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Ask HN: Best way to learn JavaScript in 2019?

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Re: Ask HN: Best way to learn JavaScript in 2019?

#11
post #2

> It's time for me to learn the fundamentals, so I can then learn libraries like React. There are more effective ways to learn. Instead of learning "bottom-up", start with your end-goal, e.g. creating apps with React. This is a good start: https://reactjs.org/tutorial/tutorial.html You'll find out what you need, and, more importantly, what you don't need to know along the way.

This is good advice. Learning something of a higher level of abstraction (e.g. React) without knowing how JS works sounds bad in theory, but it appears OP knows enough JS that it'd be better to just dive into React.

A pure, fundamentalist "bottom-up" approach will make you drown in boredom really fast, because you'll be learning very specific syntax details and language gotchas that you don't even know what they're useful for. But when you've been coding in React for a while, and you've had quite a few problems with the "this" expression, then going back to really understand how "this" works will be much more enlightening.

So my recommendation would also be this: Dive into React, or whatever is your end goal, and create stuff. Once you get stuck or feel like your knowledge of JS is inappropriate or you're falling for the same language gotchas without really understanding them, then read "You Don't Know JS".

Re: Ask HN: Best way to learn JavaScript in 2019?

#12
If you already know jQuery then you understand what all these frameworks and libraries are trying to solve.So....

Tip 1 So find some introduction videos just to get a hang on the concepts. Avoid those "Airbnb in one hour" type of videos. Just the basics. I suggest thenewboston.

Tip 2 Go to Medium and Github, then find some well written code and read it try to understand what is happening and why.

Tip 3 Break down a few of those projects. Especially the simple ones. Simple CRUD, todo lists etc.

Tip 4 Try to reconstruct some of the projects from the ground up.

Tip 5... You are already there. Explore.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to learn JavaScript in 2019?

#14
I suggest you really practice the fundamentals, especially es6. You're gonna use a lot of es6 concepts in React. Really learn the fundamentals and you'll be fine.

Most importantly, practice everyday. Take 10 - 30 mins to create a small react app. Spaced repetition is a very powerful concept in mastering any skill. Finally, try building a small project with React. Anything you like. Just build something, here's why:

1. You'll learn more by building a small project yourself than watching those videos/tutorial of any kind, because you'll get to a point where you'll have issues with your code, things won't work, (trust me, this happens alot to beginners), then you'll research online. This'll give more understanding about how React works, than just watching tutorial.

2. You'll have a small project in your portfolio, which can be useful later on.

Good luck.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to learn JavaScript in 2019?

#15
I find that learning "pure JS" is the key. The various frameworks are great for productivity but it is easy overlook the principles and learn the framework specific way of doing things. ES6 introduces features that were missing in earlier versions and needed polyfills, external tools and frameworks.

The two resources that I found to be most useful are:

http://eloquentjavascript.net

and

http://exploringjs.com/es6/

Re: Ask HN: Best way to learn JavaScript in 2019?

#16

I find that learning "pure JS" is the key. The various frameworks are great for productivity but it is easy overlook the principles and learn the framework specific way of doing things. ES6 introduces features that were missing in earlier versions and needed polyfills, external tools and frameworks. The two resources that I found to be most useful are: http://eloquentjavascript.net and http://exploringjs.com/es6/

I second "Eloquent Javascript" - it's excellent.

Re: Ask HN: Best way to learn JavaScript in 2019?

#17
post #14

I suggest you really practice the fundamentals, especially es6. You're gonna use a lot of es6 concepts in React. Really learn the fundamentals and you'll be fine. Most importantly, practice everyday. Take 10 - 30 mins to create a small react app. Spaced repetition is a very powerful concept in mastering any skill. Finally, try building a small project with React. Anything you like. Just build something, here's why: 1…

When you mean small project, do you mean try building a CRUD app?

If someone were to dive in to this to learn React as part of a Full Stack, what are some ideas where you'd use React, but also all of the back end tools to make it a full stack application?

Re: Ask HN: Best way to learn JavaScript in 2019?

#18
post #14

I suggest you really practice the fundamentals, especially es6. You're gonna use a lot of es6 concepts in React. Really learn the fundamentals and you'll be fine. Most importantly, practice everyday. Take 10 - 30 mins to create a small react app. Spaced repetition is a very powerful concept in mastering any skill. Finally, try building a small project with React. Anything you like. Just build something, here's why: 1…

When you mean small project, do you mean try building a CRUD app? If someone were to dive in to this to learn React as part of a Full Stack, what are some ideas where you'd use React, but also all of the back end tools to make it a full stack application?

By small project i mean, something not so complicated. It can be any size you want. For example, think about building an e-commerce website's front end with React, or a calculator app front end, anything you can do.

You can't really build a CRUD App with React. It's a JS lib for building front end user interfaces. For the backend is when you'll need a CRUD app, not front end, backend can be built with Node, and understanding React makes it much easier for you to understand Node. Your React app will connect to an API endpoint for communication and for the app to work, you may be able to find free public API to use and connect to. If you can't find an API or a backend to use, use arrays or read from a local file, use that as a replacement for connecting to the API or database.

For full stack: Front can be: React, or Angular, e.t.c. Backend: Node, Python, PHP, Java, C++, e.t.c.

You'll use React pretty much for the whole of the front end. From user login, to admin dashboard, to JS animations, e.t.c.

Hope this helps.

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