JavaScript Info-Brochure for Newbies...

{I apologize in advance but this is really diluted down, if you are an intermediate or advanced programmer please redirect yourself.}

So now that you have scrolled down further you must be a newbie, have too much time to kill, or one of the mentors(🙏 sorry sir), let's begin, now you might be wondering what is JAVASCRIPT, VANILLA JS, REACT JS..... and many more big heavy, similar words some of your friends with higher acuity, or ones with better time investment skills than us may be throwing around.

JavaScript my brethren is one of the most popular programming languages in the world. It is the language of the web, it can be used in Front-end(what the client can see), and Back-End(what the client cant see), which is one of the reasons for its popularity. It is the programming language used for making web pages and web applications, simply put.

QUESTION: Can anyone just start Learning JavaScript?

NO,.....Yes, anyone can study, with hard work and determination..blah blah., its a free world(mostly), BUT, it would be better and is advisable to have basic Computer Knowledge, basic knowledge and understanding of HTML and CSS.

What I mean by that dear fellow travelers is that IF I ask you what laptop do you use, YOUR ANSWER most definitely should not be: "A WHITE ONE"(This really happened to me in my 3rd year of B.Tech, so I AM SERIOUS)

To Summarise (#copiedFrommozilla.org)
JavaScript is a scripting or programming language that allows you to implement complex features on web pages — every time a web page does more than just sit there and display static information for you to look at — displaying timely content updates, interactive maps, animated 2D/3D graphics, scrolling video jukeboxes, etc. — you can bet that JavaScript is probably involved. It is the third layer of the layer cake of standard web technologies, two of which (HTML and CSS) we have covered in much more detail in other parts of the Learning Area.

VANILLA JS
This is just a fancy phrase, made up by the tech Lords and Ladies of yonder years to refer to Plain and Simple JavaScript.

REACT
React AKA React JS, is an open-source JavaScript Library. Open-source meaning anyone can contribute to it, a Library in the most literal sense is a library or a collection of functions, that all have pre-defined actions that can be accessed by the Coder, edited(to a certain extent), and used.

Where to Start?
There is a lot of free informative stuff on the web for JavaScript learners... I am listing a few:

1. The main Document- MDN Web Docs by Mozilla. It has Most of the answers.
2. There are a lot.. too many tutorials on Youtube for javaScript some which I follow are:
   
   
   • The Net Ninja
   • Traversy Media
   • freeCodeCamp.org
   • My Personal favorite for HTML,CSS,JS basics(in all seriousness) Tanay Pratap

Have a look and go crazy....

Check-List for Those on the Starting Line.

1. If I ask you which laptop do you have and your answer is "A White one", you need some time, get your bearings, some computational basics, some computational programming basics.
2. Learn how to use GitHub, your code stays safe online and you can access the repositories anywhere.
3. I would recommend that you use VS CODE as the text editor.
4. some of the Extension i woulds recommend are:
   • Auto Rename Tag formulahendry.auto-rename-tag
   • Bracket Pair Colorizer coenraads.bracket-pair-colorizer
   • ES7 React/Redux/GraphQL/React-Native snippets dsznajder.es7-react-js-snippets
   • npm Intellisense christian-kohler.npm-intellisense
5. For online Compiler you can use CodeSandbox
6. You will get a lot of Errors in the beginning, Do not worry about, it is most probably a Syntax error, go through the code check for spelling mistakes
7. In some of the older tutorials the React version used is old so some time the syntax for doing the same things has been updated..so it may throw an Error don't worry, you will most probably find the fix for the error in the comments. if now go through the documentation you will find the correct syntax
8. Some of you may be may be may be confident in your work, some of you wont be,I still am not, I have decided to grit it out and I would request you do the same

I sincerely hope you found this a bit informative and had a few laughs. I will leave you with one of my favorite Quotes:

"I shall be telling this with a sigh, Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference."

I hope to someday be able to do justice to this quote.