Forum:Web Development for Bioinformatics

Question

[edsanhu]

Hi all,

Currently I have a Biology degree and the will of study a MSc on Bioinformatics. However, before starting the MSc (for several reasons) I decided to start a Professional Training (PT) on Programming. The point is that, on my current PT, I'm learning to build apps that runs on my computer, and next year I'll learn cool stuff such as advanced data access and multi-threading. The bad thing is that I'll learn mobile app development and how to build applications for business managment which I think won't be profitable for Bioinformatics.

On the other hand, next year I could switch to Web App Dev (It's another PT) where I'll learn Front-end and Back-end. I'm not interested in building web pages, but I thought that things such as preparing a server and SOAP apps might be more interesting for my future career.

What do you think?

Thank you!

P.S: I'm aimed to industry

P.P.S: Some more reasons for switching:

• This Professional Training is nearer from home, so I won't have to commute 30 min every day. Might be a silly reason, but I don't have a vehicle and I have to rely on class fellows to give me a lift every day.
• Next year I have 5 subjects: one of them is mobile app dev (which I don't think will be to much proficient for bioinformatics) and the other is for developing Enterprise Resource Planning Apps (which I'm not going to use at all).
• A new Professional Training has been created here in Spain. It is for training Bioinformatics technicians. I asked which things they teach there, and surprisingly they answered me that this new Professional Training is based on the Web App Dev PT. Not the one I'm doing, actually.

However, despite of all that, there are 2 subjects on my current PT that are interesting for Bioinformatics. Advanced Data Access and Multithreading. Which is what keeps me for making a final decision. Any Suggestion? Thank you!

[Pierre Lindenbaum]

but I thought that things such as preparing a server and SOAP apps might be more interesting for my future career

While as a java programmer I love SOAP, the protocol is far from being popular in the community. I have the feeling that most people uses REST-based services.

[edsanhu]

I guess that when I learn SOAP I could learn REST more easily.

[Alex Reynolds]

JSON-backed RESTful web services are pretty common for a wide variety of web and mobile applications.

[edsanhu]

And do you think that's worth knowing about REST or SOAP more than knowing about multithreading? I mean, how much could a Bioinformatician take advantage of Web App Dev?

Thank you!

[Alex Reynolds]

I would guess you'd get a lot of use out of knowing "front-end" RESTful web app development, since a lot of informatics analyses are now cloud- or web-based or moving that direction and use that idiom for data exchange. Multithreading might be useful if you are planning to focus on "back-end" tool development, where you are more interested in what runs underneath the hood, so to speak.

[edsanhu]

Thank you for your answer. It helps me for my decision =).

[edsanhu]

I've added some more reason for switching in case you could give me your advice.

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Istvan Albert]

The future of programming leans towards web development and towards using services on mobile devices. So I would recommend that people learn about that even if they wanted to stay a hard-core bioinformatician.

In general I would not be too worried about learning more varied concepts. Be good at what you do and you'll quickly be able to adapt it to what you want to do.

[edsanhu]

Thank you for your advice. It might answer as well why I was getting just a few comments. If both paths are good, it's difficult to make a choice, so it relies on my personal preferences rather than objective reasons.

Thank you!