Web Tools #539 - Raw JS, Frameworks, Git/CLI Tools, Jamstack, CMS's

Over the years there have been numerous articles on "things to learn before you learn React", or similar posts. Basically these are posts featuring specific JavaScript features (often from ES6 or later) that help to understand how React works and what parts of the language it uses under the hood.

Last year I came across another such article called Learn this before React over on dev.to. The article has an interesting set of features that the author thinks are useful as precursors to learning React including methods like map() and filter() and features like destructuring and Promises.

But I had saved the article specifically for the top comment on the post by Jon Randy. It reads in full:

"I would strongly suggest building a website without using a framework/library first, so you can understand what problem they are actually solving and gain an understanding of what goes on 'under the hood'. I've interviewed wayyyyyy too many developers who can throw something together in React, but are totally clueless when I ask them to do some basic stuff in vanilla JS. This problem is steadily getting worse and worse."

Now imagine that same scenario under the umbrella of a development world where tons of stuff is being built using tools based on ChatGPT. Not to say that ChatGPT is a bad thing (I've used it myself for many things) but I can see this problem getting worse as many "coders" won't even be able to talk their way through a basic React snippet, let alone something in pure JavaScript.

But ultimately, does it even matter? If we can build things that work and that solve problems and bring in revenue for us and our clients, why do we care if we can explain the code? Are engineering interviewers going to be a lot softer on those who don't really get the code, but at least they can use an AI prompt?

I doubt that's in the near future, but it does seem like things are headed that way at least a little bit.

That's why I always appreciated raw coding resources like Phuoc Nguyen's Mastering DOM manipulation with vanilla JavaScript, which is making the rounds again and continues to get updates. It got some praise and heavy discussion over on Hacker News as well.

In a similar vein, all my JavaScript tips from this newsletter and on my blog I've amassed into a 4-ebook series that you can buy at a discount over on Leanpub.

In summary, the popularity of libraries and now ChatGPT have changed things a lot. But I think we're far from a time where hand-coded pure JavaScript is going to disappear.

Now on to this week's tools!