JavaScript is relatable
JavaScript fatigue real because JavaScript is relatable. That's why so much is happening with it! I remember this always. I hope others do too. JavaScript has become the most used programming language because it is relatable! It was written in a week and delivered to a browser as a prototype. It is often looked down on. Despite its status, it is used everywhere for many different things. JavaScript is a programming language that can be understood in sentiment, starting out, and in very complex applications because it is relatable.
JavaScript is scrappy
JavaScript is scrappy and it has been for most of its life span so far. It was a final piece of code to make that thing do that thing on a web page. It was the feeling of web pages. It was hacky. For that, logical thinking tended towards despised it and creative thinking tended towards fascination, 'How can this pile of legos became a castle?'.
JS write code in your chrome browser console
// crack open your console (on a mac)
// cmd + opt + j
alert('You are writing JavaScript')
JS write a bookmarklet to do stuff in your chrome browser
// open your bookmark manager (on a mac 💻)
// opt + cmd + b
// copy/paste the code snippet below into a new bookmark
javascript: alert('You are writing JavaScript')
// click the new bookmark on any page
JavaScript has a low level of entry
JavaScript, when learning about computers goes right along with learning HTML
and CSS
. It can still be added right to web pages within a <script>
tag. It is easy to read about all of the other things—tooling and frameworks and feel like those things need to create a valid web page, but they're not. This is such a cool thing. With just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript—which is what generally people view all computer information on inspiring technology can be made.
JS do some inline scripting stuff
<body>
<script>
alert('You are writing JavaScript')
</script>
</body>
JavaScript is for anything
Now that JavaScript is established and something that is easy to get started with, why does the barrier to entry seem so high? JavaScript seems to have a high barrier to entry because of what people are doing with it currently. Currently, JavaScript is used for everything—even HTML and CSS. This means that when JavaScript is compiled into HTML and CSS. When JavaScript is used for everything, it is a lot more complex.
JavaScript has the ability to be used for everything does not mean that great things can't be built using JavaScript in a lot of different ways. This is a very important thing to note, understand and remember.
JS do some server stuff
# crack open a shell (on a mac )
# lines below assumes homebrew is not installed and neither is node
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)" &&
brew install node
# make 'dat app
mkdir code/express-thing &&
cd code/express-thing &&
npm i express --save-dev &&
npm init -f &&
echo 'const express=require("express"),app=express();app.get("/",function(e,p){p.send("Hello World!")}),app.listen(3e3,function(){console.log("Example app listening on port 3000!")});' > app.js &&
node app.js
There can be many types of JavaScript Experts
There can be many types of JavaScript Experts. This is not discussed a lot. Going through, JavaScript30 recently, it became immediately clear that JavaScript's APIs are large and growing. Some people may deal with the Adio API every day and never think much about whole other areas of the language.
Other people may do amazing things with CSS-in-JS. Understanding the reflow of styling properties and the way CSS describes layouts is very important to the way a web page is perceived. Have a deep understanding of this can make a huge difference—especially with the simplest of interfaces.
There are many types of JavaScript Experts and many things to learn about within JavaScript because it is relatable. This is very important to understand when trying to understand engineering teams and application architecture generally.
JavaScript is what it is because it is relatable
JavaScript can seem overwhelming because it has so many buckets and can teach so much. This bucketing is not good emotional, but JavaScript is relatable. Find a way to make JavaScript work for you and it will. Remember the way that it works for you and feel comfortable in that—to appreciate it, learn and teach.