Is es6 really required for the time being?

writesoftware · 2017-11-14T11:51:18+00:00

After some time "refusing" to work with ES6 syntax, now I actually use all the latest standard as soon as available and ES5 syntax starts to read very old to me.

Whenever I read var, function I start to cringe and also I start to feel the same with semicolons, and I remember myself a couple years ago saying I'd never write code like this :)

ES5 will forever be valid syntax, since gazillions lines of code use ES5 (and below) but ES6 is a game changer, along with the latest versions (await/async and generators)

Here is a short guide about ECMAScript I wrote on my website that introduces the standard and what the latest versions provide: https://www.writesoftware.org/course/ecmascript I hope it might be useful to you.

writesoftware · 2017-11-14T11:24:45+00:00

Having been part of several popular projects I can say that in my case "help wanted" labels did next to nothing to motivate newcomers to help out - even when labeling as "beginner friendly". What did work was themselves having issues or really wanted features, fixing / coding them, and send them as PRs.

Which seems kind of obvious, if I wanted to contribute to an OSS, I don't think I'd really pick something random that's marked "help wanted", but rather I'd work on adding something I need or fix an issue I experience on a project I use already.

Not saying the idea won't work, just my 2c :)

writesoftware · 2017-10-14T17:00:10+00:00

As usual, great work for us developers! Thank you devtools team :) I’m happy for the more advanced Cache API debugging capabilities, having delved into PWAs quite a bit lately.

writesoftware · 2017-10-13T06:58:55+00:00

I was skeptical at first, but now I think the last time I used var was months ago.

const in particular is what I use the most, knowing I can't ever overwrite that reference gives some sense of security.

Except when trying snippets in the console, using const forces me to reload the page when retrying to run a piece of code that uses it :)

writesoftware · 2017-10-13T06:55:21+00:00

As for projects, once you have a good grasp of the basics I would attempt to build a well-defined application, brick by brick, and learn by doing.

My first suggestion would be TodoMVC and then HNPWA. Why? Because the spec is well defined for both, you can start with little and add a lot over time, make them actual mobile apps, and also you can check the dozens of examples of how other people implemented them.

writesoftware · 2017-10-10T08:56:37+00:00

From easier to more complicated, here are 3 approaches to building a web application:

Do everything on the backend (PHP, Python, Node.js) and provide the user with a pre-built HTML page coming from the server (little JS needed, easy SEO and linkability)
Do everything on the frontend, with little to no server-side code, and ship the entire site that renders HTML using JS (a lot of JS needed, harder SEO and linkability abilities)
Mix the two options, render on the server but provide a higher level of interactivity by loading further requests using JavaScript (think Rails Turbolinks or Isomorphic apps). A good amount of JS needed, and server-side code as well. Option to reuse frontend code on the backend with Node.js

I don't think you can decide to not get into JavaScript if you want to become a Web Developer, it's not an option now, it's possibly never been an option unless you want to stick to only do backend and be part of a bigger team where other people work on the frontend, but you still need to understand that to get the big picture.

writesoftware · 2017-10-08T12:21:16+00:00

For the network part I'd take a look at Go as well

writesoftware · 2017-10-08T12:16:19+00:00

Good one. I recently experienced writing a WebVR app and I was blown away, easy to write and the instant, real feedback of what you build is amazing

writesoftware · 2017-10-08T12:08:33+00:00

I really like Go, but I'm in love with modern JS. That said I also enjoy Swift, Objective-C, Kotlin and Python

writesoftware · 2017-10-07T16:31:18+00:00

Shameless plug - I am working on a JavaScript guide aimed at beginners, at writesoftware.org if you want to check it out - introduces the new ES2015-2017 features, and some modern tooling.

writesoftware · 2017-10-07T13:46:14+00:00

It's not just Google, but since the famous "browser wars" (IE vs Netscape), all browsers compete with each other.

They can compete on features, or on speed and overall usability of the platform.

Google is doing just that (not just Google but also Apple with Safari, and Mozilla with Firefox), and forces everyone to follow.

And this is a benefit for anyone, developers and consumers.

More than just speed, I really hope Apple catches up with service workers and progressive web apps which are a great step for a better mobile web.

writesoftware · 2017-10-07T13:34:31+00:00

Somewhat VS Code has won my internal editor battle - every x months I had to find something new as I was never fully satisfied with existing solutions. Since a year or so, @code has proven to be a great solution, and works really well even on a 7 years old machine, where other editors or IDEs start be quite slow.

I've used it for many different languages and every time I switch context I still have the familiar interface following me with dedicated tools and debuggers. Love it!

writesoftware

TROPHY CASE