Matt Mullenweg to WordPress Community - “Learn JavaScript, Deeply”. Here are some resources for doing that.
A few weeks back, the WordPress community was abuzz when Automattic announced Calypso — the new WordPress admin interface build with Node and React.
This weekend Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress, spoke about JavaScript in his yearly keynote "The State of Word". In it, he gave the WordPress community homework — to Learn JavaScript, Deeply. To go out and make 2016 the year that you finally take those steps into getting comfortable with JavaScript.
https://youtu.be/KrZx4IY1IgU
To see Matt acknowledge this shift in the tech stack has me really excited and it confirms that JavaScript is exploding, and regardless of what you use to build your websites, JavaScript must be a major part of it.
Take Every Opportunity to really beef up your JavaScript Chops — Mall Mullenweg, Creator of WordPress
That said, I know there are many developers in the WordPress community who have been just getting by stringing together themes, jQuery plugins and Stack Overflow answers. There are many developers who feel burned, who feel it's too hard to learn or just something they can get by without. There will always be varying degrees of JavaScript involvement in your sites, but the one constant is that the types of sites and the interactive interfaces that you make with WordPress are happening more in the browser and are requiring some level of JavaScript knowledge to get going.
So — how do you learn JavaScript? My answer is always this: Build things, build things, build things!
And while this is a simple answer to give, and is one you will get from many experienced developers. It's frustrating to hear, because:
- You aren't sure what you should build — either from lack of ideas, or that you aren't 100% sure what you are capable of
- You need at least some fundamentals before you can get started!
My answer is still to find a project that you are excited about, and invested in and see it through to completion. Along the way you are going to need some resources that will help you out. I'm compiling a list of resources here. This will be a living list — if you have something that has helped you, or something you have created and would like it added, please leave a comment below and I'll get it added to the site.
Go forth and learn JavaScript. Will it be hard? Yes! Is everyone else smarter than you and maybe JS just isn't for you? No! JavaScript doesn't have a learning curve, it's more like learning mountains. It's hard, but push through it with nothing but hustle and repetition and you'll get it, trust me, I've seen this with hundreds of students at HackerYou.
Video
- My own React For Beginners video series is a great starter for anyone who is already comfortable working with jQuery or simple JavaScript. Use code WORDPRESS for $10 off.
- EggHead.io
- FunFunFunctional
- LevelUpTuts
- Treehouse
- FrontendMasters.com
- Safari
- Javascript: Understanding the Weird Parts
- Watch Me Code
In Person
These are pretty localized - so search in your local area for a coding school - most should have full time, evening and weekend classes.
Books
There are tons and tons of book roundups - here are a few:
- Eloquent JavaScript
- Speaking JS
- Exploring ES6
- JavaScript + jQuery
- JS Patterns
- You Don't Know JS
- JS Books
- Best Books AMA
Editor Based Code Alongs
Podcasts
Read Other people's code
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