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JavaScript

Posted by Gareth Davies
Gareth Davies
3,919 Points

Why can't I understand JavaScript?

Ok so I have just finished the javascript loops, Arrays and objects course and by the end, I feel that I still have no clue what I am doing. The quiz challenge and the last challenge to do with displaying a name of a student after getting the name from a prompt, I had no idea how to solve it. I watched the solution to the challenges and I was not even close to getting it right. I feel javascript is not for me, and I should just give up. What should I do? any tips would be great.

K Cleveland
K Cleveland
21,839 Points
K Cleveland
K Cleveland
21,839 Points

What did you find difficult about it/what was hard to solve? How far did you get in the challenge?

6 Answers

Ari Misha
Ari Misha
19,323 Points
Ari Misha
Ari Misha
19,323 Points

Hiya there! When i picked up JavaScript first time i was a beginner and i was so lost. I mean it used to gimme nightmares and i almost gave up the whole programming journey. So i stopped learning JavaScript. And i jumped to Python and Ruby, and immediately i found myself actually enjoying Python and Ruby a lot. I understood so many concepts in Python and Ruby that i couldnt get my brain wrapped around in JavaScript. The bottom line is JavaScript is changing like a lot. And its literally everywhere so you obviously cant ignore it if you wanna be a developer. But why does JavaScript seems so hard and confusing? Its not hard at all actually. The issue is that you dont go through enough resources to concrete your knowledge. Read the docs , play with it in the console, read the blogs.

One more thing that i've noticed is that the newer syntax of JavaScript takes a lots of inspiration from other languages. You must have seen the class implementation in JavaScript right? Every language has class implementation and inheritance but JavaScript didnt. The newly syntax for Rest and Spread operators and Decorators takes inspiration from Python Language itself. And Generators and default parameters and cli generators exist in Ruby. So the moral of the stpry is other languages helped me a lot in order to become a better JavaScript developer.

Now that there are tons of libraries , Frameworks and plugins for JavaScript alone, which might confuse beginners a lot. I remember when i was learning React a couple of months ago, i started out with React , then i had to learn React Router, then i learned Flux and i was like oh yeah i know react. And then i encountered Redux , so i had to learn Redux as well, followed by React-Native , MobX, Firebase and Finally Serverless. And Then i stumbled to webpacks , TypeScript, blah blah.

I know it seems like a mountain to climb , and a very steep one but as soon as you get your foundational knowledge strong , you'll be able to learn and pick any JavaScript library or framework , in minutes(yeah thats right). Consider it an advantage , coz its like one language gives you access to tons of framework and libraries out there. And Btw i learned React and everything about React in a week. I hope my experience gave you an insight about why should you stick with JavaScript. And believe me It does get better and fun.

~ Ari

Gareth Davies
Gareth Davies
3,919 Points

Thank you for the reply, I am determined to understand JS I just think it will take me a long time.

Chaucee Stillman
Chaucee Stillman
2,306 Points
Chaucee Stillman
Chaucee Stillman
2,306 Points

I'm in the same boat you are Gareth. I've just been repeating the workshops and JS classes here on Treehouse as well as looking up any other JS resource that makes sense to me. I'm hoping that if I stick with it long enough and put in enough hours to learn that it will eventually click.

Jon Bascos
Jon Bascos
15,445 Points
Jon Bascos
Jon Bascos
15,445 Points

Oh man! I am feeling the same way. I thought I was doing well until I got to the arrays and loops. I think my problem is the syntax of how things are structured. Loops are still something I'm not too comfortable with yet either. I will be looking at other places as well. I look at the solutions to the challenges and sometimes I think "Oh yeah...why didn't I think of that?". But I'm still lost after that. Ugh!

Valeshan Naidoo
Valeshan Naidoo
27,008 Points
Valeshan Naidoo
Valeshan Naidoo
27,008 Points

If you find it difficult to understand a concept, don't give up on the language. Instead, try learning that concept from another source, they may be able to explain it better to you. I'd recommend maybe using codecademy in this instance. You can go directly to the concept that you have difficulty with, and learn from there. They give you a few examples to work with and very much step by step.

Gareth Davies
Gareth Davies
3,919 Points

thank you for the reply, I will try out the codecademy course to see how I do.

Joseph Wasden
Joseph Wasden
20,406 Points
Joseph Wasden
Joseph Wasden
20,406 Points

I learned Java first, then Javascript, and my experience with the this keyword in JS had me convinced it was one of the seven demons of coding hell. Things just didn't seem to make sense.

This may be too advanced, but if you've been through a bunch of JS videos, have some concepts down but don't really seem to get it, I would highly recommend the You don't know JS book series. It's free, and it can be a long, dense read, but it's written enjoyably and really gets to explaining the nuts and bolts of the language. Securing your understanding of the fundamentals will go a long way to grasping the ever-changing landscape of modern JS.

https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS

Gareth Davies
Gareth Davies
3,919 Points

thanks for the reply Joseph, I will look into the link.

Roald Jurrian Kamman
seal-mask
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Roald Jurrian Kamman
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 15,544 Points
Roald Jurrian Kamman
.a{fill-rule:evenodd;}techdegree seal-36
Roald Jurrian Kamman
Front End Web Development Techdegree Graduate 15,544 Points

I know the feeling. I finally got through loops arrays, objects etc. I thought I was finally getting a decent understanding of JS and now I'm working on callback functions where so many arguments are used and I realized I don't understand the first thing of how functions and arguments/parameters work together. https://teamtreehouse.com/community/i-still-dont-understand-how-arguments-work.

I kinda get the entire callback thing and the concept of synchronous vs asynchronous programming. But all the arguments and the way they're used there are looking like magic to me. I just spent hours reading blogs and documentation on it and I STILL DON'T GET IT.

At this point I wonder how many times I will feel like I understand things just to run into the next wall of incomprehensibility.