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JavaScript (Python?): advise in which direction I should go.

Eryk Sawicki's photo
Eryk Sawicki
·Dec 5, 2017

I'm looking for a little advice from experienced coders. The thing is I want to have a coding skill. I thougth about Python or JS (already know HTML and CSS quite well). What attracted me to JavaScript is the fact that I can instantly see results in a browser, dunno how it works in Python.

I believe that JS is the future and eventually will be used even more extensively than it is now BUT I'm not interested in web sites development and/or big advanced apps/systems. Unfortunately most of tutorials focus on web development part….

I started learning Vanila JS, but I want to build something tangible asap, like a desktop widget or (really) small app and not quite sure if pure JS is the way to go (perhaps). React,Redux / JS Frameworks are super intimidating and black magic for me - so many crazy tools, libraries, frameworks, and even JS is growing super fast (ES6,7) - this world is really crazy, especially for a beginner.

I want to keep learning and have a little fun doing so, but mostly learn the language to build a solid base in order to choose a right path in 2-3 years.

I'm interested in:

  • Data Manipulation
  • Technical analysis & equity trading
  • Small widgets / apps (I heard it's possible to do with Electron)

What I tried:

  • Vanilla JS - still so many things to learn, but I'm in the process
  • P5js - interesting and fun but has its limitations
  • D3js - seems to be very low level and a bit difficult to grasp
  • Some Charting libraries - but I'm not experienced enough to use them and additionally don't want to learn something that may not exist in 6 months…

I want to develop skills in this language but I'm stuck what to do next, which path to choose, which library / framework?

  1. Can I start with Electron as a (still) relatively new to JS?
  2. Does it make sense to learn React in order to do small apps/widgets/projects? I'm under no illusion I'm not going to be a hardcore senior coder anytime soon :)
  3. Maybe with my goals I should switch to Python where the selection is more straightforward and not so intimidating? But again the ability to see instant results of my actions in a browser is a huge + for JS…

I know the topic is broad but I'd appreciate any of your advice.

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