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Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D for Microsoft Azure

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Q: As a #CodeNewbie, what web development framework are you learning - and why?

Microsoft is sponsoring Codeland Conference again this year. Come join us in the #CodeNewbie Forem Jun 16-17 to jumpstart your learning journey into Azure & AI, and meet your peers!


Both javascript and webdev made it to the top tags list on both dev.to and CodeNewbie forems, which makes us think many of you are actively working on (or learning about) modern web application development. So, what frameworks (front-end, back-end, full-stack, testing etc.) are you skilling up on in 2022?


Please do leave us your thoughts and ideas in the comments. If you are an experienced developer, do leave your feedback on what you think a new developer should focus on learning (and why). In case useful, the State of JS and Rising Stars of JS reports provide some insights into developer interests in 2021.

Top comments (18)

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Sarah Dye

I just started learning Angular. I've seen a lot of Angular job postings lately so I feel like learning Angular will help with the job search. I've also heard many positive things about Angular from other developers so I've always been curious about Angular and how it compares to Vue and React.

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Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D

I keep an eye on the Rising Stars of JS report - risingstars.js.org/2021/en#section... - to see what the popular frameworks are, and also understand emerging favorites.

Angular continues to remain super popular from a career (job market) perspective so you can't go wrong with exploring it. Some things that may be worth keeping in mind: React and Angular both are backed by industry teams (Angular at Google, React at Meta/Facebook) which likely means they get dogfooded internally and can explore ideas and optimizations at scale.

Vue is an independent community-driven project but is a rising star and states that it outperforms Angular and React in popular JS performance benchmarks.

All three have great communities around them so you will have support for learning. The bottom line is: pick one and go deep. Once you do, picking up another option later becomes easier because you will understand core architectures and design patterns,

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Scott Soine

@sarah Angular I know is primarily Google framework. I think this resource explains it well: medium.com/codex/angular-vs-react-...

Add me on Discord to get some cool SWAG options! Scott Soine#6391

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Alexander Bourlotos

I'm learning through Udemy, so currently features that will support learning React.js

I want to make a personal blog to showcase my work (unless I choose to write on Dev.to or others, depends on SEO, outreach I have to research) but it's widely known and will support my knowledge and value going forward.

Discord - alexbourlotos#7116

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nitya profile image
Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D

Don't forget to also check out the beta version of React docs
beta.reactjs.org/

The team did a fantastic job to rethink how they explained core concepts - it is a resource I am diving into myself to refresh my understanding of newer features

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bofalke

Mainly because of the projects i tackled, i started to use symfony. It is quite easy to setup nowadays, has an excellent documentation and there are lots of examples out there. It makes it easy to use Object-oriented programming with PHP.

Of course it is probably not the best shot if you just want a simple, static, single page homepage. But if you want to develop some API or webapp with database related actions i think it is worth to give it a shot as a beginner.

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nitya profile image
Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D

I love this because I did not know about symfony (have not been as familiar with PHP in recent years) and this is exactly the kind of feedback that would help a beginner explore these options.

If you have a relevant link to resources for learners do drop it in the comments. And thank you!

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bofalke

Symfony's own documentation is pretty good:

symfony.com/doc/current/setup.html

They also offer screencasts, video transcriptions are always free:

symfonycasts.com/screencast/symfony

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Auroiah Morgan

Learning to use Laravel Sail and Docker to be able mimic my work environment computer without running a server locally and I like saying sudo...

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Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D

Woot!! What kinds of applications do you plan to build? If you use Docker and containerize your app, do think about exploring cloud-native approaches to deployment and management for the long term. There are a bunch of services that may be worth learning about at that time.

azure.microsoft.com/en-us/product-...

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Auroiah Morgan

Right now it would sound like I am building Skynet. But I liked the movie 'Big Hero 6' . I am planning on something along the lines of a portable AI based around assisting its user and being a first responder in emergencies. Thank you for the link!

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nitya profile image
Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D

I like that idea - and it is a good scenario to provide a personal support system for users in health contexts. Just remember to explore ideas in Responsible AI and data ethics given the personal data involved and the potential for actions that can have real world consequences to the human involved.

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timDeHof

I'm currently learning React, but only becuase I was taught it during my coding bootcamp.

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Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D

React continues to be in the top 3 in popularity of JS frameworks and has great career options so you can't go wrong! don't forget to document learnings and share projects! Good luck

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Hattie

React and Express!

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nitya profile image
Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D

Woot!! What do you plan to build!! Look forward to it

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Christopher Aaron

React and Express as they are taught by the #100devs bootcamp. But after visiting the links provided above on developer interests, I may check some of them out and see why they are so popular!

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Nitya Narasimhan, Ph.D

Woot!! That is a great combination for building full-stack applications. Once you have prototype apps and a portfolio of projects, definitely explore things like Azure Static Web Apps (aka.ms/30DaysOfSWA) to figure out additional integrations and automated build/deploy for scaling out your ideas