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10 Things Front-End Developers Should Learn in 2021

Simon Holdorf on November 11, 2020

There's no doubt that front-end development will be one of the hottest disciplines in tech in 2021. It was previously sufficient for developers in...
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Tobias Timm

IMO people should also invest more time to deep dive into JavaScript itself.

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Simon Holdorf

Well, this discussion is probably as old as the language itself. 50% say you should learn the basics first, the other half finds it okay to start with what benefits you most. For me personally, I would go with how I learn best.

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Tobias Timm • Edited

Yeah, you are right, but I think it is always a good thing to point out because frameworks will be replaced by other frameworks. The core of the language most probably not.

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Simon Holdorf

Yeah, I totally agree with that. It's always good to stay relevant by learning the fundamentals!

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Ruslan

Smthng like "silver bullet" is learning basics during learning JS - all the S.I.C.P. concepts are able to be realized on JavaScript according to it's current functionality.

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ogrotten

Is this the SICP of which you speak?

source-academy.github.io/sicp/

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Ruslan • Edited

UPD:
Yes. Talking about the conceptual idea- that is just exactly what I mean.
This link is the source and proof of my prev. sentence:
ru.hexlet.io/tracks/sicp-on-js

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stereobooster

Except that JS doesn't have tail call optimization.

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Ruslan

Not long time ago JS didn't have many of current features so I suppose that solving the issue U R talking about is just a matter of time.

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Sylwia Vargas

I definitely agree with you @tyrionfront that when learning to code (frontend or backend), it's super-important to learn basics of sicp. For me, only when I started learning about the basics of cs, JS started making sense, really. While I do understand that if e.g. you want to be a front-end programmer, maybe you don't need to be fluent with data structures, it definitely helps to understand them, even on the basic level!

 
tobiastimm profile image
Tobias Timm

Thats not 100% true. Safari / WebKit has proper tail call optimization

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Manav Misra

With strong core JS skills, we are not being limited by 1 language and just seeing 'magic.' We have some 'under the hood' understanding to be flexible and bounce between a couple of frameworks at a time.

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Andrew Irwin

udemy.com/course/understand-javasc...

Amazing course, to get a deep dive in Javascript.
teaches you from scratch about the basics, then brings you right through
to more advanced stuff. Giving you a really good overall understanding.
Short course as well only 12 hours.
Highly recommend.

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unsignedmind

Depends on where you are going. Personally I learned Angular before really getting into JS. Of course I was curious and took some courses afterwards, but you not necessarrily need much JS knowledge when developing with Angular. On the other hand when going with react for example I would definitly recommend having a good base in JS because React is much closer to Vanilla.

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Devesh Sawant • Edited

Yes, there are gotchas and concepts in Javascript that need to be learnt and go a long way in development. One thorough tutorial I recommend is github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS!

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Simon Holdorf

Very good books, thanks for sharing!

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Simon Holdorf

So what are you going to learn in 2021? I am going for soft skills because I find them highly important!

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unsignedmind • Edited

More Angular :D but that's work. I thought about to get back to SQL a bit and try around with Prisma. Besides that expand skills on design templates. Oh yes and a portfolio :D

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Simon Holdorf

Sounds like a plan, all the best my friend!

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ilukaszm

In my opinion, if you know JavaScript very good, you will understand these technologies and concepts in a short time. You don't have to learn until you don't need it in your project or job. Docs should be your friends.

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Austin S. Hemmelgarn

Entirely agreed. The best programmers understand that it’s far more efficient to let documentation remember things for you, and only make an effort to remember the things you use on a daily basis.

By taking this approach, you don’t waste time learning things you may never need or will only need infrequently, and can dedicate more time to ensuring that you have a rock-solid understanding of the things you absolutely need all the time.

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Micah Lindley

Awesome article! That's an interesting comparison between React, Vue, and Angular - know I know what I'll be learning this year! I'd like to point out that you mentioned ZEIT earlier in the article. It's actually been rebranded as Vercel. 😄

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Simon Holdorf

Yeah gonna correct this, thanks for pointing it out. I don't know why I still call it ZEIT, maybe it sticks better than Vercel in my head.....

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Bharti5698

Great article !!

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Simon Holdorf

Thank you!

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Dany Tulumidis

Great Post! I would add that its very important to learn the fundamentals of a section (for example Javascript). If you are good in JS you can easily pick up any JS Framework.
Fundamentals gives you the skills to learn new frameworks and technologies very fast because you know how it works you just need to learn a bit of syntax etc.

Just my 2 cents :)

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Carlos Saltos

Great article !! ... thanks for sharing.

It looks pretty new and exciting but the part about the traditional clean code it's kind of old by now ... better give it a check to the WET approach at deconstructconf.com/2019/dan-abram...

By the way, all these new challenges sound a perfect case for using Svelte with JAMStack and PWA apps.

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Simon Holdorf

Thanks for sharing Carlos, very interesting and a good point!

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nikita

Thanks for your posting a good article. I'm very impressed with your article especially in 'soft skills', you said "The most important deliverable for a senior developer is more senior developers". It's really impressive.

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Simon Holdorf

Thanks, Nikita, glad you like it!

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unsignedmind

Good article. Especially the soft skills! I want to hightlight empathy, patience and open-mindedness for bigger project teams :)

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Simon Holdorf

Thanks for the comment! Yeah, soft skills are very important!

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José Lizana

my_self ~ $ npm install -g softSkills

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Simon Holdorf

If only it was so easy :D great comment!

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X. • Edited

thanks for sharing! i'm creator of Aleph.js (a React framework in Deno, inspired by Next.js). i'm wondering are you interested in Deno in 2021?

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Simon Holdorf

Hey, thanks for the comment, I'm interested but not yet convinced of Deno. Gonna look into your framework for sure!

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X.

cool, thanks

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Erik O.

Angular is not bad at all, and people should care less about github stars than they do. Actually it is the most popular framework in my country. Good writing anyway.

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Simon Holdorf

Angular is cool, but I still miss the "old angular". Guess that's the reason I love Vue so much...But hey, you are right, do what you like and what helps your career and don't care for the stars too much!

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Shanmukha Katuri

Well written article articulating the essentials for a typical web developer or a full stack developer

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Simon Holdorf

Thanks, myfriend!

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Peter Witham

Great list, thanks for sharing.

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Simon Holdorf

Thanks, Peter, glad you like it!

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Luke

A little self-promotion, but for those wanting to improve their patience: dev.to/kamiquasi/5-practical-activ...

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Vaibhav Khulbe

Good to know that clean code and soft skills are included! Would like to add this article to my weekly dev newsletter. :)

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Simon Holdorf

Sure, go ahead, my friend :)

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🦄N B🛡

Maybe they could learn Product Management, too.

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Simon Holdorf

Yeah, why not if it helps their career or is of interest for them...

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ogrotten

Interesting and helpful. Thanks for posting.

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Simon Holdorf

Glad you like it!

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Niall Maher

Fantastic article! Well done ❤️

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Simon Holdorf

Thanks, my friend!

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Chidiebere

Awesome content ✌🏿.... Keep the good work up

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Simon Holdorf

Thanks for the warm words, my friend!

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rpostulart

Nice blog!

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Simon Holdorf

Thank you!

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Simon Holdorf

Thank you, Raddy!

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thefrontendguy

Hugo (gohugo.io/) is missing in the static site generator section. It's not JavaScript, but it's one of the fastest build tools out there.

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Anton Melnyk

Computer science basics, not another framework.

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Fadly Setiawan

I heard a lot about 'Proactive' as well, seems that would be a thing in terms of soft skills stuff

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Simon Holdorf

Yeah that's definitely a good approach in many situations

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🚩 Atul Prajapati 🇮🇳

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