What is the best way to learn JavaScript

A lot of people will tell you to read this book, and that one and then the other one as well. I really doubt you need to read more than one book in order to understand JavaScript.

I took an entire 15-hour course in pure JavaScript and then forgot everything. Here are three reasons why you should not bother too much about getting to the bottom of JavaScript.

The beauty of learning a new programming language is to be able to implement something in it. To be able to solve a problem with it. A problem that someone somewhere really cares about.

Reading just for the sake of it sounds fun for the first 2 hours into a course or a book but after that, you quickly get bored and fall asleep.

You might want to learn JavaScript inside out, but why do that? Why inflict such amount of pain on yourself if what you need to get the job done is just a few chapters.

Here are three reasons why:

1. You’ll use libraries

In almost all cases you’ll use libraries to implement something in JavaScript.

In fact, you’d appear ignorant to always want to write vanilla JavaScript to implement features that can be done by already available libraries.

Why do I say that? Because spaghetti code is not maintainable. You yourself would come back to look at it after 60 days and you’d be sure it was written by someone else.

But these libraries are written in JavaScript so why not learn JavaScript…? Well, these libraries, like jQuery, as much as they are written in JavaScript have their own syntax that you have to learn too.

2. You’ll use frameworks

Someone has already mentioned something about Angularjs.

There is no other way you are going to implement an SPA application using pure JavaScript without using frameworks like Angular, Backbones e.t.c.

And even if you wanted to, you won’t get a chance to do it because you’ll be hired to be part of a development team that is already using some particular framework.

In fact, no job advertisement required you to have a thorough knowledge of JavaScript – but you were required to have experienced is some particular framework.

3. Inconsistencies in JavaScript implementation

When you take a JavaScript course, everything looks nice and pretty.

But wait till you start implementing it your app and users complain of certain features not working for them.

You call them and you realize they are using Internet Explorer and while still holding on the phone, you feel like shouting at them -> “Why the heck can’t you download and install the latest version of Google Chrome browser”.

Well, their answer is that they are using an office computer and are not allowed to do that stuff.

They’d rather forego you so call nice features than get in trouble with the IT staff or management.

Most of the libraries and frameworks labor hard to take away this headache from you but implementing some features in the background to handle the inconsistencies.

You couldn’t possibly write this with every JavaScript you wrote to ensure it was portable enough.

So lastly, my advice is – just learn a little JavaScript and then move on to using frameworks and libraries to build a really cool app and believe me you’ll get hired in your sleep.

The following book list is a curated set of known and reputable resources. The links provided go to the publisher’s or author’s page for the book itself. Do not change or remove these links—doing so will get you reported.

• JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan
• Effective JavaScript: 68 Specific Ways to Harness the Power of JavaScript (Effective Software Development Series) by David Herman
• Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming by Marijn Haverbeke
• You Don’t Know JS: Up & Going by Kyle Simpson
• You Don’t Know JS: Scope & Closures by Kyle Simpson
• You Don’t Know JS: this & Object Prototypes by Kyle Simpson
• You Don’t Know JS: ES6 & Beyond by Kyle Simpson
• JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford
• Pro JavaScript Design Patterns by Dustin Diaz & Ross Harmes
• Head First JavaScript Programming by Eric T. Freeman & Elisabeth Robson
• Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja by John Resig & Bear Bibeault
• High Performance JavaScript (Build Faster Web Application Interfaces) by Nicholas C. Zakas

Resources

• Hackr.io (Find & share the best online programming courses & tutorials)
• Free Code Camp (www.freecodecamp.com)
• Team Treehouse (www.teamtreehouse.com)
• Codewars (codewars.com)
• iLoveCoding Javascript Screencasts (https://ilovecoding.org)
• Codementor(https://www.codementor.io/javasc…)
• CodeCloud (CodeCloud.me)
• Simpliv (https://www.simpliv.com)
• Lynda (http://www.lynda.com/JavaScript-…)
• Channel9 (http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/…)
• TheCodePlayer (Learn HTML5, CSS3, Javascript)
• Eloquent Javascript Book (http://eloquentjavascript.net/co…)0
• Javascript by Douglas Crockford (Douglas Crockford’s Javascript)
• CodinGame (http://www.codingame)
• Mozilla (https://developer.mozilla.org/en…)
• Udacity (JavaScript Basics for Beginners Course)
• Egg Head (egghead.io – Learn professional JavaScript tools with Tutorial Videos & Training)
• CodeSchool: Start with Free Courses at CodeSchool
• Pluralsight: (JavaScript)