An education in Javascript
I started hacking javascript back in the spring of 1999 when I took a class on web design and started making dynamic web pages. I had previous programming experience was in qbasic and pascal, but I didn’t make the connection that I was actually programming when I used javascript because the language was so hackish as things worked in a seemingly random way. I later went on to learn java, c, python, php, ocaml, etc… but I never thought much about javascript as I had abandoned the web when I began “real” programming. I hacked some javascript together here and there whenever I had a webpage that needed some dynamic feature, but I thought that my javascript days were behind me…. My life as a programmer changed back in 2006 when I was working at 21st century insurance and was assigned to update a web site that was used internally to determine the status of a few insurance quote servers. I built the site ahead of schedule, nice and static just like what was required, but the site needed a page refresh in order to update… I remembered why I hated “programming” for the web. I had some time to spare so I started investigating ways of making the site more usable. I had heard of AJAX before, but the thought of hacking together javascript made me want to vomit, so I hadn’t really investigated it. I started perusing the web, and to my astonishment, much had changed in the world of javascript since the last time I had deemed to use it. I learned as much as I could as fast as I could. Javascript was a “real” programming language, enabling the web browser to display content on demand, and I was excited! I rewrote the site with XMLHttpRequests and I was blown away at how much more usable the site became. My supervisors were happy, I got a pat of the back, the end… Well, not really… I continued learning Javascript, began using and contributing to the DOJO project, and am now happy to list Javascript on my resume along with Java, C, Python, Php, Ocaml, etc…
If you are interested in learning how to program (not hack) in Javascript, then I would recommend you watch the following videos. They are GREAT resources! I would recommend taking Javascript seriously as a language before diving into any framework or library (DOJO, JQuery, YUI, etc…)