Javascript Learning Resources

Javascript
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Howdy All,
I just posted a similar request for help in the CSS sub-forum asking for help in rounding up decent learning resources for CSS and so I am here to post this request for decent learning resources for javascript. I don’t know $#1@ from Shinola about javascript, but I have had Turbo Pascal, Assembler, and C programming experience in the distant past. I’m looking for javascript primarily as it pertains to Bootstrap, I figure at least, so as to get up to speed. At some point I will want to likely look at taking some of the Wordpress php plugins that I was using and replicating their duties on my website as javascript. If possible, I’d like to be able to program an entire website including search functionality that will run in a web browser without a web server so I can just zip up the website and share the whole enchilada with people that way. As you can tell by my profile photo, I’m over the drinking age so please don’t hold back on suggestions.

Thank you,
Michael

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I posted in your other thread the CSS and Javascript courses I recommend, I have gone through a lot and they are the best for paid courses I can recommend. I also gave you a few Youtube channels for free tutorials and brief tips and tricks but they don’t teach all you need to know, which is why I recommend paid courses. Saves tons of time, seriously.

For your need for Javascript related to bootstrap. I would recommend against trying to learn bits and pieces to try to fit in with what you want just for the immediate project. You will not understand a lot of things and will hit your head against the wall due to lack of understanding. Javascript really isn’t something that you can learn bit by bit you must have the basic foundational knowledge in the first place.

There is no such thing as Javascript only for X. There is Javascript and either you know it or you don’t.
If you sort of know it and try to create something you are going to create a bunch of crap that sort of works but you don’t know why.

If you are going to do anything with porting or recreating something like wordpress plugins for a non-wordpress site… You are going to need to know at least moderate level Javascript. The courses I recommended in the other thread gets you to Advanced in about 3 or 4 days if you are dedicated 100% of your time to learning.

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You are going to need to know PHP which is a backend server side language and does not run in the browser like Javascript. For that you WILL need a server and probably a MySql or similar database.

You can create a static site with some dynamic features like search but for that you must use some sort of flat file database of some sort. Either your own via JSON or XML flat file or one of the noSQL or other flat file databases out there.

You can use a server and provide all the files and export a SQL file to upload to the server to propagate the database and tables for the user. You will have much more ability and features you can code this way.

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It is good that you have some prior programming knowledge. Understanding proper computer science logic and laying out programs helps tremendously. Knowing at least one programming language will really help in learning others. C specifically will allow you to understand most of the C based languages like Javascript and PHP far better from the get go but is not required.

None of the languages you mentioned in your OP has anything to do with the internet or creating web apps so take that stuff and file it away some where. They will just get in your way. Though with that said you will see similarities between the various languages you know and the ones you want to learn, the problem that may come up is that you know how to code THAT way which is NOT the same as what you want to be able to do. Some relearning may come into play, especially if you have bad habits from the past.

Need to add that there are multiple versions of Javascript and the basic version or Javascript ES5 is the starting point. You must have the foundational basic knowledge first THEN you need to learn the ES6 version of Javascript. Especially if you want to use Node.js.

Javascript goes up beyond ES20 or some such but the one you need is ES6 and you can optionaly add-on ES7 to ES9 but most of those features are not readily available in most browsers yet.

Javascript ES6 moves you into OOP and using Classes and modern day programming fundamentals.
Yes, Javascript now has classes and most common features of 21st century programming languages.

PHP is also fully OOP so if you do not know how to code in OOP then you will be learning that too.
For PHP the defacto current version is 7.1 to 7.2 though 7.4 is out now you won’t be really using that in real every day yet. If you learn PHP 5 there really isn’t much difference between that and 7, just use the manual which you can download, and look at the difference in functions you want to use. Most that work in 5 work in 7 though there are some that only exist for 7 and replace older functions in PHP 5. Mainly specific to password generation and retrieval though most everything else works either the same or similar with minor differences.

I hope these posts I shared help. I don’t have anything more I can add.

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Thanks for the tip on ditching bad habits. It’s been a while, so my habits are pretty much ditched. I still remember how the logic works, how variables are set up, what kinds of variables I can use, etc… Probably just enough to serve as a decent foundation without getting into my way.

I remember when OOP was just being introduced into programming and I got into it a bit with some C++ but I’d be hard-pressed to say that I remember much of it. It’s not too hard for me to pick up some php or javascript code and follow along with zero training in the language, but I would like to get a correct education so that I’m not working from mis-beliefs and misunderstandings as my foundation.

You are very kind, @Terry44, to have taken all of the time and care to help me out and I do appreciate it a lot. What you have shared has helped me a bunch. I’m going to go make that account over at stackoverflow that both you and @Printninja indicated that I needed to get a handle on. Thanks again!

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Stack Overflow is probably the best resource on the web for coders. I’ve found dozens and dozens of solutions to problems there.

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@Printninja - Copy that! I’ll be headed over to make an account just as soon as dinner is done. Getting old kind of stinks as you make plans for the day and then your meds say that it’s nap time.

:rofl:

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" I’m looking for javascript primarily as it pertains to Bootstrap, I figure at least, so as to get up to speed. At some point I will want to likely look at taking some of the Wordpress php plugins that I was using and replicating their duties on my website as javascript."

Look at:


https://www.w3schools.com/js/default.asp

I use a product called mdbootstrap (mdbootstrap.com) which comes in an open source version and a paid version. They have a lot of good javascript tutorials for mdbootstrap which is just bootstrap with a lot of CSS to make it look a lot better than standard bootstrap.

Also don’t forget that alot of bootstrap depends on jquery. https://jquery.com

hope that helps

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My recommendations for anyone beginning to learn js in order:

A smarter way to learn javascript book (you wont be a an expert after it but will drive home the basics)

Freecode camp js course

Eloquent js book - free and generally essential reading

… You should have a good understanding of the syntax after these…

Watchandcode.com - take the free one and then do the premium one, its still the best js course out there and not like anything else. Will help you develop a good mindset and approach, different as you will learn to “read js” and how to best approach and debug any js problem and not just learn a ton of new syntax.

… You will be able to read mdn docs and understand how to approach Javascript programming in the best possible way.

Team treehouse js track - may not need it after above but will help drive home what you learned so far.

Advancing :
Javascript the good parts book

You dont know javascript books

Recommedations: dont bother with frameworks, react, jquery, vue etc, tools, or anything related until you have a good understanding of js

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Howdy @benhanna!

Thank you very much for the thoughtful and comprehensive plan of attack to learn javascript correctly and effectively. I’m taking your points to heart.

I already had the Smarter Way To Learn Javascript book in Amazon Kindle format and am signed up at freecode camp. After reading your post I picked up the Eloquent JavaScript book in Kindle format. I have an account at Packt Publishing for $99 a year for all of their books and courses which I plan on taking the javascript portions of and will venture out to take a look at watchandcode.com. I’m quite familiar with the Microsoft Developer Network from my past work in C, C++, and Assembler under Windows but it has been a long time since I’ve passed through the place. Hopefully, they have put a coat of paint on the place and new carpet to spruce up the look and feel. I’ll keep in mind the Team Treehouse JS track. I’d like to be proficient and I’m fighting against old age and the meds that modern doctors feed patients instead of healing them, so there’s that. I also picked up Kindle copies of Javascript The Good Parts and all of the You Don’t Know JS books. I find the title to be very clever and to fit the sensibilities of the type of people that I grew up amongst and are still a part of. .

Thanks again for the comprehensive and thoughtful listing. It cost me a few bucks already today. :slight_smile:

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I commend you for taking on this challenge Miles. The last actually programming language I learned soup to nuts was BASIC (hahaha.)

I’ve build many dozens of websites containing javascript elements in them by simply copying and pasting snippets. Looking at the code, I can sort of get the gist of what’s going on, but because I don’t know the syntax, I’m at the mercy of the person who wrote the snippet. On one or two occasions I did manage to write an extremely short snippet of my own, basically by following some instructions of WC3 schools to the letter, but I really don’t understand the language. And yet I can still use it to do things I need on website. I suppose it’s akin to a person being able to drive and shift a car without really understand how a transmission works (although that I DO understand!)

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@Printninja - It is interesting. I still have my PowerBASIC Compiler for Windows on an old laptop in the closet. You could write very small Windows apps with that tool.

I remember the day that I went down to get my driver’s license. My Dad had traded in his Ford F-100 with the automatic transmission in on one of those new mini-pickups the day before and this one had a 4-speed manual transmission. I already had a date for the Prom, which was 50 miles down the road. Without that dirt-bike practice under my belt I would have probably melted, but everything went great. :slight_smile:

My motivation stems from wanting to learn something well. There are other things in my life that I’d like to learn well, but I cannot or get shot down over but javascript is something that I can do.

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The beauty of life is that there are an endless number of cool things to learn. It boggles my mind how people can claim to be “bored” or spend their evening planted on the couch or on a bar stool when they could be reading a book, or painting, or coding, or learning an instrument, or taking karate classes, or countless other things.

I’m going to keep filling up this brain of mine until the day I die.

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Or looking after horses… and sick horses… and get shafted by a local horse sanctuary which is deceiving people and scamming them out of money as they infect and nearly kill some of the horses that come to their sanctuary!

Yep ,this is what has swamped my mind as of late :slight_smile:
I now live on farm in my camper van!
Ive been here for about 5 weeks now, caring for my horse that nearly died!

but!
I shall be webbing again shortly!

http://wagonwebdesign.com

will be lifting the lid on the whole thing and hopefully blowing them out of the water and getting them seen too.

…feel free to rip my design and content apart as you see fit.

So, I need to learn Javascript too… tried many times.
…feebly.
So now, maybe tis time for wagon web design to actually happen>
I wanted to wander about with a horse drawn live in wagon and create web sites.
Seemed like a dream.
HA!

Now I have 2 horses… holy cow… we’ll…horses…yes, holy horses :smiley:
I will try some of this advice here too, along with whatever JS courses I have bought online over the years and never started!>
but its hot and sunny and…really HOT here. I Look a this screen,
I fall over and sleep!
then, tis time to feed the horses again :slight_smile:I will get home to my house …sometime…

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Thank you @BenHanna for your recommendation of the WatchAndCode javascript course.

It was superbly helpful in making sense of javascript.

After having tried several other “basic” javascript courses (MDN, W3Schools, web searches trying to understand javascript methodologies) I was always left completely flummoxed by the concepts. I could make no sense out of it. Many times I would give up and say, screw it, I’ll never learn this. Even after taking these tutorials, Javascript seemed to me to consist of only two things: 1. Type a bunch of gobbledegook code, and 2. Something happens. But WHAT code to use? I couldn’t pull it together. I was lost in a fog of buzzwords. It was just mystifying.

WatchAndCode changed that. I just finished the free “starter” course (last night!) and now feel that I can at least look at javascript code and have an understanding of what’s going on. You were right, @benhanna, that this course is different from other javascript courses. It took me through basics (without the buzzwords), and with time (took me nearly a month) and lots of effort, understanding came.

I think this course was helpful, BECAUSE I had taken the other courses first. Because I struggled with them (they tried to teach me stuff, but the concepts, the “whys” of javascript didn’t come through for me), I truly appreciated the unique learning method in WAC. It made me go “Aha!” each time I came across an explanation in WatchAndCode of something previously mystifying.

Where I’m at: I bought Pinegrow several months ago to replace Dreamweaver, and quickly realized that I needed a better understanding of code to be able to use PG effectively. So I did a ton of tutorials. Html and CSS came easily for two reasons: 1. I had learned them ten years ago when I last built a website. And 2. They mostly make sense to me, as they are description languages that cover concepts that I learned during a 20-year graphic arts career. It was easy to make the jump.

But javascript was another animal indeed. It’s programming-based code. Not a world I grew up in. So I was in a constant state of confusion while learning them. Very little made sense, right off the bat. But WatchAndCode helped immensely. Now I feel I’m getting somewhere with javascript. I’m not an expert (probably never will be), but now I’m at least to the point where I can do what @PrintNinja says: Copy javascript code snippets and have some familiarity with what they are doing.

So, long way to say: Thanks! @benhanna for a great recommendation.

Now I can get back to learning Pinegrow.

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