Front-end developer skills in JS

JavaScript
1

I’m trying to position myself more into front-end development. Right now my skill set is more towards graphic design and html/css/php as well as Wordpress and Drupal work. I’m sorely lacking in the area of Javascript. What are the current Javascript needs when it comes to front-end development? What areas should I focus my studies? Thanks in advance.

2

That’s easy, just study the foundation of JavaScript first.
Like Even, BOM, DOM, OOP with JavaScript, closure, prototype, inheritance, polymorphism, Code Pattern, Design pattern etc…
Once you have a good grasp of those, then you can proceed to study, angular.js, jQuery, backbone.js etc…
Once you mastered JavaScript you can now call yourself JavaScript Engineer not just front end developer.

It’s a long way road out there.

Good luck!

3

Start by learning how to write modern JavaScript properly to at least an intermediate level. Then you can learn some JavaScript frameworks as solidcodes suggested - JQuery is really popular but many people using it don’t use it properly because they don’t know enough JavaScript.

Make sure that you avoid the “history of JavaScript” classes that make up over 90% of places claiming to teach JavaScript programming - they are teaching you how to write JavaScript primarily for Netscape 4 with just enough more modern things thrown to make it look like they are teaching JavaScript programming.

4

I appreciate that it’s quite early for this, but I’d recommend looking over this style guide as a good primer for how you should be writing JavaScript.

I’ve learned a number of tips on how I can improve my existing code, and working through some code with these examples in mind helps out a ton.

5

Yeah, that’s definitely me. I’ve probably used Jquery improperly. I came across Crockford (who I was not familiar with beforehand) and he only recommended one book, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide. Do you think that book will help me avoid what you mention above?

6

This thread might be worth a read where a similar question is discussed and resources suggested.

7

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide is an excellent reference to all the commands available in current and past versions of JavaScript (and the obsolete ones are clearly identified) . It also has one chapter (some 60+ pages) on JQuery that is presented far enough into the book that if you know everything mentioned prior to that you know enough to use JQuery properly.

Another good book that talks about the parts of JavaScript that you should avoid using is JavaScript - The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford.

I have written reviews of quite a few JavaScript books - see http://www.felgall.com/net3n.htm

8

Thanks for all the responses. I’m certainly still trying to improve my front-end development work.