The Amphibian.com Software Stack

The work of a full-stack engineer. Delicious.

The comic today referenced a number of popular software solutions stacks, before realizing that the CEO frog really just wants someone to make stacks of pancakes. Instead of hiring a short-order cook, try listing the job as "full stack engineer" and see who applies.

If you're not familiar with them, here they are:

LAMP

• Linux Operating System
• Apache HTTP Server
• MySQL Database
• Perl / PHP / Python Programming Language

MEAN

• MongoDB
• Express.js
• AngularJS
• Node.js

ELK

• Elasticsearch
• Logstash
• Kibana

These "stacks" get catchy acronym names because they are so often used together, but there's nothing really binding about them. They're also not consistent in which parts of the system they name. For example, the MEAN stack still has to run on an operating system (probably Linux) but that part is left out of the name.

To make Amphibian.com, I didn't use one of these named stacks.

Here is my Frog Stack:

• Linux
• Express.js
• Node.js
• MySQL

It just doesn't have a nice acronym. LENM? I could re-arrange the words. MELN? ELMN? I could leave the operating system out, I guess. MEN? I could be more specific with my operating system and say Ubuntu instead of just Linux. Then I could have MUEN, NUME, MUNE, EMUN, or ENUM. I started the process of switching from MySQL to Postgres, so maybe someday I could run a LENP stack. Or a PELN? NELP?

Those are all terrible.

Why did I select Ubuntu Linux? Mainly because it's free and I like it. I initially selected MySQL because I've used it in a lot of projects over the years and I was familiar with it. I want to switch to Postgres now because I store mostly JSON and want to use the new features related to JSON storage in Postgres 9.4. I chose Node and Express because I wanted to start building applications with Node to learn about it. Express, I learned, was just the most popular web framework for Node. So I learned that as well. And it's been a good experience. I really like building applications with this set of components, even if it doesn't have a cool name.

I would like a full stack of pancakes now.

Amphibian.com comic for 3 June 2015