Slashdot Mirror
How Much JavaScript Do You Need To Know For an Entry-Level Job?
Nerval's Lobster writes: JavaScript is a programming language that's easy to pick up, but extremely difficult to master. Even some of its beginner-level functions are decidedly not beginner-friendly. When someone lands their first JavaScript job, they're going to want to know as much as possible, if only so they can navigate through some of the language's trickier aspects without needing to ask for help. Developer Jeff Cogswell picked through JavaScript and came away with a couple of lists of what he thought were the minimum baseline of skills for JavaScript use in a work context. That list included understanding how to use built-in objects, functions , closures, and DOM (Document Object Model). While his points are comprehensive, not everyone will necessarily agree with what he lists (and doesn't list).
Most of my career has been bumbling along doing systems programming in c, perl, python, and lately c# writing a lot of console apps/utilities. Unfortunately, everyone now wants web developers and the like, so I find myself in the unenviable position of playing "catch up" and facing the possibility of having to return to a jr. role due to "lack of experience", but I'm not so proud to do these things if it gives me a steady paycheck with room for advancement... I digress...
I'm going through Eloquent Javascript at the moment with a look towards the SImpson "You don't know" series to get a little more in-depth in some of the areas that I see people having issues with.. followed by working with node and angular (basically, the MEAN stack). I don't know where this would put me vs "beginners", but it's the route I'm headed down.. :P
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
I wholeheartedly agree.
1) You mostly do not want to manipulate the dom directly. Use templates/css to do as much as possible (so your designer has the freedom to fiddle with it).
2) List most object based languages, you do not want to actually focus on creating/extending a bunch of objects.
Your goal is to map the data from the server (most likely JSON) into something the View can use (most likely related to your choice of template technology).
Since you likely have multiple views using the same data, you may need to store it in a model to be handed to each of them or transformed on demand.
So know JSON. Know data structures, (arrays, objects, maps, sets). Know how to bind functions. Understand scoping. Then know how to hook into templates.
Also, for the sake of anyone who may work with your code in the future, learn a unit test framework. Use it. Understand the difference between unit and system tests and favor unit tests.
You just need to read [JavaScript: The Definitive Guide].
Read it cover to cover a couple times
Why not just read the good parts? Bonus: knowing the good parts of JavaScript may help you tame the fractal that is PHP as well.