Hi Paul, thanks for the words of support :) Actually I'm curious how would you compare python vs nodejs in terms of difficulty? I have zero experience with backend and I'm leaning towards node as it is the same language and learning process should be easier, but I'm curious about your opinion. At the moment thought I also want to grasp the fundamentals, there's SO much to learn in vanilla: arrows functions, functional programming(!), callbacks etc...

OK guys, I did a first mini prototype: https://codepen.io/ErykSawicki/pen/MrKgER?editors=1000 The upper part is to add new historic trade, the bottom is a simple table. Could you please help me figure out the following: CALCULATIONS I will be performing various excel-like calculations, for example: Last column "Profit/Loss" is calculated on the basis of value of 3rd column: Long/Short and so on. How to make coding things like this efficient? I can loop through various <tr>'s and <th>'s using Java Script "for" loop, but it's not very comfortable. Should I absolutely learn excel-like libraries like aggrid or handsontable to perform calculations (soon much more advanced) on columns and rows? Just give me a clue, I will look through internet and try to execute somehow :) DATABASE / FILES Where to start here? I need to somehow store the table in a external file. PHP is an easy way but I want to try Node or if it's to hard for me, for some time I will keep files on my hdd before I'm ready to reach further into back-end AJAX? Do I need to learn Ajax to be able to add rows without reloading the entire page? CONCLUSION Does it all makes sense to you? I want to start with good plan to develop this project :) Thanks!

Hi Jason, I really need to go through your post a couple of times, but answering your main question: I want this to be a browser-based web app, not standalone desktop app. So electron is not an option here (I assume?) And actually from my current knowledge all I need server-side for is to save a piece of information that I will put into my Journal to file on the server/database. All the above seems to be like a 0,0001% of any server-side language capabilities. Regarding calculations: in my case I will be putting things like: stock name (ticker) open price, target price, close price etc. And need a scripting language to calculate things like: profit/loss based on Long/Short parameter, initial and final Risk-Reward ratio, Average winning/losing trade, amount of long/short winners etc. Additionally a couple of graphs to represent the data. It can be done in Javascript, but is it any better to use server-side language? NO IDEA... The main part of the journal in excel looks pretty much like this: https://tackletrading.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Tackle-Trading-Trade-Journal-Screenshot.jpg How I imagine the app functionality will look like: I want to register a transaction, for example I bought 100 shares of ABC company for 10$/each. My Stop Loss is at the level of 9$, my target price is 15$/stock. I put all the above and system calculates things like Risk in $, Risk-Reward ratio (1:5), commission etc. The above informations are recorded in database or file (good question, does it have to be on the server?) after 100 of such trades I will gather some date to be represented in forms of graphs, I will be able to calculate future expectancy/trade and so on. I like the idea of not using Frameworks for a couple of reasons: 1. for they are still black magic, 2. I don't want to overcomplicate things jQuery, I fully agree that it's not very elegant solution, more like a duck tape, but can be really helpful for a beginner, maybe some portion of the code (more possibly the entire app) will need to be rewritten in the future. Actually I was a bit shocked that I have to create my own server in node.js (sorry if that's not precise description, I'm still learning) and look through hundreds of modules via npm before I even start to work. I'd love to dive into it, but it actually is more intimidating than I expected. PHP is not something I'd like to dive into, I know the majority of websites are using it and will need to be maintained for many more years but I'm under impression that it's not gonna be the language of the future somehow. Again, maybe I'm wrong here...

You're right, let's start from the goal: to create a basic app within 6 months as a beginner and keep the enthusiasm to deliver final result :) Looking from the above perspective, trying to learn quite difficult language like Java doesn't make sense. NodeJS may not be the best solution but possibly good enough for now. Python is I believe the only real alternative thanks to its easier learning curve but the question remains - are there any real advantages to this particular project? Regarding DB: that's exactly what I meant, I will try to keep it simple and start with files as a data storage. There will not be much data, 30-50 records per month, so I might as well keep it all in files, but I would like to learn databases in the future, for sure (thanks for a suggestions, I'll take a look at these solutions) As per aggrid, I will begin with vanila JS, to make it even more simple. But I'm extremely impressed with the library!

thank you Sebastian! I have more questions :) Let's assume I have a basic html/css for first functionality, something similar to https://www.trademetria.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/forex-trading-journal-header.gif Let's also assume that I have frontside and UI part ready and I want to use Java for backend. Actually I like its syntax more than python (curly brackets and so on) although it's a bit verbose I'm ready to try. I understand I need to grab the basic syntax (4-6 weeks) and then I'd like to go directly into something useful for my project. What would be the second step then? Spring boot? My idea is to create simple structure and iterate as often as possible to get tangible results asap (in order not to lose my enthusiasm). Database: is it a bad idea to start gathering data in text files (csv, json) at the beginning and switch into database in the future? Learning Java AND Databases at the same time may be a bit intimidating I think... aggrid is AMAZING! But is there any totally open source alternative?

Absolutely, I'm not looking for a "best" language, just something right for my purposes. I checked Elixir and Clojure, both support functional programming which seems to be a big thing recently (and even more difficult for me to grasp a concept ;)) but I am a bit worried that despite their advantages, due to their niche popularity, I may have a hard time finding support from the community and other programmers.. On the other hand, supporting good programming practices is something that can not be overlooked. Regarding real time evaluation, what I meant was that I really like to see tangible results, i.e. some kind of UI, widget or data visualization. It may be compiled language as well, I can wait :) but I just loose enthusiasm if I'm learning something for 3 months and the result is text-only output. (Oh I work on mac currently, if it makes any difference.) Cedric - thanks so much for your time and such a great insight! I really appreciate it.