Learning JavaScript (Premium)

I spend a lot of time exploring programming languages. This year, I'm focusing on JavaScript, the language used to create web apps.

JavaScript is controversial for a variety of reasons---it's loosely-typed, for starters, for the developers in the audience---but there's no real avoiding it. Regardless, I feel like JavaScript is about as easy to learn as any programming language can be. And since it's truly universal, you don't need special tools---or a special/expensive kind of computer---to learn the language. In fact, all you need to get started is a web browser. So you could even do this on Chromebook.

While there are all kinds of developer training resources for virtually any programming languages, JavaScript is particularly well-served. Which is actually kind of a problem, frankly. It's hard to know where to start. And while the resources I've settled on may or may not be the best for you, I can at least point you to the ones that I find to be useful. And am using personally. They are...
Intro to JavaScript
Udacity offers a short and free video learning series called Intro to JavaScript that is worth examining. It says you need two weeks to finish it, but I blew through it in just a few days. And if want to keep going, you can jump into the (paid) Front-End Web Developer nanodegree program too.
Practical JavaScript
Gordon Zhu's Practical JavaScript is a free an amazingly detailed video series and is ideal for beginners. I'm about 40 percent of the way through the course now, and it runs the gamut from JavaScript basics (variables, functions, arrays) to more advanced topics like objects and debugging. Well worth your time.
You Don't Know JS
Aimed at more experienced developers and also available in real book form, You Don't Know JS is free on the web. It's a series of six books that takes you through some of the more advanced and least-understood aspects of the language. I'm still slowly working through the first book, Up & Going, but it looks amazing.
Learn JavaScript Today
Zell Liew is a designer, developer, speaker, and writer from Singapore who offers a paid course called Learn JavaScript Today. It looks amazing, but the next course won't open until July 2018. So sign up for his email newsletter, which provides a daily jolt of JavaScript learning that is shocking in its depth and comprehensiveness. It's a great resource even if you don't take the course.

Looking ahead, my goal is to move ahead to Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), which may require me learning one or more JavaScript frameworks/toolkits too. But that's for the next stage. For now, I spend at least 30-60 minutes each day learning JavaScript, these days with Practical JavaScript.

I may write a bit more about this, perhaps when I move on to the next phase. And I'm still considering bringing some of the examples my classic programming books forward into the modern era, if only to see what has changed and what hasn't.

If you are also learning JavaSc...

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