Hey, DEV.to community!

As a custom of every year, I am publishing my view on this year that is going to impact the web dev or the ones have already impacted the web development world. We finally passed the year 2020 behind which has been a difficult year for all of us anywhere in the globe. I solemnly hope this year be better and we can get back to our normal lives.

Note: The list is not in order and feel free to tell me about if you think there is something missing here or is extra and redundant.

Programming languages

Programming languages are the most essential part of every computer application and web apps are no exception. So here we start with programming languages that are important for you to learn during 2021 if you want to be a web developer. Keep in mind, you don't have to learn all of these and pick up the ones you see fit the best your needs.

Go

Go go Power Rangers! Go is a powerful yet simple programming language that made a lot of noise these past few years. Go is a language of two worlds, the world of professionalism with typed variables and function and the world simplicity. I believe Go is the perfect balance between old-school and powerful languages like C/C++, Java and modern, user-friendly languages like JavaScript and Python. Learning Go is easy and can take about a few hours if you already know any other programming language and can boost your knowledge about programming. Go can be a bridge between your fear of typed languages and pass you through with ease! While Go provides simple syntax it is super fast. Enough with compliments! Go is a useful programming language that can be used for almost every purpose including but not limited to automation, CLI (Command-Line Interface), and web of course. There are great frameworks built for the web using Go. What I like the most about Go is its structure and packages. I am no professional in Go but you can see why I like Go in the article below:

Grammarly better recognize Go as a noun as well :). Every time I try to use Go as a noun it recommends me to add "to" before it.

PHP

This loved/hated, best/worst language or however, you want to call it is one of the most used programming languages and is here to stay. PHP empowers countless websites from before and is going to do so in the future. PHP recently released its next major update which is PHP 8 including many good features. You can check the link below for more information:

https://www.php.net/releases/8.0/en.php

Learning PHP is a must if you are programming websites as a freelancer as it is really easy to deploy and there are thousands of hosting service providers that support PHP out of the box. No configs needed whatsoever.

I do agree that PHP had problems and have some even now but every programming language does! Don't they? Just don't listen to people spreading hatred about this beautiful elephant :).

TypeScript/JavaScript

Java to JavaScript is like car to carpet. If you are new don't confuse these two languages. They are completely different. Whether you like it or not JavaScript is a huge impact on the web development either being front-end or back-end thanks to Node.js and Deno (Deno is pretty new but is an honourable mention). JavaScript is a must for front-end development along with HTML, CSS and there is no excuse if you don't want to learn it in case you are a front-end developer or planning to become one.

While JavaScript itself is powerful, TypeScript brings more power! Learning TypeScript can boost your performance as it reduces errors and especially typing errors.

Learn these two languages and you are an eligible to call yourself a front-end developer or back-end as well if you wanted to!

If you are looking to learn JavaScript/Node.js you can kindly download my free e-book:

Currently, JavaScript is a full-stack language meaning that you can create front-end, back-end applications and you can manage your database using JavaScript. Along with these abilities, you get the advantage of code reuse and shared libraries.

SQL

SQL which stands for Structured Query Language is a language used for managing records in an RDMBS (Relational Database Management System). These days many frameworks use ORMs which handle database records using objects and programmers don't need the feel to learn SQL but they are completely wrong. Learning SQL is essential and it gives you more power than what ORMs have. ORMs have limited power and they actually execute SQL behind the scene but imagine what you could do if you learnt the magic behind ORMs!

WebAssembly

Web Assembly is not a programming language itself but is a binary instruction set that is executable on the web. It supports multiple languages such as C/C++ and Rust. This can make web apps blazingly fast. WASM is a pretty new technology but in my opinion, it is going to take over and used more widely. We better get ready for the future!

Frameworks and libraries

Frameworks are just structures and libraries bundled together so you can code your project easier. Are they absolutely needed? Actually no! but yes. Technically speaking you can build your own framework but it is going to take a lot of time and is not worth it. Use the frameworks the community already accepted and is growing so you can get support and fix your problems as soon as possible. Frameworks in web dev are generally categorized in two parts, front-end and back-end.

Laravel

So far, Laravel is the best back-end framework I know. Maybe there are more advanced frameworks out there but the documentation that Laravel provided made it super popular thus the community grew faster and now you can find almost everything you need for Laravel as a package and just install and enjoy it! Laravel is built by PHP and you are going to be programming in PHP. Although Laravel is a back-end framework, it comes with front-end features as well that helps you build your application very fast!

Vue.js/React

Vue.js and React are front-end frameworks used for rendering elements on the web in a reactive way. Just pass the elements and let them render them and if they are changed don't worry! They will take care of the rest! Vue.js and React are different essentially but the final approach and goal are almost the same! Learning one of these is essential nowadays.

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These are my suggestions for 2021. Tell me what you think!