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I definitely agree that there are a ton more JavaScript users now, compared to 4 years ago - I disagree that they're more competent, it's a pretty massive bell

by jeresig 14y ago

I definitely agree that there are a ton more JavaScript users now, compared to 4 years ago - I disagree that they're more competent, it's a pretty massive bell curve. The tech bubble can be pretty insular here at Hacker News but I still run across TONS of people who've never 1) Used any JavaScript whatsoever or 2) Have used a JavaScript library but have no concept of how it relates to JavaScript, the DOM, or what the library does under the hood. The book attempts to serve #2 primarily and that's still a MASSIVE audience. As to being involved in the JavaScript world, my focus has shifted - I'm no longer trying to build tools for people who already have tools, I'm trying to teach the next generation of developers and JavaScript users: http://ejohn.org/blog/introducing-khan-cs/ http://ejohn.org/blog/introducing-khan-cs/ I also feel extremely confident that the technical work that I've done with the Khan Academy CS platform continues to be unlike anything else done by other development platforms.

ddon 14y ago
Thank you for your Computer Science work on Khan Academy! I tech my kids using your system for several months now, and I am very happy! :) Would be great to be able to change the rendering size from 400x400 to something bigger, may be even having a splitter in the middle, and deciding how much you want to use for the editor and for the program :) Happy New Year!
k3n 14y ago
Aye, perhaps it's my perception then, because I've been seeing lots of awesome code out there recently. There used to be a few exciting JS projects, though many of them were redundant in some ways, and they were still fairly basic by today's standards. Today, though, it seems like a fun new project pops up monthly. I won't argue that there isn't still a ton of education that needs to happen! I've been battling this at work, as few candidates have much JS experience at all (I think all of the good ones are involved in the hot projects). I'd also concede that educating future coders is possibly not only more important, but more fulfilling. I've been following your blog for awhile, and though I do miss the geeky JS topics such as the precision (or lack thereof) of setInterval/setTimeout, how great documentFragment's are, etc. I've also enjoyed the posts about Kahn.
- bwship 14y ago
  I agree, I used to get excited about just jquery plugins. But noe using node.js and ember.js makes me almost not want to code in anything else. (Except for objective-c for ios and java for android) It is just amazing to see how much it has exploded in the last few years. Serverside js and client side mvc will keep me excited at least for another year.
- jeresig 14y ago
  I think it's an issue of there being a bell curve on all the JavaScript users. If we assume that 80% of JS users are in the "use a library and know very little of the language" category and the top 10% is "publishes libraries/tools" and the bottom 10% is "copies-and-pastes code with reckless abandon" - then going from 1 million JS users in 2008 to 4 million now (theoretical) then there will be 4x more awesome libraries and 4x more ignorant users. Thank you for the kind works regarding my blog - I really hope to begin writing again. Perhaps that'll make for a good new years resolution :)
- reybango 14y ago
  Definitely more awesome code out there but I think you're seeing that from a VERY vocal minority of developers who are 1) very vested in the OSS community, 2) love to share code and 3) are pushing to get the most out of JavaScript. As I think John eluded to, there's a number of developers that don't fall into any of these buckets and a book like this would certainly be useful to them. I was with John on the jQuery team and I know that I'll be picking up a copy of this since I'm sure I'll find some nugget of awesomeness in there that will make it worth the price.

by jeresig 14y ago

ddon 14y ago

Thank you for your Computer Science work on Khan Academy! I tech my kids using your system for several months now, and I am very happy! :) Would be great to be able to change the rendering size from 400x400 to something bigger, may be even having a splitter in the middle, and deciding how much you want to use for the editor and for the program :) Happy New Year!

k3n 14y ago

Aye, perhaps it's my perception then, because I've been seeing lots of awesome code out there recently. There used to be a few exciting JS projects, though many of them were redundant in some ways, and they were still fairly basic by today's standards. Today, though, it seems like a fun new project pops up monthly. I won't argue that there isn't still a ton of education that needs to happen! I've been battling this at work, as few candidates have much JS experience at all (I think all of the good ones are involved in the hot projects). I'd also concede that educating future coders is possibly not only more important, but more fulfilling. I've been following your blog for awhile, and though I do miss the geeky JS topics such as the precision (or lack thereof) of setInterval/setTimeout, how great documentFragment's are, etc. I've also enjoyed the posts about Kahn.

bwship 14y ago
I agree, I used to get excited about just jquery plugins. But noe using node.js and ember.js makes me almost not want to code in anything else. (Except for objective-c for ios and java for android) It is just amazing to see how much it has exploded in the last few years. Serverside js and client side mvc will keep me excited at least for another year.
jeresig 14y ago
I think it's an issue of there being a bell curve on all the JavaScript users. If we assume that 80% of JS users are in the "use a library and know very little of the language" category and the top 10% is "publishes libraries/tools" and the bottom 10% is "copies-and-pastes code with reckless abandon" - then going from 1 million JS users in 2008 to 4 million now (theoretical) then there will be 4x more awesome libraries and 4x more ignorant users. Thank you for the kind works regarding my blog - I really hope to begin writing again. Perhaps that'll make for a good new years resolution :)
reybango 14y ago
Definitely more awesome code out there but I think you're seeing that from a VERY vocal minority of developers who are 1) very vested in the OSS community, 2) love to share code and 3) are pushing to get the most out of JavaScript. As I think John eluded to, there's a number of developers that don't fall into any of these buckets and a book like this would certainly be useful to them. I was with John on the jQuery team and I know that I'll be picking up a copy of this since I'm sure I'll find some nugget of awesomeness in there that will make it worth the price.