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JavaScript

Posted by Bruce Berdine
Bruce Berdine
13,607 Points

JavaScript Frameworks

I am just learning to program and have gotten a solid foundation in PHP from TreeHouse. I know very little JavaScript but it seems that single page apps and interactive pages are becoming more and more popular.

I use Laravel for a PHP framework and like the way it took a lot of the guesswork out of CRUD, security and structure for PHP. Can anyone suggest a framework for JavaScript that does the same?

I have been reading a lot about React but have not seen any courses here to help with that.

Angular, Meteor, React, Ember, Vue .... (I'm sure I'm missing many more) There seems to be a lot of choices each with a slightly different approach so what to learn if just starting to learn JavaScript?

Thanks to any who want to chime in. Maybe we can get a consensus and base to suggest some courses to the TreeHouse staff!!

Ben Myhre
Ben Myhre
28,726 Points

http://hilton.org.uk/blog/javascript-frameworks-days.png

Frameworks are awesome...whether you learn angular, react.... or whatever the flavor of the minute is.

Do yourself a favor and become decent at Javascript first. I don't think a person can really become good at ANY of those things if you don't have a decent understanding of the underlying languages. Even jQuery.... it is just Javascript.

Also, I come from a ruby on rails background and really like what Laravel has brought to PHP. IMO PHP a difficult first language and Laravel helps enforce some fundamental programming concepts that many PHP learners have a tough time getting.

Seriously... do the javascript track here and then move on. You will thank yourself later.

Bruce Berdine
Bruce Berdine
13,607 Points

Thanks Benjamin,

Loved the link!!!

Have been doing the tracks here but I seem to recall hearing or reading that pure JavaScript can be a problem with multiple browser support. (Enter JQuery I guess.) That is the main reason I opted for Laravel because I kept getting hung up on all the security issues pure PHP seemed to have for a novice programmer. (A lot has changed since Laravel 4 - a new series on that would be nice as well)

I will take your advice and continue the JavaScript track but hope the Treehouse staff start looking at some of the new things out there. I guess after looking at your link I can understand why they don't invest a lot of time in something that changes daily but React comes from Facebook and Instagram and Meteor seems to have serious financial backing. Even just a talk on exploring the most prevalent options and their uses and differences I think would be helpful.

Ben Myhre
Ben Myhre
28,726 Points

Just a heads up that there IS a jQuery and Angular course here for sure, so don't limit yourself. I suspect there are a few of the others you listed, but I haven't taken them. Knowing JS will make learning the other things that much easier. When someone tells me they "know" jQuery, but not javascript.... I cringe a bit, as you are USING javascript if you use jQuery. jQuery is a very powerful tool, but I am not sure it is always necessary to load thousands of line of code if you are just interested in using the .each() method once.

Here is my view... in 10 years on the front end side, HTML, CSS and Javascript are tools that are most likely still to be in use. They are all worth knowing and knowing well.

I am working on the "well" part and not sure that ever ends.