…if you call yourself a “web developer” you have absolutely no excuse for not knowing JavaScript. And if you don’t know JavaScript, you have absolutely no right to call yourself a “web developer”. [sic]James Bennett
I came across a post from James Bennett written last year that is absolutely brilliant. His points are right on the money and form an exact description of how every web developer should approach rich interaction with web sites and web apps in general.
…it’s high time that a lot of so-called “web developers” out there finally grow the hell up and learn how to write JavaScript.
Yes!
JavaScript is just as foundational as HTML and CSS.
Absolutely.
So, once again: you have absolutely no excuse for not knowing JavaScript. [sic]
Holy crap you’re awesome.
Any questions?
Will you have my babies?
How/why is JavaScript as foundational as HTML and CSS?
HTML is foundational to the web by being the basis for the information conveyed: it is the content layer.
CSS is foundational to the web by providing the visual structure necessary to best represent the content: it is the presentation layer.
JavaScript is foundational to the web by providing rich interactions with and manipulations of the content: it is the behavior layer.
I can dig JavaScript – where’s a good place to learn?
I’ve looked at W3Schools & webdevelopersfieldguide.com, both of which are great, but neither really give anything past, or between, simple syntax and man-handling mountains of pre-made code. :P
Simon Willison’s A Re-introduction to JavaScript is probably the best single resource I’ve come across.