Paul Jacobson

#Enthusiast, runner, coder, Happiness Engineer at @automattic . Passionate about my wife and #proudDad.

Dec 19, 2017

I'm in a similar position as you. I've been working on a couple of projects for the last 5 months or so. I've been pretty focused on JavaScript so I decided to develop my projects using HTML/CSS/JavaScript to strengthen my grasp of these core languages.

I want to get back to Python and learn Python 3.x in the new year. At the same time, I was advised to stick with one language and become really good at it (I sometimes have a tendency to bounce around a little) so I've been learning JavaScript on the client side as well as on the back-end (using Node, Ember, React).

As it happens, I'm working on two bigger projects and a couple smaller ones. I decided to build all of them in these three languages. It's a great way to learn more, and put what I've learned into practice.

My suggestion is to use the languages you've learned and do as much as you can with those languages. Obviously if there are languages better suited for your project, use that.

That said, I tend towards following the slightly harder route because I really want to nail down the fundamentals.

Eryk Sawicki

Dec 19, 2017

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...

There is definitely a learning curve for Node and I'm still figuring it out. Fortunately there are a lot of resources you can look to. One of the courses I did is Wes Bos' Learn Node course. It makes more sense if you know some JavaScript ES6 (I did his ES6 course too).

As for Python, I didn't learn enough to get to a point where I could write the sort of code I'd use on a site so I can't be much help there, unfortunately. I bought Learn Python the Hard Way (I have 2.7.x and 3.x), and intend working through that course in the new year (once I feel like I have a decent grasp of JavaScript).

That said, I contribute to an open source project that uses Python on the back-end for routing and module imports. I haven't spent a lot of time exploring the Python side (I'm mostly working on the front-end side of the project) but I can see similarities between how Python handles aspects of the site and languages like PHP and Node.

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