If you are going to be a web developer you should learn, and never stop learning, the JavaScript programming language. And I don’t mean learn how to stitch together various JavaScript libraries and frameworks. I mean learn the actual language. Know what it can do, and how it does it. Aim to know how all of those other libraries and frameworks work under the hood. This investment will pay dividends for the rest of your career - it certainly has for mine.
JavaScript is like any other programming language, and like no other programming language. It is like all the others in that it has if’s, and for’s, and other typical things you would expect in a programming language. It is like no other in that it alone is the language that all browsers support - making it the defacto standard for web development.
The first thing you should know about JavaScript is that it is not technically named JavaScript. The language is actually named ECMAScript. Why it’s called JavaScript instead of ECMAScript is a long and interesting story about politics and marketing that took place during the 1990s, but what we tend to call JavaScript is technically ECMAScript. If you want to find out more about the history of JavaScript, you can start at Wikipedia, and then Google it from there.
The language itself is actually defined in a standard (ECMA-262), but is implemented on a case-by-case basis by those who use it. The standard is an evolving document that can be found on github at: https://github.com/tc39/ecma262.
The major browsers use the following implementations (called JavaScript engines) of that standard:
- Google Chrome: V8
- Mozilla Firefox: SpiderMonkey
- Safari: JavaScriptCore
- Microsoft Edge: V8
These “engines” all use the same ECMAScript standard, but they all write their own code to implement that standard, and so they each have their own bugs and quirks. If you ever want to know if the browsers you are targeting have implemented the standard for the features you want to use, you can easily check that on this site: https://caniuse.com.
Web development is not only about programming in JavaScript, though. You are going to be working with HTML and CSS too, so I recommend getting familiar with those standards as well.
If you are new to Web Development and need help learning the basics I recommend starting with the tutorials on the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN). MDN is also the first place I look when I have a question about how something works in JavaScript, HTML, or CSS. If you’re going to be a web developer, then the MDN should be one of your top bookmarks.
Yes, there is a lot to learn, but don’t worry about that. You don’t have to learn it all at once. Pick a simple project that you would be interested in building and try to learn just enough to build that project.
One of my favorite programs to write when I’m trying to learn a new programming language is to implement a Keyword Cipher. If you can’t think of anything else, give that a try!
And finally, I would recommend taking a balanced approach to learning. You can read books, and watch videos, but the thing that’s really going to turn you into a developer is writing code, so make a plan to practice coding for a given amount of time every day. If you need a little extra motivation, check out the 100 days of code challenge.
Good luck, and have fun!