I gotta lean Javascript - Any favorite resources?

[Yellow Yam Scam]

I have to learn Javascript for work. I've never done any meaningful coding before.

Anyone got any resources or tips and tricks to make learning this weird moon language FUN AND EASY?

 

[chunkygoth]

If you've never programmed before, javascript is a good language to learn. There are a ton of tutorials online. If you understand the basic gist of programming, you might enjoy this game: https://alexnisnevich.github.io/untrusted/. Ultimately though, the best way to learn it is going to be to sit down and hammer it out.

 

[DN 420]

https://codecademy.com is a good starting point. JavaScript is very broad so if you want more specific resources PM me.

 

[Rokko]

Afaik there are a lot of good coders on KF. I can only advice you to scan the Allison Rapp thread, especially the last third of it. https://kiwifarms.net/threads/alison-rapp-maria-mint-123grapeman.18002/
She learned coding and a lot of people (which you can pm or tag here) there had good advice . I could show you some good sites in german But I guess thats not an option.

 

[fatfuck]

when you say learn it for work, do you mean as of making a career out of it? there are different paths depending on what your goals are (front end, back end, both, etc.) if you want to design websites then you'll also have to learn HTML and CSS. as someone who recently became a full stack developer i can give you some advice as to how i started a few years ago with 0 programming knowledge.

in any case if you never coded before then CS50 is a great starting point which should teach you the basics and important concepts of all programming languages. it's a well structured course with lots of material and exercises. you can enroll for free on edX and it even has its own subreddit. i'd strongly recommend it because it will teach you a lot of invaluable things.

secondly, MDN has pretty much everything you need to know on JS from beginners to advanced. to learn more in depth about concepts you can go here.

here are some currently relevant paths on what important concepts you should learn if you ever get stuck:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVXcqO9A1vo (really cool and structured path)
- https://github.com/P1xt/p1xt-guides


as for how i did it: i started with CS50 then did the old p1xt get job ready JS path and mixed it with some other courses that talked about the same topic as i was learning. recently the JS 2.0 path was released and you can do that instead. keep in mind that the p1xt guides are brutal and you will have to supplement them with additional material, however they will teach you the most out of anything you can find.

you might hear about things like FCC and Odin project (never tried it), however i found these types of courses, especially FCC, to be too easy and not as informative as the p1xt guide.

 

[Haramburger]

https://codecademy.com is a good starting point. JavaScript is very broad so if you want more specific resources PM me.

Their physical books in libraries for kids/girls learning to code are pretty good tbh. Or maybe it's a different but similarly named organization, it's getting hard to tell these IT clubs apart from one another.

 

[Professional iPad Hoarder]

It's now exactly new but will probabily help ( https://the-eye.eu/public/Books/For Dummies/JavaScript and AJAX for Dummies (ISBN - 0470417994).pdf ) the best way of learning is creating something (even if it does not makes sense) so then you'll start understanding the language limitations and learn good pratices

 

[NQ 952]

Actual Software Engineer here

your best bet to start learning is something like code academy or (if you can afford it) veracode. I also recommend getting started with some simple open source projects.

JS is an OK language to learn at first, but keep in mind that you WILL learn bad behaviour with this language, and when you try to move into another OO language like Java or C++ you're going to get bit in the ass, hard.

My real first foray into development was picking up an open source game (circlemud) and modifying it. If you can pick up an open source text based game, like nethack, it should be a really good starting point for the language it's built in.

Just keep in mind that once you enter the professional world and you have to go through code reviewers you're going to get your ass chewed out constantly until you learn to do things their way.