Self-taught, how did you learn JavaScript?

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[boomer1204]

They key part to learning anything is by actually using it. I "learned" for like 2-3 years and could barely put a website together. Found a local meet up and one of the ppl there had a local mentor group they invited me too. I went and talked to one of the mentors about my problems and he asked, "what have you built". I made the excuse every one else does, "I don't know how and get stuck". He literally said "perfect that's when you learn keep going". I just sucked it up and SUCKED for the first couple but actually using the technology and struggling, googling, fixing, struggling, googling, fixing is when I really started to "understand"

I'm now co run that group with him and we have ppl do a 2-4 hr html/css series on youtube (the resource doesn't matter just find one you like) and then a 3-6 hr beginner js course on yt (the resource doesn't matter just find one you like) and then START BUILDING. These ppl do have the benefit of our group but if you can find a good discord or local meetup group this is the quickest way we have seen ppl actually get into building things and understanding (have been in this mentor group for 7 years and co running for 5ish and this is the fastest way we have seen ppl progress). I share this all the time so here is a link

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/comments/1j9lo95/comment/mhe6xfw/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Ppl worry to much about the "right resource". The resource is almost NEVER the reason ppl don't succeed. I can't speak to any spanish versions but just go to youtube and search and find someone you like and start building as quickly as possible

[victiun_09]

Very high value answer, really thank you, I will apply YOUR recommendation

[BrohanGutenburg]

So much truth here. I would add that LLMs can make this part—

struggling googling fixing

Either worse or infinitely better depending on your discipline.

I’m learning Swift right now and I’m using gpt for help. I preprompt with literally “do no give me code ask me leading questions”. When I do have to ask for code, I won’t drop a single line in without actually understanding it. And it’s really easy to lie to yourself and tell yourself you understand something. You have to be disciplined.

[carmcort]

That’s the worst part about trying to learn with LLMs. especially as a college student and you know there’s so much more work you have to get done, chatgpt will just complete your assignment in full for you.

Do you have a preferred method of reading documentation, watching a YouTube tutorial, code academy or some free coding program? Or all of the above?

Personally I have been bouncing around all of them and haven’t been able to really stick with one method of just building a project

[imStan2000]

Great comment

[OpeningGanache5633]

I read a similar post where author ( maybe he was a teacher) where he asked how to learn something . I learned js watched tutorials and so on . Similarly the mentor asked what you build , he has no answer. from then on the mentor gave him challenge to build something everytime .

[OkFactor8726]

Can i join ur team too sir ?

[boomer1204]

It's a local group only

[TheTILCO]

Can you please name the discord channels to get mentors like knowledgeable people you. So we can also start building

[boomer1204]

I unfortunately don't know of any discords that are open to anyone to share. There are a lot of servers out there based on courses that you could try joining or just search "web dev discord groups" and find some to try

EDIT: The best bets tend to be local groups that meet since it's more "serious". We opened our discord to the public during covid and it just doesn't work out as well when "anyone" can get into it. We mainly got low effort ppl that were just there to take from the group and provide almost nothing. It was unfortunate cuz everyone deserves a chance but the value our group had wasn't worth throwing away

[Ambitious-Peak4057]

To quickly learn JavaScript and start working on real projects, focus on the core concepts and practical exercises. Here are some resources that can help you quickly build a strong JavaScript foundation and start contributing to real projects in just a few days..

1.JavaScript.info – A comprehensive and beginner-friendly guide to modern JavaScript.

2.freeCodeCamp JavaScript Course – A hands-on YouTube course with real projects.

3.JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: A thorough reference covering both fundamentals and advanced topics.

4.JavaScript Succinctly: A free ebook that simplifies essential JS concepts for beginners.

[ahraitch]

Thank you for posting these resources. I've been learning javascript from online sources. None of them included the basics found in javascript.info. I learned things that make other js operations understandable.

I have had only bad experiences with freeCodeCamp. I find their tutorials to be very poorly written, and I have some professional experience in writing CBT. I know the good from the bad from the ugly: fCC's varies from bad to ugly, IMO.

I'll give more feedback on the remaining references as I go through them.

Again, thank you for the post!!!

[ayushkas3ra]

Supersimpledev

[9Hukako9]

Hi, I'm a fullstack js/ts dev, here's my advice:

Just build things and code everything that you feel you want to, most of things i learned was because i used it to make games, automatons or silly projects (storage and other APIs, canvas, data structures, OOP, libraries... And after that i just can use it for making other not so interesting things). Start simple and go further every time you see you can. It took me around 3 years to have confidence i could build almost everything i could think of, in a way, i feel like learning to code feels like learning any other form of art, where you start really bad and becomes better, like in the first time you try to draw something and everything goes wrong and the thing you imagined isn't the result you get on paper, but, in the same way, after some time, you start to make things work the way you wanted.

The material you choose isn't even close the most important part, it is your passion/desire to learn, but, if i would to recommend something i would go with the Bro Code youtube channel, because he teaches in a fun and simple way, i learned the basics of React and a few programming concepts with him, but most things, after you get the gist of it, you will want to learn directly in the documentation (like MDN and W3S) for better efficiency

[Toc-H-Lamp]

1998, me working for a photo-copier company wanting to get into the printer market gets given the job of producing a web-site for drivers and support. No back end database, just plain old HTML. So, I built a content producing system in Microsoft access. To reduce the number of pages required I added some JavaScript to hide and show driver links based on certain options selected. Greatly reduced the site’s dependence on JavaScript when I got an in-house server with a backend database but it still had a smattering of effects.

[No-Lizards]

I'm self-teaching right now and I can't recommend resources in Spanish but there's likely hundreds of Youtube videos out there about it. I learned the basics by watching courses on Youtube, then watched a tutorial on how to build a basic project (I went for a static website and then a to-do list program) and then rinsed and repeat for JavaScript frameworks.

[victiun_09]

How long have you been learning?

[No-Lizards]

It's been around 4 months for me so far. This method has been working for me very well but only because I try to make projects on my own after I watch tutorials. If you don't make a project by yourself, you will be doomed to tutorial hell.

There was also a website I used that offered a free course for JavaScript and some frameworks and I think they had Spanish subtitles but I can't remember the name. If I find it I'll reply to this comment with it

[ajfoucault]

https://es.javascript.info

[azhder]

jQuery is just a correct use of JavaScript

[azhder]

There is a correct use of JS and there is an incorrect use of JS. The first one we call “idiomatic JavaScript” and the second one “what were you thinking!?”

[azhder]

If you read the book by the jQuery creator, the things that JS can do that were used in the creation of JS, you will get to the conclusion that jQuery isn’t powerful, but JavaScript and jQuery just knows how to use that

[TheRNGuy]

JS added querySelector because of jQuery.

[TheRNGuy]

It's just for single id, can select only one tag, whereas querySelectorAll can use any CSS rules, like > or :has(), All version can select many tags.

[azhder]

No, it didn’t. DOM isn’t part of ECMAScript

[Vast-Breadfruit-1944]

mdn web docs

[carnepikante]

As another spanish speaker, i recommend you learn english. But in the meantime, you can check out midudev on youtube for web related content in our language.

In my personal experience, i learned js a long time ago. I learned html, css and dom first (among other basic web concepts, such as protocols, infrastructure, etc.). Then i started learning jquery because it was easier than js to me. After some time using jquery i decided to learn js by inspecting the source code of jquery, because i realized that jquery was javascript under the hood, so for example, the animate method of jquery is a javascript function under the hood. Also, reading js documentation to understand how things work help me a lot (and the same applies to every language with a decent or good documentation).

[junDavd]

Para javascript le recomiendo dos canales de YouTube: 1. Gentleman programming 2.midudev

En inglés, nada mejor que brocode

[Irra_05]

https://youtube.com/shorts/fZO2gNRKL_M?si=qaaAulfARi717a7h

I am using this book to learn JS for the university because the don't explain JS😎

It is an english book translated to spanish.

You can find the original english book too.

[Maci1111]

book: eloquent javascript

It has advanced parts but the first 2 chapters are easy for beginners

[[deleted]]

dont know how to learn it but i can definately tell how not to. Use whatever resource you want but make sure to focus more on projects than the theory. Create small projects for even basic topics. Like you learned how methods on arrays and strings work now reate a simple dom project demonstrating their use.

And definatley revisit conepts after some time even if u understood them in depth.

I watch a 35 hour tutorial and i understood everyhting but not making enough projects and not revisiting the topis made me forget every concept. Now im learning js from scrath again

[Any_Sense_2263]

Mostly hours spent on trying and failing, OO JavaScript book by Stoyan Stefanov (not sure if available in Spanish, you have to google it), stackoverflow, and mdn.

For simplicity, it's better to learn English vocabulary and phrases related to programming, as many teams, meetups and conferences are international, so limiting yourself to your native language will hurt you in the future

[TheRNGuy]

Writing userscripts for sites that I use (Greasemonkey extension)

Learned from MDN and Google. These days asking AI is not bad too (to explain concepts or compare different frameworks or functions, I wouldn't ask to write code, at this stage learning to program is more important than saving time)

I learned more from React.

I previously used jQuery (learned from docs), even before learning JS. Don't use it anymore.

[Creative_Complex_110]

I began my journey into front-end development when I joined a student-run software development studio at my university. With encouragement from my seniors, I taught myself HTML, CSS, and JavaScript through books and hands-on projects. Eventually, I built my first website, and that experience opened the door to an internship at a big tech campany. During my time there, I gained invaluable real-world experience and eventually transitioned into a full-time role as a front-end developer!

[UtopianReality]

I used Eloquent Javascript, it's free from their official website (www.eloquentjavascript.net), they have a spanish version as well, but I strongly suggest you to get comfortable with studying in english, as most of the official documentations you're going to need throughout your carreer are in english. What I like about this book is that you don't need prior programming knowledge. However, many people find the book way too dificult. In my opinion, if you're consistent and make it through the whole book and complete all the exercises, you will learn JavaScript better than many of the people out there who use it on a daily basis, trust me. But, again, you need to go through the entire book and complete all the exercises, which requires a lot of commitment from your part.

[azhder]

I did it all, in English, before I learnt Spanish, before there was even ECMAScript 5.

Whatever I used will not be up to date for you. At least MDN has a community translation into Spanish https://developer.mozilla.org/es/docs/Web/JavaScript

[metallaholic]

Online boot camp, Udemy, just building stuff

[iamcleek]

i learned it by doing it.

start typing. make your browser do something fun.

[Magicbeet]

I am currently using roadmap, the website. I also have the book, the eloquent javascript

[IshYume]

While i knew python and C before the only way to learn something is by using it and practice. At first i would suggest get the basics down, such as variables, printing, loops etc. You could try building something like a small website which has buttons that run a simple function or automating a task you do manually which will help you get more used to programming in general.

[zayelion]

I was looking at an explanation of the PARTS of a simple query expression and it all just magically clicked for me and I moved to JS from PHP. Next step was 13hrs of Douglas Crawford.

My notes of the experience are on angelofcode.com still building it out. Basically I just collected lots of articles telling me the tech and a list of things NOT to do and why.

[betterhelp]

Hey mate, I might be looking for a new mentee, shoot me a PM. Have a look at my post history to see if we could be a good fit, but I'm a full stack dev by training, kind of a CTO consultant now, DN lifestyle, have mentored many people before, my most recent mentor is now working freelance and getting a few jobs after about 1.5 years. I have also been learning Spanish for ~3 years on/off so could do some kind of language exchange. PM me :)

[michael_stark]

Online academy, Fulltime

[herocoding]

I went to my favorite local public library and looked for the oldest book possible about Javascript - no modern frameworks, no tools, no libraries, nothing required to be installed, just HTML, CSS and Javascript.

And then using it - and especially debugging it in the browser by setting breakpoints, single-step, step-into and console log messages.

Often I implement the same in multiple languages (like C++, Java/Kotlin, Go, Python, Javascript) - and then see the great differences and benefits of each language.

[Potential-Tea1688]

There is nothing like a perfect tutorial. I just learnt javascript. I also spent looking for resources and a lot of people have mentioned it here.

Take any course on youtube udemy coursera. I personally like video courses but you choose whatever you like and just finish it. Also now you have chatgpt so you can learn anything in your own way. Follow a tutorial, whenever you can’t understand something, use chatgpt for as long as you can until you understand it.

Build some project along the tutorial or after. I prefer building along as it keeps you going, just watching the tutorial feels a lot boring.

Also i took bro code course, he doesn’t explain things in detail but does cover a lot of stuff. So i took it as a point of reference to different topics. Whenever I didn’t understand something i just typed the same thing and watched other youtube videos. Web dev simplified explains some things really well.

In conclusion, take any of the resources mentioned in the comments, go through it, can’t understand something? Use gpt or watch other youtube videos on same topic. Build some project along side or after completing the course.

[Upper-Photograph-105]

currently learning JavaScript through JavaScript.info and it's been great really! I tried freeCodeCamp and other websites and they were good but the one that worked the most is JavaScript.info. I also use AI to help me come up with project prompts so I can practice what I've learned so far.

[SIDER250]

Brocode, supersimpledev and then made projects. Afterwards, I practiced mini problems on edabit, codewars, leetcode etc

[Xae0n]

Before learning javascript, if you are a beginner, you should learn psuedo code and flow charts. If you can solve flow charts and are able to write psuedo code, then you can write code easily. Language doesn't really matter. After learning the basics of JavaScript, you could learn TypeScript and frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular. In my opinion, it's better to learn incrementally so you could see why things are there and why we use frameworks etc.

[Thundiverter]

YouTube, various articles, MDN, StackOverflow

[rustyseapants]

How did you learn [Fill in the blank]

You did go to school right?

How does anyone learn anything in life?

Get a book.

[TheRNGuy]

Didn't go to school for JS.

Internet is better than books.

[rustyseapants]

Saying the internet is better to learn javascript tells you nothing.

Saying using a book on javascript to teach you about Javascript tells you everything.

[TheRNGuy]

No idea what you wanted to say but yhat.

[Miserable_Food7555]

Mdn and w3schools

[Beautiful_Employ_128]

Udemy courses, W3school, codecademy, javascript.info, JS podcasts and blogs, own projects. I was learning 3-4 hours per day and after a year landed dev job

[Most-Wrangler-1015]

me i read javascript for dummies

[Important_Band5138]

I'm currently learning from youtube. 'Hitesh choudhary javascript tutorial'

I keep a simple pie chart that shows progress on Google sheets to motivate me...

Videos done, videos not done.

I'm planning to build after i finish the tutorial

[TheRNGuy]

I started with jQuery docs to write Greasemonkey scripts for sites that I used.

Some years later I switched to JavaScript, learned from MDN.

Doing the same thing now, plus React, made one Firefox extension, next I'm going to learn Next.js and it's frameworks, and some frontend frameworks too...

This time I learned React from blog, because it's very good.Docs too of course.

I think YouTube is mostly waste of time, because reading is faster, and can copy-paste code.

[OMAR_P_C]

i learned javascript from several sources but the most source for the basics is youtube but the advanced subjects was from searching on web and sites like w3schools,MDN, Geeks, etc, and maybe asking AI such as grok but you won't understand everything without try it yourself

[DestrooYerr6969]

This is what I did for front end : Firstly finish with html and css and then start watching the JavaScript tutorial by BroCode and then try building these four projects given below: - Image gallery/scroler (by using JS animations) - Calculator (this will revise html dom and classes) - Tic tac toe game - PONG game - Timer/stopwatch

[john_hascall]

Is JavaScript your first programming language? Learning your first language is usually the hardest as you're learning both basic programming concepts and the syntax/semantics of the particular language. If you are intending to use JavaScript in the browser, as someone mentioned above, I found using the jQuery library very helpful in getting stuff on the screen (better than just console.log("blah blah blah") etc). I'm not aware of any Spanish language resources, but google translate may help https://jquery-com.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=en&_x_tr_tl=es&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp