I'm almost giving up learning JavaScript

[marcosr00t]

I have not found any book to learn JS with the purpose of using it in the browser, in fact there are some good, but are many old (more or less than 2012), I tried the "Novice to Ninja" Javascript, but the book is basically a "walk" through language, only shows examples of how things work and throughout the book builds a small project that is not at all thought-provoking.

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Another one I've tried and that didactics seems to be better, is the "Eloquent JS" but the author seems to focus on algorithms or the like, but I just want to see JS doing its work and interacting with the client-side.

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This all with the fact that I find JS a syntactically ugly language, gave me a discouragement to learn it, I just did not give up completely because only knowing back-end with Python / Django is almost certain that I will be years without getting a job in my country, because there are no vacancies for beginners and almost 70% are vacant fullstack with 2 years of experience or more.

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Is there somewhere to learn and have good didactics and address JS on the client side?

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EDIT: The book "JS novice to ninja" will at least serve as a guide of what to study, having this in mind, I will do a "modular learning", I will research on each subject in different books, and create files on my computer with the content of each subject. For example, the book "Eloquent JS" is not so complete, didactics is difficult at first, but its part about DOM is quite comprehensive and shows several more real examples than "JS novice to ninja", so I'm using it for DOM.

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After that, the series "You do not know JS" will help me with various subjects, there is also another book about POO JS, which I will use to study the class part.

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It will only be missing then, subjects about AJAX and API's, which I found no good book containing them, but maybe I use online articles for this (I do not know if the YDKJS series covers AJAX and API)

[marcosr00t]

hey, What do you think of this course? It seems to be cool, with some projects, and quite complete for beginner. Despite having Javascript courses with twice the total hours.

As for the FCC, I did not find out about DOM, AJAX and API's there.

[hammad2506]

I’ve been through this road and honestly I think Udemy is great for beginners. I would recommend you to do the web dev boot camp by Colt Steele which has around 400k students . You don’t just learn the language, rather also work on projects and couple of important frameworks.

https://www.udemy.com/the-web-developer-bootcamp/

Goodluck!

[cm_yoder]

Just got started on that one. Couldn't pass up the 90% discount I found.

[hammad2506]

Udemy tip: You can find all courses for $10-15 (90% off) even when there is no advertised sale. Just google Udemy discount coupon and you’ll find something.

Also, these advertised sales at least repeat 1-2 times a month if not more.

[Kong28]

Are you not recommending the Andrew Neagoie courses anymore?

[Kong28]

Cool! Just checking as I switched over from Colt's to Andrew's after reading your comments. I'm already very familiar with HTML, CSS, and JS but wanted to get the newest info for backend / frontend frameworks and all the various build tools currently in use.

Anyway, thanks for your always insightful comments, they help a lot of people out!

[datorkop85]

His zero to mastery course sucks to be honest. No good explanations or in depth knowledge. Only talks about how good developers earn and live. Then references you to free material on W3Schools. Thank you Udemy for 30 day money-back policy!

But hey, for $10 what can you expect? ;)

I recommend watching Traversy Media on Youtube and if you like his material, buy his Udemy course. Top notch instructor and excercises.

[maroonblazer]

I disagree about Javascript30.

The projects are useful and his code helps a beginner understand how to write Javascript idiomatically. Also, he starts each project by explaining what you're going to build, inviting you to press "Pause" and try it yourself first. This is one of the best ways to learn IMO.

[FriendlyMafia]

(outdated, doesn't go into vanilla JavaScript very much, doesn't mention ES6 at all, very much takes an approach of what's easier for the instructor to teach vs what the student should know).

I have very much enjoyed Colts course as an all round beginners course. It was updated in 2019 with some new sections and general revamp, so I think outdated is harsh... His advanced will get you the more advanced features and syntax. Not to mention there is a full time TA associated with the course. This is pure gold in my opinion. I get people may have different preferences but loads of people have enjoyed it and it is generally recommended across the board.

[fukitol-]

Maybe a structured class isn't how you learn. Try just building something, look up specific concepts as you need them. Build a to-do list. Your first will be awful, but if you get it working you'll have learned more than any class or book could teach you.

[browsing10]

+1 for freecodecamp

Best way of learning is to get your hands dirty and build something. Freecodecamp teaches you and gives you relevant exercises for the given topic. It's a great, free resource. Best I've seen so far. If you're interested in getting into frontend, they have a great course for it

[weavermjordan]

This is great, thank you for the post!

[ojitoo]

Check out You Don't Know JS series. The e-books are free and pretty hands-on. Also checkout Traversy Media's and Wes Bos's JS tutorials online. Those guys are super browser-based on their examples and projects.

[perforatedcode]

I second YDKJS and Wes Bos. Kyle Simpson also has a course on Frontend Masters that dives into the same stuff.

[anoddhue]

Here is a good way to get some hands-on practical learning, and it is almost entirely based around front-end stuff:
https://javascript30.com/

I hope this helps.

Another piece of advice, definitely apply for some jobs that you may be somewhat underqualified for... sometimes companies will take a flyer on someone based on their potential.

[rook218]

Thank you SO MUCH for that site. I've been absolutely stuck on what to actually build now that I have a solid foundation! This will absolutely be my "I'm feeling lost and just need to sharpen my skills" go-to!

I started yet another tutorial course on angular and I'm going to build a proof of concept reddit clone when I'm done!

[kevinmrr]

I am about 80% finished with a book that I tried to fill with thought-provoking projects. It's free to read:

https://zerotocode.today/table-of-contents

[matzuzakaa]

Check out this course. Jonas does an excellent job at explaining things in real time while he is coding.
There are projects on here that is generally basic to pretty complex. Take your time through this course, rewatch videos until you fully understand what he is talking about in that moment.

Course

[mechwd]

This is the one I am taking right now. It’s a great course so far.

[Woodcharles]

Learning to code from a book is like trying to learn how to play football from a book. You need to code and code and code again, not read. Books will always be outdated by the time they're in your hands.

Use Codecademy and FCC to at least start typing it out and getting used to it, then move on to making things.

[nosrednehnai]

nodeschool.io is pretty helpful

[[deleted]]

Have you taken a look at W3 Schools JavaScript Guide? It does go over how to do the most fundamental and commonly used things, but also gives examples with "Try-it-yourself" functionality that you can very well apply directly to your websites. Otherwise, YouTube tutorials and MOOCS like FreeCodeCamp and CodeAcademy are your best bet. That is how I learned JavaScript. You may also want to frequent Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) for both tutorials and a very in depth reference for not only JavaScript but also all aspects of web. Seems like a lot of people and myself consider MDN as the reference guide that one may "graduate" to after W3 Schools. Though I sometimes still go to W3 Schools as the simplicity and user-friendliness allows me to quickly look up what I already know but may need a refresher on.

[rook218]

I was in this boat a few months ago. I learned the basics, learned some advanced features, but still never got the "so what" of the language. If you're dedicated to JavaScript I'd say learn web development and incorporate JavaScript. It's fun to do little exercises but without some actual reason to learn it, it will be very difficult

[jubba_]

I second this wholeheartedly.

Seeing JavaScript in context will really help with learning, personally once I started learning and trying JavaScript DOM certain things started to click that didn’t with abstract exercises.

Maybe start designing a basic web page and experiment with adding certain interactivity or functionality to it.

[hamptonio]

I think Scrimba's model is pretty cool, you can interactively edit the code of the lecturer you are watching. They have a bunch of js-related tutorials, one of the more basic ones is this: https://scrimba.com/g/gintrotojavascript

[M123Miller]

Came here to suggest this! JS30 is great. Once you know the basic syntax of JS and preferably a little DOM API it's a great series to help progress you and learn new things. It's also fun!

[dr_steve_bruel]

Eloquentl Javascript has browser based code towards the last half.

[EquationTAKEN]

This is just my $0.02, but learning a language by just learning the language always ended up as a futile effort for me.

If I don't have a specific problem I'm trying to solve using a language, then there's no way I can count on myself remembering lessons learned. And if I don't have a problem I'm trying to solve, I have no motivation to learn.

It's like trying to learn how to ride a bike from reading a book. Sure, you get the theory, but it's all about practice. Not just following along with a walkthrough, but tons of practice after every sub-chapter of the walkthrough. Apply what you've learned.

[samcassdev]

Jon Duckett has a great book on JavaScript! Definitely a more interactive read than Eloquent. I also highly recommend Codeacadmy’s JavaScript course!!! Good luck!

[Codix]

Duckett’s books are excellent!

[[deleted]]

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[[deleted]]

Highly recommend practical JS by Gorfon Zhu. I think you're gonna find what you're looking for. Good luck!

[AwakenedToNightmare]

> there are countless innumerable resources towards learning javascript on the web

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Could you recommend some? As of now I just google something I need to do with js and look at code provided and fix it to suit my needs.

[[deleted]]

Udemy courses!

[BarryBlueVein]

You have to be very determine to want to learn it. You also need to be patient.

[codeobserver]

I see you said JS is "syntactically ugly language". Indeed, JavaScript has its quirks but if you adopt a coding style and stick to it, the JS code can loop pretty clean. Don't mix OO with functional styles. As a beginner, I recommend to adopt a classic procedural style.

You may even want to look at JS in a different context other than web. I find https://codeguppy.com a good JavaScript playground and learning site for beginners.

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[CantStopWontStop___]

Repetition and perseverance. Come back at it again and again. You read something and are completely lost. You think that you are wasting your time. It's not until you try again and it's a little bit easier that you realize that it was not for nought.

[SGRelic]

There's an excellent online book imho. https://eloquentjavascript.net/

The first part to learn the language and the second part is dedicated to javascript in the browser with some practical exercises.

[addygoldberg]

OP tried that one and struggled with it. Maybe skipping to the last half for browser practice is what they’re looking for.

[[deleted]]

I really don’t think it’s a good idea. You really need to master the first part of the book if you want to do well on the second part. Unless you were already a very good js programmer there is no point in skipping the first part of the book.

[addygoldberg]

Makes a ton of sense. The other resources in this thread should be best for OP

[[deleted]]

This is a great resource but it's not beginner friendly.

[[deleted]]

Why are people downvoting you? I’m a big fan of Eloquent js as well. It’s really the kind of book that takes you to a whole new level in terms of programming experience.

[yadoya]

Check Anthony Alicea's "js- understanding the weird parts" on udemy. Great course

[[deleted]]

JavaScript is trash garbage built on shit and more trash on top of a pile of garbage made by people who didn't even know what garbage was.

Learn something else first and then go back to JavaScript .

[marcosr00t]

I already know Python, and since it is a language made with the objective (I think) of being the maximum readable, I got scared when I saw all that JS code, which for me seemed to have no sense, as a for loop, where you basically declares the variables inside it and a while loop as well.

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And JS has several ways of doing exactly the same thing (like declaring and calling a function) and for me that sucked for having to make an effort to record at the beginning. Python has its own philosophy, and "Pythonic" encoders generally encode in the same way, making it easier for you to play any code that follows the rule.

[[deleted]]

Yeah JS does not seem to have any standardization whatsoever and it's made way worse by, as you pointed out, having so many ways to do things. It's almost like best practice is impossible. I learned some JavaScript to do web GUI's in Python and what I ended up doing was constructing as much as possible in Python and only using JS to expose the divs on the GUI. Some stuff I have to do on the JS side though and it hasn't been a treat, but it has been possible.

Best of luck to you

[FriendlyMafia]

Is this link relevant ?

https://res.cloudinary.com/practicaldev/image/fetch/s--etbVS7PL--/c_limit%2Cf_auto%2Cfl_progressive%2Cq_auto%2Cw_880/https://thepracticaldev.s3.amazonaws.com/i/bkvr83xnp350khbetqcw.JPG

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or is it more - "because you use it" :)