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Slight tangent, but if someone were getting started in JS today and wanted to build medium-complexity, async-heavy, web apps with decent-sized backend, what sta

Slight tangent, but if someone were getting started in JS today and wanted to build medium-complexity, async-heavy, web apps with decent-sized backend, what stack should he invest his time on? React, angular, node, elm, express, etc? Let's assume he wants the skills/tools to still be relevant in 1-2 years time in a sizable percentage of the job market (noticed that many startups don't like people with web experience that isn't in React/Angular/Node).

ggregoire 10y ago
You can't go wrong picking React. To get started, install the official create-react-app [1], follow Facebook's tutorial [2] and that's it. [1] https://github.com/facebookincubator/create-react-app https://github.com/facebookincubator/create-react-app [2] https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/tutorial.html https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/tutorial.html
Zyst 10y ago
Opinion based, yada yada: React if they want to join startups or similar cutting edge companies. Node if they want to do server work. Angular 1.x if they want to go into consulting. While the JavaScript ecosystem does move insanely fast a lot of consulting companies need to have people with similar skill levels in a framework/etc. Which means you can't just switch frameworks every year (You can, however, create smaller teams with new technologies, so if a few of the guys learned React you can just make a React team with them as a base. A big misconception I've seen is that a lot of JavaScript stuff disappears after a couple of years, while in reality a lot of Consulting companies are still recruiting people for jQuery positions (In my country, might be different in the US). Sure, the new startups who are using all the newest coolness maybe won't touch jQuery and similar technologies with a 10 foot pole. That doesn't mean those technologies disappear. It depends on your goals as a person. Personally I enjoy chasing the newest thing, learning is fun. Maybe when I become more jaded at re-learning stuff every year I'll move from that kind of ecosystem. All in all, the advice I wish I could've told myself years ago is to invest a bit less time learning frameworks in depth and a bit more time learning JavaScript. JavaScript has a lot of pitfalls, but if you learn to navigate around those you are left with a very fun and powerful language. And most importantly, that knowledge is still gonna be relevant 3 years from now even if you are switching frameworks.

ggregoire 10y ago

You can't go wrong picking React. To get started, install the official create-react-app [1], follow Facebook's tutorial [2] and that's it. [1] https://github.com/facebookincubator/create-react-app https://github.com/facebookincubator/create-react-app [2] https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/tutorial.html https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/tutorial.html

Zyst 10y ago

Opinion based, yada yada: React if they want to join startups or similar cutting edge companies. Node if they want to do server work. Angular 1.x if they want to go into consulting. While the JavaScript ecosystem does move insanely fast a lot of consulting companies need to have people with similar skill levels in a framework/etc. Which means you can't just switch frameworks every year (You can, however, create smaller teams with new technologies, so if a few of the guys learned React you can just make a React team with them as a base. A big misconception I've seen is that a lot of JavaScript stuff disappears after a couple of years, while in reality a lot of Consulting companies are still recruiting people for jQuery positions (In my country, might be different in the US). Sure, the new startups who are using all the newest coolness maybe won't touch jQuery and similar technologies with a 10 foot pole. That doesn't mean those technologies disappear. It depends on your goals as a person. Personally I enjoy chasing the newest thing, learning is fun. Maybe when I become more jaded at re-learning stuff every year I'll move from that kind of ecosystem. All in all, the advice I wish I could've told myself years ago is to invest a bit less time learning frameworks in depth and a bit more time learning JavaScript. JavaScript has a lot of pitfalls, but if you learn to navigate around those you are left with a very fun and powerful language. And most importantly, that knowledge is still gonna be relevant 3 years from now even if you are switching frameworks.