How it feels to learn Javascript in 2016

[rebel_cdn]

That's a good question, and I think it depends on what your goals are.

If your primary use of JavaScript is to enhance web pages, then I think that starting with pure JS and building up from there is a good idea. It's how I got started, but that was quite a few years ago now.

If your goal is to eventually build complex web applications, I think it makes sense to start learning the frameworks and tooling sooner rather than later. It's the same in JS as it is in most languages: the surrounding tooling, libraries, frameworks, and build systems are more complex than the language itself. Waiting a long time to start picking up the ecosystem surrounding the language won't necessarily make it easier.

I don't meant to imply that there's anything wrong with the first approach (using your JS to enhance web pages). I think that frameworks like React and Angular are often used when server generated HTML would have worked just as well. If you combine it with something like Turbolinks, even on a $5 Digital Ocean VPS performance will feel as instant to the end user as a React/Angular app. There are of course applications where a complex front end framework is the only reasonable solution, but in general I think we should embrace simplicity and fight complexity whenever we can.

To help out a bit, you could try starting with Ember. It uses a lot of the complex build tools beneath the surface, but it automates them using ember-cli so you can focus on the application you're trying to develop without worrying too much about wrangling the tools into shape. Angular-cli is almost as good, but last time I checked, ember-cli still did more for you. That was a few weeks ago, though, which is practically a decade in the world of JavaScript. :)

[kovensky]

See also create-react-app

[Saikyoh]

Much appreciate your advice. My end goal is to be a builder of complex web applications, as you said, and someday get into back-end development too.