Part 1. Setting the baseline

Full-stack development is rewarding when you get it right. An application has many moving parts, and it’s your job to get them working in harmony. The best first steps you can take are understanding the building blocks you have to work with and looking at the ways you can put them together to achieve different results.

These steps are what part 1 is all about. In chapter 1, you’ll take a look at the benefits of learning full-stack development in some detail and explore the components of the MEAN stack. Chapter 2 builds on this knowledge of the components and discusses how you can use them together to build things.

By the end of part 1, you’ll have a good understanding of possible software and hardware architectures for a MEAN stack application, as well as the plan for the application you’ll build throughout the book.