Learning JavaScript… Should I skip straight to the good stuff (the frameworks)?

Question

I learnt HTML/CSS a good few years back, then PHP a little later. I\'ve recently become interesting in web development again, just started playing with frameworks like Djang

Answer 1

It depends on where you want to invest your time. Ideally, we're all expert in assembly language, but that's not realistic or practical. We have to pick our battles. Then generally we attack each other for picking the wrong battle, which we call "cargo cult coding."

Personally, out of all the things I could spend a lot of time banging my head against, the intricacies of cross-platform JavaScript seemed less interesting and rewarding than other choices, so I decided to jump straight to jQuery. I'm happy with how it worked out.

Answer 2

This is one of the best videos for beginner javascript developers that understand how to program in other languages:

It's a talk the John Resig did last year at Northeastern, most of it is devoted to talking about core javascript, then the last quarter of the talk jumps into jQuery:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7485992465859932389&ei=jhZUSu73OpfSrQLgyYV3&q=john+resig&hl=en

It's actually a really interesting tech talk and presentation since he does live examples and Resig is pretty good at presenting.

Like others in this question, I also highly recommend reading Javascript: The Good Parts for a better understanding.

Answer 3

I think "both." Mix it up. Play around with a framework. You'll get stuck when you try to do something real, so you'll pick up some JavaScript to figure it out.

A lot of the good jQuery books teach you JavaScript along the way.

Answer 4

Yes, jumping straight to framework-based programming instead of DOM is a good idea.

I started doing JS before any major frameworks like jQuery came along, and was reluctant to switch at first, but when I first started using jQuery, it felt so good to be able to write selectors and stuff and not have to worry about cross-browser compatibility.

However, there are some areas of JS where frameworks wouldn't be available. One of them is in userscripting, where you have to make your script work on a site you don't control. Another such one is the use of JavaScript in applications such as XUL.

Overall, I suggest you start with some trivial JS applications, then switch to jQuery instead of going on to the complex topic of DOM.

Answer 5

I had the same background as you. After 6 months of MooTools I found out that mootools was indirectly teaching me "vanilla" javascript.

I've heard people say that mootools feels more like plain ol' javascript than jquery (after all, jquery's tagline is "jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript.").

I'd recommend starting with a framework. Plenty of the best javascript developers use frameworks. Once you're comfortable there you'll likely be able to pick up the others frameworks and plain ol' javascript quite readily.

Answer 6

No.

Just as when you are learning to program you are taught first C/Pascal then Java/C++ and finally Python/Ruby/Smalltalk/Lisp, and when learning any language you start with simple language constructs, you should first learn ECMAScript, then learn DOM and finally frameworks.

Why? Because you'll have a deeper understanding of the language, and will be able to debug things that might seem odd unless you've got that learning experience.

If you are a seasoned developer, you can speed up each phase, but don't skip them, or you will have problems due to not fully understanding the small oddities.

Javascript is an interesting and fun language, but can act rather odd at times (Date has bitten me a couple of times in the ass).

Use frameworks to avoid repetitive tasks and to simplify your code, but not as a starting point. Simplicity is a final goal, not the starting point, and frameworks are for that, simplicity, not for learning a language. Frameworks are intended for simplifying things for experienced developers.

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Learning the differences between browsers (DOM implementations) will allow you to debug your framework. That is priceless.

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I've been learning Java over the last year...

Javascript is not Java. Never was never will.

Even if you can compile to Javascript from Java, it's still a framework, don't jump into it unless you already know what you are doing.