DEV Community

buphmin
buphmin

Posted on

Is ES6 just javascript at this point?

So ES6 released in 2015 giving us some amazing features, such as arrow functions, class syntax and let/const. The many useful features in ES6 caused the development community to rapidly adopt ES6 into their toolkit for writing javascript.

What do you all think? Is knowing the ends and outs of ES6 required to claim to "know javascript" in 2021? What about ES7...8? Curious to hear everyone's thoughts on when/how a language advancement becomes a benchmark for proficiency.

Top comments (2)

Collapse
 
thumbone profile image
Bernd Wechner

An arrow function for you ;-):

"ends and outs" => "ins and outs"

I can't however answer your question as I'm in no way involved with proficiency assessments, outside of the fact that I have been involved in hiring over time many times and never been interested in what you claim to know per se, nor obtuse proficiency tests so much as your work experience (what you've worked on) and trying to work out if you're an on-the-ball learner and thinker .. none of which is easy or flawless when appraising applications and interviewing applicants but it's the best we have. Whatever language you need chances are you'll learn that on the job faster than you will the other core competencies that I'm generally looking for (for example having worked extensively in the science quarters I'm looking for people who aren't afraid of math ... big one that).

Collapse
 
buphmin profile image
buphmin

To an extent I agree with your assessment. More important is the ability to learn and grow rather than exact knowledge. The only caveat is that if someone says they have proficiency in something, and they do not, then that is a red flag to me regarding honesty.

As far as my question I am mostly trying to spark some discussion regarding standardization. In this case ES6 has been around so long that when I think of it's features I just think "this is standard javascript" rather than a fancy extension.