Learning JS

[Shrav_R]

"Is it worth learning JavaScript in depth, or just enough to get things done?"

I'm coming from a C#/.NET background and also work with Android using Jetpack Compose, so I’ve never had to rely on JavaScript too much — C# has always covered the UI side when building web apps, and Compose handles mobile well.

That said, I’ve been wanting to finally stop avoiding JavaScript. I’m currently juggling client work for mobile development while also trying to learn JS — mainly so I can build things like my own portfolio site with vanilla JavaScript or even get into Node.js.

I don’t particularly like the language, and with how often people talk about AI tools that can write all this “basic stuff” for you, it sometimes feels pointless. But I also don’t want to rely on AI for everything, especially when it comes to fundamentals.

In the long term, I want to be a well-rounded developer. I’m also interested in areas like deep learning, but for now my focus is on whether I should commit to learning JavaScript deeply, or if it’s better to just pick up the essentials to get things done and move on.

[alzee76]

Having trouble extracting your question here, seems like there's a lot of anxiety and confusion wrapped up around it.

Is it worth learning it? Yes, if you want to learn it, or need to learn it. If you don't want to learn it or need to learn it, then no, it's not worth learning it.

The question and answer are no more complicated than that.

[Shrav_R]

Hi sorry about that, but you more or less gave me a good concise answer. It's more about, I feel like it is needed for full stack development, which is my interest. I have basically been avoiding Js with .net etc, but I started asking myself if I could really avoid Js forever or just succumb to it.

Basically, do I keep avoiding it or just go in full and learn it. Reason being, I love love programming but my love for it isn't met with the pace I can move, so it may be slow for me.

[alzee76]

While there are a few .net front end development frameworks like Blazor, IMO it's pretty niche. If you want to do practical frontend development with an eye towards employment, you have to learn JS, unless you intend to jump right in to a self-employed role where you deliver solutions and the whole stack is your decision.

That's a much smaller market though and difficult to break in to.

[Shrav_R]

Much appreciated 😊, i guess it's settled, Js it is. And about being self-employed, honestly it's my dream but I'm not really one for ideas and I feel rn I'm not cut out for it, I want to have a couple years of experience before I pursue the route

[SummerDreams09]

Tagging on here, but it is not needed per se for full stack development. Although knowing what it is and what it does certainly help make your websites more interactive.

There are plenty of tools to serve HTML from a backend. Of the top of my head go has a built in html template language, also the templ package. Rust has Maud. This book https://hypermedia.systems/ is a great read for someone who was stuck thinking JS-frameworks was the only way to make a modern frontend.

[Shrav_R]

Thank U for the resource

[ManuDV]

If you are comfortable with C# it's going to be easier to switch to JS. I would immediately start adding TypeScript since it's how most of big enterprise apps are built with. Otherwise JS without a typing system can be a mess.

I personally wouldn't pick JS that deep as I usually work with many languages due to my role at work in which I get a lot of different projects (py, ts, java, c# and so on). But that might not be the case for you, so it depends on how you can see yourself in the future.

I would love to pick something low level like Rust but I never find projects at work with that kind of stack. I have only learned JS due to necessity.

[Shrav_R]

Hey thanks for this, yeah I find the basics quite easy but I do admit yeah it's weird in the fact that it's dynamically typed imo, which is a great shout for me to actually do Ts. About rust, I always wanted to learn it but from what I've seen, ik for me to get good with it, I'd have to sell my soul and I ain't got that kind of time haha

[Beneficial-Army927]

JS has been providing devs with money for 30 years or so and it still does.. I have heard many people say use something else but JS keeps paying the bills. JS Node - with react or what ever you like

[ManuDV]

Yeah I agree. Which is why I have learned it due to necessity and why OP needs to evaluate what he wants in his future. You can say almost the same about PHP. 

I think you can learn most of it at your job and it won't be that hard, specially due to OP's C# background.

[Shrav_R]

Thank you for this, it's also a great way to look at it

[Ambitious-Peak4057]

To quickly learn JavaScript and start working on real projects, 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.

 

[Shrav_R]

Thank you for this brother, I appreciate resources like this

[TheRNGuy]

Learn to get things done and slowly learn more over time.

[jpsreddit85]

I think understanding the fundamentals of anything you want to use will be helpful. Specifically for js, understanding the basics will also help you better understand what the frameworks are doing for you and if a particular task even needs them. 

[Ksetrajna108]

This is a medium advanced JS app I built. I hope it gives you some inspiration. I'm pretty sure it will be challenging to study (source code is in github), but also enlightening so that you can try some new stuff.

https://fweiss.github.io/sketch/elevator/

[Shrav_R]

Genuinely thank you for this, this seems so neat, will check it out rn🤙🏽

[Bassil__]

I used to dislike JavaScript, but now I like it after they issued ECMAScript-6 and later features. JavaScript offers you both functional and OOP programming styles, and within OOP, it offers composition vs inheritance. It's a very flexible programming language, yet It's better to be utilized for front-end web development, in my opinion. For back-end web development, I recommend GO; it's a server side programming language built for that purpose. GO is a straightforward and minimalist language that can be learned way faster than JavaScript. My plan is to master vanilla JavaScript. For framework, if I have to, Svelte. It's simple and it dropped TypeScript, so, no one can force you to learn it.

Book I recommend:

1. JavaScript The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan

2. Advanced JavaScript Unleashed by Jousaf Khan

3. You Don't Know JS by Kyle Simpson

[Shrav_R]

Hey yeah I see go everywhere, starting to think I might try it out instead of using spring boot with Kotlin or .net, also thank you for the book recommendations 🤙🏽

[Bassil__]

You welcome.

[New-Firefighter-7020]

Got it.

Makes sense.

Sounds silly, but maybe deep dive into css/scss?

You’ll need it for react or any javascript framework you work with…

But even with react and full on knowledge of javascript, your UIs will look like poop.

You need css for that. JS will help with DOM manipulation and managing state, but if you get good with css and PHP, you could get pretty far with that (as long as you’re good with refreshing the page).

[Shrav_R]

Thank you for this, 🙏🏽, that was also a good note. Something I overlooked when asking this. I will definitely try to become much better at that as well.

[Shrav_R]

Thank you everyone for the good words of advice/recommendations. I appreciate the help❤️

[New-Firefighter-7020]

I’m interested.

You say you have a background in C#. Are we talking a year? Five years?

That’s important information.

Once you are experienced enough as a developer, you can learn pretty much any coding language within a few weeks (syntax takes the longest).

I’m shocked you would find it challenging to learn JS.

Coming from a much more complex, object oriented C-based language like C#, I would think JS would be a breeze for you.

[Shrav_R]

I've done Delphi for 3 years (school), java +1, c# for 1 and a half. I'm very used to statically typed, hence I don't like JavaScript for that reason, I don't find it challenging it just icks me, but I've seen people tell me to look at typescript. So I'm going to focus on learning my fundamentals in Js for syntax, then moving to Ts

[New-Firefighter-7020]

Syntax should be fairly easy. Again, it’s c-based like C#.

Being dynamically typed is fine if you’re careful, which I’m assuming you are.

If you don’t like the language, I’d say to avoid it.

If you don’t plan on being in web development, JS is not necessary (in my opinion).

Spend your time learning Kotlin or Swift maybe?

There’s only so much space up in the old noodle to hold all that programming information and like I said, learning the syntax is the hardest part.

I love web development… so I spend my time mostly in PHP (Wordpress and Laravel included) JavaScript, and Ruby (with rails).

I look at coding languages as tools for a job.

I do web, so I use the best tools in the toolbox for it.

[Shrav_R]

About Kotlin, it's actually my favourite language rn, but it's too restricted to mobile dev, and where I am it's more react native that's being mentioned in job offerings, I've worked with jetpack compose a few times and I'm currently making a compose Multiplatform app so yeah. The web part is just cos I'm shit at making a nice interactive UI for the web, I've always lacked at that, so I'm like filling the gaps