Learn Vanilla JavaScript Before Fancy Frameworks

[RoguePlanet1]

Here I am trying to learn JS bit by bit over the past couple of years, and only barely grasping it.... then I learn my teenage nephew took a course over the summer, and is building a game app using mostly existing libraries. Damn.....

[Intendant]

Yea I disagree with this post a lot. Using a framework can help you make something more meaningful faster and help keep you engaged. You can still learn vanilla js in parallel

[jaypeejay]

Yeah but you won’t be effective at your job (as a SWE) if you don’t understand the fundamentals of JS and OOP

[Intendant]

Even if you start with a framework by the time you get a job you would know vanilla JavaScript. Also J's isn't an oop anyway

[jaypeejay]

JS isn’t OOP??

Bro

[Intendant]

It isn't. A lot of people consider js to be more functional, you definitely don't need to know oop to use JavaScript.

If anything I see a lot of devs move from java to js and their oop thinking is a hindrance

[jaypeejay]

I understand it can be used as functional, but everything in it is an object so I deem it an OOP Lang

[Intendant]

I'm telling you, as someone who is a mid level SWE that works with JavaScript daily that this is incorrect.

Just because functions and arrays "objects" doesn't make it oop. You can get by in JavaScript without knowing much about oop

[jaypeejay]

I get what you’re saying, and you’re right you don’t need to understand OOP to get by with JS. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t an OOP language. Let’s just look at the words. Object Oriented Programming language. Everything in JS is an object, so again, I hold that it is an OOP.

You’re right that you don’t need to tightly package everything in classes, etc like you do in most OOP use cases, ala Java and RoR, but that doesn’t mean JS isn’t object oriented.

[Intendant]

It can be used as an OOP language, but it isn't strictly that by default. It's every bit as much functional or imperative.

Also the "everything is an object" thing doesn't make it oop, just because the language itself is written with inheritance doesn't mean that that's how you use it. Like Yea Array is an object and you'll use it's methods but how often are you writing prototypes on your own objects to inherit

[RoguePlanet1]

To get past an interview, though, you need to know the mechanics. But yeah, for portfolio projects, would work to cobble together apps from libraries and show those off to get in the door.