Given that they've been working on 4 for so long, I'd learn 3 now since it works and the migrate to 4 when it's ready. And for the record, I'm tired of everyone bashing Bootstrap. I'm using it for a production site and I love it. I'm a one-man shop and I need to earn revenue now. I can't afford to spend the next six months learning the quirks of CSS and its crummy layout techniques. Bootstrap has allowed me to create a responsive website that works well across all devices. It also looks much more professional than what I could have done on my own, not to mention the fact that my site looks much better than those of my competitors. I'm grateful that Bootstrap is around.
Ask HN: Should I learn Bootstrap 3 or 4 at this moment?
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Re: Ask HN: Should I learn Bootstrap 3 or 4 at this moment?
#12When you start on an old technology you instantly incur a learning debt.
i.e. you will have to learn the new thing at some time in the future so may as well not incur that debt and go straight to the future.
Re: Ask HN: Should I learn Bootstrap 3 or 4 at this moment?
#13I've been using 4 for production. Pretty much the same thing.
Re: Ask HN: Should I learn Bootstrap 3 or 4 at this moment?
#14Given that they've been working on 4 for so long, I'd learn 3 now since it works and the migrate to 4 when it's ready. And for the record, I'm tired of everyone bashing Bootstrap. I'm using it for a production site and I love it. I'm a one-man shop and I need to earn revenue now. I can't afford to spend the next six months learning the quirks of CSS and its crummy layout techniques. Bootstrap has allowed me to create…
+1. Bootstrap has helped me immensely for many of the same reasons. What is your app or site?
Re: Ask HN: Should I learn Bootstrap 3 or 4 at this moment?
#15What browsers do you need to support? Version #4 dropped support for IE9. If IE is important for your business then version #3 is currently the better option.
Now, learning bootstrap is not too bad. All you need to donis figure out how it defines the layout grid, how it handles margins, padding, and gutters, and how to use different classes to make the site responsive. Should take a couple of days. Ping me if you need help. :)
Re: Ask HN: Should I learn Bootstrap 3 or 4 at this moment?
#16It doesn't matter. Because no matter what tech you use in the web app space, it will all be obsolete in a year or two. Your apps will never be done, because the sand will shift underneath them. You'll need to continually update them to keep them working, or abandon them.
That's a good outlook on life.
Re: Ask HN: Should I learn Bootstrap 3 or 4 at this moment?
#17I'd start with 3 then migrate to 4. Also, learn Flexbox as it will be enabled by default in BS4. FlexboxFroggy.com is a nice introduction. There's one more breakpoint in BS4. The css class to make images responsive has changed for the third time in 3 releases. Other than that, basically the same. I've been toying with it.
Re: Ask HN: Should I learn Bootstrap 3 or 4 at this moment?
#18I've used BS2 and 3 in the past, and wouldn't recommend bootstrap at all these days. You're better off with something like Bourbon which is much more modular and lightweight and doesn't force you into a certain "way" and eventually down the "override everything" rabbithole.
Re: Ask HN: Should I learn Bootstrap 3 or 4 at this moment?
#19When you start on an old technology you instantly incur a learning debt. i.e. you will have to learn the new thing at some time in the future so may as well not incur that debt and go straight to the future.
When you start on a new technology, you have to endure the breaking changes, lack of community support, and lack of skilled operators.
You also burn one of your technology chits. You get just a few as a startup. Selecting all bleeding edge technology could kill you. Would love to know where I read that. :D
Re: Ask HN: Should I learn Bootstrap 3 or 4 at this moment?
#20I started using bootstrap from Bootstrap 1 and it was not difficult to start using 2 or 3 - the basic conceptual framework remains almost the same and most of the implementation anyway requires the Bootstrap documentation open on the side for reference.
However, I would recommend to move away from Bootstrap to Material design for example, I feel (after using both) Material design is more well though framework and it also has bindings with Angular (that is if you are building angular apps) through [angular-material](https://material.angularjs.org/latest/). There is also standalone framework [getmdl.io](https://getmdl.io/started)
Then there is a very detail documentation on how to think like [Material design](https://material.google.com/) way by Google . Checkout the components section from the menu, it is really nice they way explain the theory behind why each component the way it is