what’s benfits of learning javascript ?

[ameral]

Hey guys
I know xhtml , csss and jQuery , today i have been learned essentials of javascript from w3schools , but i don’t find any using for it in web design and coding
everything i can do it easily using jQuery

do u think it is useful for web designer ?
and there are any tutorials for making application with it as i like trial and error method ?

[Mottie]

jQuery IS javascript. It is essentially a library that makes some javascript commands shorter and easier to work with and compensates for any cross-browser issues.

I think the best way to learn, at least for me, is to look at plugins or other code snippets and try to figure out how it works. One of the really nice things about StackOverflow is that people ask questions and may get several different answers that all do the same thing – like this question about how to clone an object.

I’d suggest making an account on StackOverflow and trying to answer some of the questions. You may stumble at first, but that’s the best way to learn.

Oh, and about w3schools… I’ll admit I started learning from that site, and I still sometimes use it for quick reference, but there are many problems and issues with the information. In fact, there is a movement to get them to fix these problems, which is all good. So you may hear a lot of people speaking ill of that site.

[ameral]

thx Mottie for ur reply

I want to see any application or sites used javascript , as i am seeing all sites using jQuery then why we learn JS ? , if we can do anything with jQuery especially if i am web designer and coder not programmer ?

I know jQuery is library based on JS , but i don’t want make another library :P , so why i should learned it ?

for example , here in css-tricks is using jQuery , where JS ?

?

[Mottie]

I’m not sure if you will understand this analogy, but think of jQuery like driving a car with an automatic transmission and javascript as a car with a manual transmission. A car with automatic is nice to drive, you don’t have to worry about shifting gears, pushing in the clutch, down shifting, stopping at a red light on a hill, etc. But would you want to race in a Nascar race with an automatic transmission (yeehaw)?

Pure javascript will ALWAYS be faster than jQuery. If you look at any canvas drawing, 3D effects or large data sorting/manipulating plugins/programs, they will all be written in pure javascript. Well as least the parts that get called a lot.

So, sure, if you only plan on only doing design work and maybe animating one to two objects on your page at a time, stick with jQuery. But if you need something to be a bit faster or need to manipulate a lot of objects or data quickly, then knowing the fundamentals of javascript will benefit you.

Here are two basic examples: this one animates text and the other animates images using pure javascript. I don’t have the equivalent script written in jQuery to show you, but I can tell you that they will be a lot slower.

[thomas]

@ameral, if you’re using jQuery, you’re already using JavaScript. jQuery is basically a number of prewritten JavaScript functions (a library) that you can call without having to write them from scratch. If you’re using variables, conditional statements, looping structures, etc., then you’re writing JavaScript code (they aren’t part of jQuery).

To answer your question about the benefit of learning JavaScript, the reason, quite simply, is that you’d be a better programmer. You could build a website entirely in a WYSIWYG editor like the ones offered by Dreamweaver or FrontPage, but you’ll need to know HTML and CSS to really understand how it works under the hood and to be a better web developer. The same goes for JavaScript.

[ameral]

thx alot Mottie , thomas
I really happy with ur discussion and i have been learned from it

[treyrust]

I think the best way to answer the question (even though it seems I’m late) is that, jQuery IS Javscript, it’s just bunch of functions written in Javascript. In order to call these functions, you must use them within javascript. jQuery is _not_ a language but an “API” (application programming interface), instead of writing them all yourself, you just basically include these functions in your javascript.

You can’t use jQuery without javascript – That is why you learn it first :p

P.S. Get a good understanding of Javscript too… Because if you don’t get it, then you can’t use jQuery effectively.

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