I started my career with JavaScript and Node.js, but over time I've grown to dislike its design flaws and dynamic nature. If JavaScript had Dart's strengths, I might still be using it; instead, I've moved on to languages I find more respectable.
Ask HN: Changing my mind about JavaScript
61–70 of 73 posts
Re: Ask HN: Changing my mind about JavaScript
#62Once you understand the fundamentals, knowing about the newer stuff would be a good step forwards:
https://github.com/tc39/proposals/blob/main/finished-proposa...
Re: Ask HN: Changing my mind about JavaScript
#63There's JavaScript The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford. I've read the book and watched a similar series on YouTube.
This book was excellent for the time, but is now quite outdated. Stuff like how he proposes modules is completely irrelevant with ES modules, arrow functions make ‘this’ much easier, and we have block scoped bindings
Seconded. I won't recommend it and no one I know has recommended it for a decade. It's hard for someone who doesn't know JS to know which parts has changed and is no longer the way to do things.
https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS and
https://eloquentjavascript.net/ are the 2 best source for learning JS.
If you don't have time to read both, just go with https://eloquentjavascript.net/
If one needs to go further, go through http://superherojs.com/ , just ignore links that are dead.
Re: Ask HN: Changing my mind about JavaScript
#64[dead]
Re: Ask HN: Changing my mind about JavaScript
#65Been coding for 30+ years. In the last 5 years I have come around to not hating JavaScript (TypeScript really), but let's be honest, it took 15 years of hearing the JS community tell us "sure JavaScript used to be awful, but now it's finally good" for it to actually be true. I remember clearly the days of callback hell. You didn't change your mind about JavaScript, JavaScript changed it's mind about being a real lang…
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Re: Ask HN: Changing my mind about JavaScript
#66I'm surprised that Kyle Simpson's, _You Don't Know JS_ hasn't been mentioned in this thread.
https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS
When I was beginning to develop a deeper understanding of JS a few years ago, that book, Kyle's talks, and conference presentations by Chrome's V8 team were very helpful for me. It looks like Kyle has expanded the content considerably since then too.
Re: Ask HN: Changing my mind about JavaScript
#67I would recommend using Typescript and a strict linter if possible. TS is essentially modern Javascript plus static typing (so by learning TS, you also learn JS as a side effect), and strict linting rules will reject outdated Javascript features and nudge you towards the 'good parts'. With those two things (a static type system layer, and strict linting) JS is actually a quite decent language nowawadays, especially i…
My biggest gripe with Typescript is how much more difficult (Except perhaps in Bun/Deno) it is to set up compared to vanilla JS.
npm install ts-node
ts-node ./my-typescript.ts
doesn't seem difficult...
Re: Ask HN: Changing my mind about JavaScript
#68Re: Ask HN: Changing my mind about JavaScript
#69Cristian Salcescu‘s books on JavaScript are absolutely marvellous and must-reads.
Re: Ask HN: Changing my mind about JavaScript
#70There's JavaScript The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford. I've read the book and watched a similar series on YouTube.
He did a marvellous and very entertaining lecture series on JS: