Getting Started with JavaScript

JavaScript went from being a scripting language that was used to open a popup when you click on a button, to a language used to open a weird popup when you click on a button. The language was powerful from the beginning but was never truly seen as such.

Something changed today but it wasn't the language itself. It's the attitude of the developers.

JavaScript was synonymous to script kiddie, the irony being that script kiddies did not have much use for it. If you were to try to learn it today it will be a journey filled with emotions. It will be an easy process because John Resig blessed us with jQuery (that's a good and a bad thing). It will be a hard process because you will have no idea what angularjs or backbonejs does in the back end.

This battle of emotions is perfectly normal, it is the culture that you integrate when you learn JavaScript, and like any other language JavaScript has its very own culture. You will encounter the same people that rejected the language all together in the past, now writing blog post on how amazing it is. Beware, these are the same people authoring the likes of coffeescript because they never fully accepted JavaScript in their heart.

Very late in my journey, I decided to read JavaScript the Good Parts, by Douglas Crockford. It is a small book, very easy to read, that should be worn out by anyone serious about JavaScript. It won't make complete sense if you read it as a beginner, but it wouldn't hurt. But having a few years experience, this book completely changed my perspective. I have seen some of this information scattered all over the web before and I am glad to have found the source that is even richer in information.

Today, large applications are built using JavaScript, both in the back end and on the client. We have to be familiar with JavaScript at the very least because it is the language of the web.

Here I will attempt to share everything I learned about this interesting language. May it be a little trick or tip, as long I think someone else can benefit from it.

Welcome to JavaScript.