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Ricky Catron
13,023 PointsFuss about Frameworks?
Why is everyone who is teaching coding these days (treehouse included) so Framework oriented.
It feels like the second someone learns Javascript they are expected to learn JQuery instead of advancing their JavaScript knowledge. The same goes for Ruby and Ruby on Rails.
When I first learned Python I started with Beginner stuff the slowly advanced and only used a framework when forced to like Django.
Shouldn't the focus be on minimalizing the framework instead of maximizing it? This emphisis on frame work seems to cause a lot of problems: people who don't know how to use getelementbyID with Javascript because they are so used to JQuery, people who pull whole librarys of frame work for one tiny feature, and people who know a frameworks syntax better then they know the actual language.
2 Answers
tuukka uosukainen
22,107 PointsI'm with you on that. I'm a bit of a control freak and a "perfectionist" (read idiot). And I feel like I have to know everything. I believe it's a huge benefit to learn Javascript well before moving on to frameworks, how ever, why invent the wheel again?
Also I'm just beginning with Javascript and am not that sure if my brain is capable to learn it :) At the moment very little of it makes any sense, but I have time, hopefully things will eventually click and everything becomes clear.
if (you === idiot) {
alert('learn Javascript before frameworks');
} else {
console.log("You are smart and you will succeed fast. Congratulations!");
}
Andrew Molloy
37,259 PointsI think there has to be the right balance, but we've got to keep in mind the goal of Treehouse isn't to teach coding, it's to teach effective coding and workflow for practical uses and employment. The reason there's such an abundance of framework teaching is that it does save a lot of time and effort in getting applications up and running. Although I totally agree that there must be fundamental understanding of what is happening "under the hood" to make best use of them. Over use of frameworks without that leads to huge gaps in knowledge but teaching pure coding without frameworks is doing a disservice to students wanting to become effective potential employees, freelancers or just develop their own projects. I think Treehouse have mostly got the balance right if you follow the Tracks but certainly room for improvement and maybe a bit more theory to underline the frameworks and a few more pure coding courses wouldn't go amiss too.
Ricky Catron
13,023 PointsThanks for your response. I definetly agree that "certainly room for improvement and maybe a bit more theory to underline the frameworks and a few more pure coding courses wouldn't go amiss too".
It just worries me when someone starts a project and immediatly jumps into JQuery even when it really isn't needed.
Those frameworks can speed up development but if used wrong the will destroy a page. What client wants towait for the site to pull the entire JQuery library for loading the page.
Ricky Catron
13,023 PointsRicky Catron
13,023 PointsIt is a huge benefit to learn JavaScript before using a framework. The reason for reinventing the wheel is so that you understand how it works. You shouldn't reinvent it everytime frameworks have their time and place but you should be able to reinvent it if you need too.