JavaScript has come along way since its inception in the 90's. It started out as a simple way to make websites more interactive. Still though the best approach to learning JavaScript is from the ground up.
This blog post is not for seasoned programmers who already have learnt other languages it is for people new to programming and have specifically decided to pursue web development.
Where to start when learning JavaScript ?
JavaScript is the language of the web but in the land of the web nothing comes up unless it's marked up. Hyper Text Mark up Language or HTML is the web layout, structure and markup. A deep dive into HTML is not required but at least a familiarity with HTML; tags, elements, attributes and syntax is necessary.
When should you switch to JavaScript frameworks ?
JQuery
While jquery is not used at enterprise level applications anymore, it's less verbose syntax than vanilla javascript, it has very little boilerplate compared to the larger frameworks and the ajax function actually make jQuery a powerful tool for beginners in familiarising with the capabilities of javascript. Additionally it handles a lot of animations and the use of the css selectors as variable names makes for a nice workflow for beginners. So I would say any beginner could jump straight into learning jQuery.
Node.js
Strictly speaking Node.js is not a framework but a run time environment. The npm package manager is the largest library of ready made libraries of frameworks in the world. So in this manner Node.js is an environment for developers to access many libraries and frameworks. To learn node a developer would need to already have experience with making api requests from the front end. Know the difference between server side rendering and client side rendering. Then understanding the request, response loop and the http protocol is going to be more intuitive.
React, Angular and Vue
I am going to group these large frameworks together because they are a different (JavaScript based) approach to solving the same problem, building user interfaces for interacting with complicated back ends where the user interface is building constantly updated in real time. There's nothing wrong with an early introduction to the syntax or the file structure of these applications but to really be able to use them to a very thorough understanding of JavaScript event loop and asynchronous programming is necessary. There is no short cut to becoming proficient in these frameworks, there's a lot of boilerplate and convention which can make barrier to entry difficult. It is for this reason that developers should continually be reinforcing their foundations in JavaScript while looking for new methods of solving problems.
Day 1 of learning JavaScript for the complete novice.
Manipulating the DOM!
So back in the 1990's when JavaScript was first envisioned it was a method for manipulating the DOM and even today 30's year later that's still the case. Here's a simple example of how to get started.
You Tube Video Here((youtu.be/2Co09elpXw8)