Hi everyone, i'm new to the web development scene and i've currently picked up a thing or two on html and css (just the fundamentals) and making my way to javascript. I'd like to be a frontend developer. I'm open to suggestions, tips or advice generally, on this frontend path and any other relevant info you may have.
Stick with vanilla JavaScript for a while (using jQuery or a different library) instead of immediately hopping on an entire frontend framework like React or Angular, if you've heard of them. Once you feel comfortable writing plain ol' JS (and I mean very comfortable) then you can dive into using a framework; I would recommend Vue to start with.
Also, learn responsive design using CSS and libraries like Bootstrap; it's a very critical aspect of being a frontend developer in today's mobile-centered web.
I'm not sure subjecting someone to the ridiculous idiosyncracies of the core JavaScript API is really worth it. There's a lot of historical baggage there that jQuery et. al pave over neatly.
There's tools like Lodash/Underscore that make JavaScript actually usable as well, and omitting these from your toolkit is making things unnecessarily difficult.
The important thing here is to pick a point on the abstraction curve and learn. There is no wrong place to start. The only failure is if you don't ask questions and dig deeper to learn more about the fundamentals, or try and think about your code in a more strategic and abstract way, identifying broader patterns. Even core JavaScript is not the bottom, you'll have to learn more about how that language is implmented, and how to use it strategically at scale, so you'll need to learn jQuery and React-like frameworks eventually anyway.
The most important thing is to find a framework or toolkit that feels right so you're not frustrated and can focus on learning. This is a highly subjective thing.
Thanks Peyton. I think that's just what i'm going to do. I'm actually learning to code on my own through codecademy and freecodecamp and there's just so many paths to take it could get a bit overwhelming sometimes. :)
Just keep making things! Frontend gives you such good immediate feedback and it is really easy to set-up, build, and share things with other people. No matter how simple or silly the idea you have is, just make it and you will learn from it.
Thanks Jared! :)
Hi there!!
I am going through the same path. I think one of the most important things regarding learning to code is to know yourself and how your mind works.
I mean, if you learn better by reading, then go for FreeCodeCamp courses. But if you (i am) are one of those who make it better with somebody explaining you, I would honestly recommend you to jump into a Udemy course. There are plenty of offers periodically, and can access to one for very little.
I can personally recommend you the Brew App Academy taught by Angela Yu.
Thanks Nadine, I'll definitely check that out.
You should definitely take this course. Understanding weird parts of JavaScript on udemy. Also, read you don't know js book series.
Thanks brujath, i'll check that out. Also, where can i get the js book series?
github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS
Thanks a lot.