Not many people know this, but Javascript: The Good Parts is available online as a PDF, for free! http://www.rose-hulman.edu/Users/faculty/rickert/OldFiles/Cl...
Why I'm Learning Node
11–20 of 65 posts
Re: Why I'm Learning Node
#12Not many people know this, but Javascript: The Good Parts is available online as a PDF, for free! http://www.rose-hulman.edu/Users/faculty/rickert/OldFiles/Cl...
I think you have the wrong link there. It goes to a paper about Self.
Re: Why I'm Learning Node
#13If the point is to learn front-end development, it seems like you're still sticking to your strengths instead of challenging yourself and delving into actual front-end DOM manipulation stuff.
You could say that, or you could say he's just trying to learn one thing at a time. JavaScript, then DOM.
Re: Why I'm Learning Node
#14If the point is to learn front-end development, it seems like you're still sticking to your strengths instead of challenging yourself and delving into actual front-end DOM manipulation stuff.
Agree. It seems the OP is just moving from one language to another rather than from one domain (back-end) to another (front-end).
If you're learning JavaScript to get familiar with front-end and UI, Node.js is just a distraction. Instead, my advice is to learn raw HTML/CSS/JS without frameworks.
You know those cheesy web-based "OSes"/Desktops that no one really uses? Building one is actually quite helpful to developing JavaScript skills. Try building a Window manager in HTML/CSS/JS. You'll go through the entire gauntlet of what JavaScript has to offer (e.g. closures, prototypes) while dealing with a practical front-end problem (DOM manipulation, CSS styling) while learning a lot about why the modern js frameworks are so useful (e.g. jQuery for DOM, backbone.js for MVC). You'll also start getting exposure to some basic decisions that make up the foundations of a good UI sense. I consider this sort of exercise much more appropriate for polishing front-end skills.
Other possible exercises include re-implementing common jQuery UI components - drop-down menus, trees, tabs, etc. But do them without jQuery. It might sound like reinventing the wheel, but learning fundamentals sometimes requires retreading worn out paths.
Re: Why I'm Learning Node
#15As a longtime Python guy, mostly back-end (but I knew JS pretty well) -- I did a quick demo site recently in node, and was surprised by how it felt. There was much less context-switching as I went back and forth between the client and server. That sounds obvious but it was kind of a shock.
I always wanted Python on the client (here's looking at you, Jython!) -- js on the server may be the closest thing I'm going to get.
Re: Why I'm Learning Node
#16As noted somewhere else learning node is not learning front-end. Something that bothered me recently is that on the back-end we are used to big oop frameworks when in fact the stateless nature of http do not match oop so well. On the front end however we have a gui so oop is a good paradigm.
Re: Why I'm Learning Node
#17As a longtime Python guy, mostly back-end (but I knew JS pretty well) -- I did a quick demo site recently in node, and was surprised by how it felt. There was much less context-switching as I went back and forth between the client and server. That sounds obvious but it was kind of a shock. I always wanted Python on the client (here's looking at you, Jython!) -- js on the server may be the closest thing I'm going to g…
Have you tried Pyjamas?
Re: Why I'm Learning Node
#18Not many people know this, but Javascript: The Good Parts is available online as a PDF, for free! http://www.rose-hulman.edu/Users/faculty/rickert/OldFiles/Cl...
Re: Why I'm Learning Node
#19The problem with node is it decreases your productivity tremendously.
The most important thing about the choice of programming tools is productivity. Node.JS does not promise you any productivity gains. Node sells itself as a solution to "slowness" caused by "blocking IO". What's the solution? All I/O is evented! This means you have to write everything with callbacks.
You may see some very nice libraries/tools coming out around node.js, like jade, coffeescript, and stylus. These are all nice and good, and they do increase your productivity, but, only on the client side.
If you're looking for performance and non-blocking IO, use Go, it's much better at that.
Re: Why I'm Learning Node
#20Not many people know this, but Javascript: The Good Parts is available online as a PDF, for free! http://www.rose-hulman.edu/Users/faculty/rickert/OldFiles/Cl...
I think you have the wrong link there. It goes to a paper about Self.
Maybe he meant this? http://eleventyone.done.hu/OReilly.JavaScript.The.Good.Parts...