Why JavaScript development is crazy | Hacker News Reader

Why JavaScript development is crazy

planningforaliens.com

35 pointsafreak4 comments

Web components do a lot to alleviate this problem. You get a basic reusable component model in the browser with no framework, and without requiring first jumping into the world of npm/bower.

The vanilla JS example is barely longer with web components, and will be much easier to understand once it gets even mildly interesting:

    <html>
      <head>
        <script>
          class HelloWorld extends HTMLElement {
            constructor() {
              this.attachShadow().innerHTML = '<h1>"Hello, world!"</h1>';
            }
          }
          customElements.defineElement('hello-world', HelloWorld);
        </script>
      </head>
      <body>
        <hello-world></hello-world>
      </body>
    </html>

Besides overengineered apps, problem is that people start learning frameworks and libraries instead of learning how javascript itself works. They are so excited by the new tool/toy that they fail to realize that the same thing can be achieved in much simpler and more efficient way.

Serious question, do you write JS code professionally? I mean, the more you know about JS the better, I agree, but writing plain is a daunting task, and your bound to get a lot of things wrong.

It's not a well defined language with one authoritative guide like many others, the ecosystem is pretty crazy.

Example of a raw JS ajax call: http://code.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-make-ajax-requests-...

Have you tried doing dom manipulations that is consistent across all browsers?

This is what you would have to do every time you need to select a class:

http://stackoverflow.com/a/3808886/463065

I agree that most devs should know more about JS than blindly rely on every tool, but still, right now, tools are driving web development speed to new standards.

> do you write JS code professionally?

I'm not.

> the ecosystem is pretty crazy.

I agree. I guess my point is, people should treat js with more respect, it is a powerful language after all. The lack of standards for sure makes it difficult to learn for beginners like me.

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