Best Way To Advance Coding Knowledge

off.the.walls

Lately i've been working a lot with JavaScript and am now realising what a complex language it is compared to other languages that have class systems built into them. What way did other people go about getting to grips with JavaScript or do people just learn it bit by bit as needs be?

Thanks

RealistSpy

I recently just started javascript myself.
I look at other people's code on Github and searched for best javascript practices.

redman85

off.the.walls wrote: »

What way did other people go about getting to grips with JavaScript or do people just learn it bit by bit as needs be?

If you are are looking for JavaScript best practises this is pretty handy https://github.com/airbnb/javascript

I was recommended the "You Don't Know JS" book series and would also recommend them. Word of warning though they aren't for beginners looking to learn programming with JavaScript, they go into a lot of detail about how JavaScript works under the hood (scope, closures, object prototypes etc). They are on GitHub for free https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS

If your looking for something more beginner friendly "Eloquent JavaScript" is pretty popular, again it can be read online here for free.

Hope you find something useful within the links :cool:

Talisman

off.the.walls wrote: »

Lately i've been working a lot with JavaScript and am now realising what a complex language it is compared to other languages that have class systems built into them.

It's not that complex, prototype inheritance is just different from what you are used to. You can mimic class inheritance in JavaScript but it restricts the use of the language.

The Gang of Four's two principles of reusable object-oriented design:
#1 - Program to an interface, not an implementation.
#2 - Favor object composition over class inheritance.

Prototypal inheritance follows both principles, classical inheritance does not.

Here's a list of good resources for learning about the language.

YouTube:
Brendan Eich - JavaScript at 20
Douglas Crockford: The JavaScript Programming Language
Advanced JavaScript with Kyle Simpson
Eric Elliott, "Classical Inheritance is Obsolete: How to Think in Prototypal OO"
Eric Elliott Fluent 2014 JavaScript Talk - Static Types are Overrated
Netflix JavaScript Talks - Async JavaScript with Reactive Extensions
Creating A Scalable JavaScript Application Architecture with Nicholas Zakas

Free Online Books:
You Don't Know JavaScript Series (Kyle Simpson)
Learning JavaScript Design Patterns (Addy Osmani)
Eloquent JavaScript (Marijn Haverbeke)
Speaking JavaScript (Axel Rauschmayer)
Programming JavaScript Applications (Eric Elliott)
JavaScript Spessore (Reg Braithwaite)
JavaScript Allongé (Reg Braithwaite)
Understanding ECMAScript 6 (Nicholas Zakas)

14ned

off.the.walls wrote: »

Lately i've been working a lot with JavaScript and am now realising what a complex language it is compared to other languages that have class systems built into them. What way did other people go about getting to grips with JavaScript or do people just learn it bit by bit as needs be?

Practice, practice, practice.

Most of the difference between skilled Javascript programmers and knowledgeable ones is the former know what not to do from bitter experience of writing very large Javascript code bases (think > 100,000 lines). Unfortunately, most of the Javascript code in open source is written by the latter, not the former.

Due to the lack of skilled Javascript programmers, even Google try to avoid writing Javascript directly, and instead write in Python and use a Python to Javascript compiler. That bypasses the lack of bitter experience problem, albeit it's a hack.

Niall