DEV Community

Where To Begin with JavaScript?!

Antonio Savage on January 22, 2019

So I figured I would start to log my journey into JavaScript so that I can not only share my journey with others, but to have a written log of how ...
Collapse
 
mikister profile image
Milan Radojević

Great that you are getting into JavaScript. What are some things that you plan to make soon?

Also looks like we have a similar style of learning, i.e. making something instead of reading theory. One thing I found useful is the visual roadmap in this article: codeburst.io/the-2018-web-develope...
It's not just JS but is a handy thing to use when you don't know what to learn next.

Collapse
 
pantsme profile image
Antonio Savage

The one thing I've been dying to make and not even to make money on it, but a very simple cryptocurrency exchange. There are all sorts of platforms out there that you can build your front end on and interact with their APIs with to get real trading occuring on your exchange. I think this will give me all sorts of different experience as I work through creating it. I don't expect it to be pretty by any means, just functional.

I also want to make a personal website. They seem to be all the rage lately. How about you? What are your first projects?

Collapse
 
mikister profile image
Milan Radojević

Oh, a cryptocurency exchange sounds interesting. How would it work? Do you have an idea how you would make it?

Also are you planing on uploading you personal website somewhere? You might also be able, if you're looking for a domain, to snatch one with a .dev TLD soon in february.

As for me two things that I'm working on currently.
First is blueprint(WIP name) which is a cli tool that I use to scaffold a new project with one command.

The other is a CMS system (similar to WordPress) that I'm making to work with BeakerBrowser and DatProject. Sure enough you can view the results of the CMS in an ordinary browser like Firefox, but you need BeakerBrowser to add new content. And in case you aren't familiar with Dat, it allows you to share content from you computer like it were a server.

Thread Thread
 
pantsme profile image
Antonio Savage

Yep. Most of the groundwork is laid with some of the projects that are already out there and live. I could use 0x Protocol and set up a relayer to get liquidity from other exchanges running their protocol. I could also use Loopring and do similar by utilizing their APIs and order books, just kind of create a new front end for it.

Your projects sound awesome. One thing that you may want to look into is IPFS. It is similar to Dat in that it uses its own protocol for accessing files stored across people's computers.

Collapse
 
michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington

Just to say best of luck to ya! I'm at the start of my coding journey too, but decided to go the Python route. Was cool to hear why you chose to go with JS though, can def understand your reasoning. Anyway, hope to hear more!

Collapse
 
pantsme profile image
Antonio Savage

Why did you end up choosing Python?

Collapse
 
michaeltharrington profile image
Michael Tharrington • Edited

Well, a few reasons:

  1. I have a Ras Pi and remember hearing that Python was the "official language" of the device. However, I am aware that I could program it in other langs.

  2. I have a friend that is a Python dev who doesn't live too far away from me. Once I get my footing, perhaps we can do some paired work together.

  3. I really like AI/ML/Data Science and hear Python is well-equipped to handle those kinds of problems.

  4. I read it's a declarative language and that sounds appealing to me. It sounded a littler easier to read and I thought that might be a bit more encouraging/help me get to my foot in the door.

  5. I mean who doesn't wanna work with a language called Python! I'm a Python dev... can't wait to tell friends and family that. It sounds ridiculous!

Thread Thread
 
pantsme profile image
Antonio Savage

All solid reasons! Gluck on your journey and I expect updates to your progress. I just set a reminder in my calendar to check up on you and your journey in a month... I hope in that time you code something greater than the Gibson!

Collapse
 
jamiemccarville profile image
Jamie McCarville 🇨🇦

Wes Bos has a couple of really great JS courses that are free. One is ES6 and the other is JavaScript30. You can see them over at wesbos.com. There is an updated version of the roadmap that Milan referenced. You can find it here github.com/kamranahmedse/developer.... I also found the roadmap really helpful.

Collapse
 
pantsme profile image
Antonio Savage

Yes! This roadmap is so helpful! you're the second person (or first, can't tell) to link it in this thread. It literally lays out the paths you can take to get deeper and deeper. Rather intimidating but excited to give at least the first few rungs a shot!

Collapse
 
gallant_dev profile image
Steve Gallant

I've found Treehouse to be a great way to get introduced to the different languages and ideas I've learned so far. Their teaching methodology has been very effective (for me) for learning something for the first time, and the videos professionally done. They provide links with each video to additional documentation and resources to dig a bit further. Very much worth the $25/month. Then take what you've learned there and expand it via other resources like FCC, etc.

hth,
Steve

Collapse
 
budyk profile image
Budy

We should begin with it's Fundamental...be patient with it, learn from the very basic to more advance topic...avoid temptation to use any JS frameworks...

Collapse
 
pojntfx profile image
Felicitas Pojtinger

I guess the following is probably the "industry standard" here: FreeCodeCamp

Collapse
 
pantsme profile image
Antonio Savage

It's such a great resource. I really am a huge fan of how open source has gained so much traction over the past I'd say 5 years, including a push to open source or share learning materials.