

Why You Need to Learn JavaScript - mwbiz
http://www.w2lessons.com/2011/01/why-you-need-to-learn-javascript.html

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gibsonf1
Why not take a functional approach with JS as opposed to OO?

I do agree with the article in the importance of learning javaScript though as
I'm in the midst of a few thousand lines of js (using backbone.js) to bring
real power to the browser side (with a Lisp backend).

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prateekdayal
Sorry if this is off topic but how has been your experience with backbone.js.
There is some information out there but no first hand account of building a
large app with it.

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gibsonf1
Backbone is working really well so far, an impressive framework.

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EliRivers
Would this be better labelled "Why web programmers need to learn JavaScript"?
An awful lot of programmers will never need to touch any JavaScript.

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silentbicycle
Context: It's an a a blog called "Web 2.0 Development and Business Lessons".

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inetsee
Does anyone else find small light-grey text against a slightly darker grey
background extremely hard to read? I'm guessing there may be some useful
information in there somewhere, but I just can't see it (literally).

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mwbiz
Thanks for the feedback. I have adjusted the colors to make it more readable,
please let me know you still have trouble reading it.

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wyclif
Much more readable now.

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mwbiz
Perfect, the feedback is much appreciated.

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ganjianwei
"After all, you wouldn't want to jump into Scala without learning Java first."
Anyone have any opinions on this? I've never learned Scala but I didn't think
Dojo : JavaScript as Scala : Java.

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geekfactor
I don't think that is implied in the article, so much as the fact(?) that
fully understanding one requires a healthy understanding of the other.

Question mark b/c I don't know Scala, but as it is a JVM language my guess is
that you would need to know a bit about Java and the JVM to really grok it.

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ajl2011
this is the sad truth.

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byteclub
I'll argue that not everything about this is "sad". Knowing JavaScript opens
new opportunities when it comes to the kinds of products you can develop and
kinds of audiences you can reach. You don't have to look at it as a burden. JS
might not have the best design, but it's not horrible, either. It's just a
tool, and it's up to you how to use it.

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kls
I agree with this and the Article, I was a front-end guy who became a good
back-end guy, who spotted the opportunity early on for serious development
work to be done back on the front end. There are not a lot of really good
language guys over on the front end as the article implies, but I think that
will change with time.

Just 2 years ago the whole thing was in flux, was Flash or Silverlight going
to take the interactive web crown? Was a backend focused toolkit like GWT
going to save the day and keep the developers on the back end? I would say
that the score was not settled until as late as mid last year.

Around the time that jQuery was crowned king. Their is no doubt now where web
development is heading, disconnected browser apps communicating to the server
via REST and JSON. (can I take a moment to tell all the haters, I told you
so). All kidding aside, now it just remains to be decided what the traditional
pieces of that client stack are.

Dojo offers a compelling and robust toolkit, that I personally like very much
and recommend to people doing large apps in the browser. Then there is jQuery,
the juggernaut, with something like 40% of the mindshare it hard to not
declare jQuery the winner and move on.

The problem is for large application jQuery on it's own falls down miserably.
It has to be paired with the likes of backbone.js and underscore.js to provide
any basis for large app development and even then it is still a little more
spartan to develop with the jQuery/backbone stack than it is Dojo.

While it is very easy to just call the game for jQuery, Dojo provide a scrappy
underdog and a dark horse in this race. The point is, once "the one" toolkit
is decided I think you will see more developer migrate over, and I think
jQuery's dominance is starting to become that transition point. Making them
feel comfortable about what they are investing their learning time in. This is
an area where developers cant afford too many missteps and false starts in, if
one wants to remain marketable they must choose the technologies that offer
the greatest prospects, until recently that was not very clear on the client
side.

For me, as of now, I keep one foot on each side of the fence until the
dominate framework of the client side emerges. I think Dojo still has a long
shot in this as people come over and realize that Dojo is the most robust
toolkit available.

