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Discussion on: Should I start by learning vanilla Javascript or a framework?

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loujaybee profile image
Lou (🚀 Open Up The Cloud ☁️)

I think the answer is: both. The difficulty with vanilla is that it's abstract, and people struggle to relate the abstract back to something they want to do or achieve. If you can do both in tandem, that's best. I do agree that you're going to hit a wall quickly without understanding the basics, but I've come to appreciate that there needs to be a desire to learn, and that often comes from implementing something practical and real.

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savagepixie profile image
SavagePixie

That's exactly what I was going to say. There are a lot of good points in the article. But I feel that the discussion always gets framed as an either/or question when the answer should really be both/and. You can learn all the basics before you start learning a library/framework, but if you stop learning vanilla JS altogether to switch over, you'll stop progressing as a JavaScript developer.

The real crippling thing is to stop learning vanilla when you start learning a framework. But I see no problem in learning one alongside the other. And I frankly think that you can add a framework/library to your learning fairly soon.