powerpoint updates on how things are going, PM gets to have some fun with sharpie markers to tick off checkboxes next to each feature that was planned. Dedicated QA department, and they have the coolest arcade machine, it is the Street Fighter machine from 1 Arcade! Ritchie, one of the frontend devs, was able to hack it so it also accepts Doge coin. Morale is high. Project is over by October, 2 months early, and everyone hires a VW bus to go on a road trip. Customers are delighted and next year starts with another waterfall project.
Arguably - if you knew about RS232 and friends, were familiar with some terminal hardware (I knew more than I should have about Wyse 60s), understood the tty interface, and programmed using terminfo/termcap/curses… then you might be called a front end programmer from the 90s.
Which, dear god, I just realised I was a front end programmer in the 90s!
