Which should you learn first? Frameworks or JavaScript?

One question you may have when thinking about learning JavaScript is whether you should learn JavaScript first or frameworks first.

You may have heard both sides of the argument.

If you learn JavaScript first, you’ll learn the basics, but it might bit slower, and it might be abit more painful before you can build components.

If you learn frameworks first, you’ll be able to use frameworks, and you’ll be able to build things quicker compared to using JavaScript.

Which one should you choose?

From a learning perspective, it doesn’t matter whether what you choose. You can learn JavaScript first or you can learn frameworks first. What matters is you want to learn it.

When you want to learn something, you’ll get curious and you’ll want to try things out. When you try things out, you’ll figure out what things work and what doesn’t. That’s the learning process.

Is one better than the other?

Yes. It’s better to learn JavaScript first.

Frameworks are built on top of JavaScript. When people write tutorials and articles for frameworks, they usually assume you have some JavaScript knowledge. If you don’t have the required knowledge, you won’t understand the articles.

Even if you can get what they say, you won’t be able to reproduce what they are saying because your foundation isn’t strong enough.

No amonut of googling for “better articles” will help you bridge the gap. The only thing you can do is increase your fundamentals knowledge.

That means you need to learn JavaScript sooner or later.

Wrapping up

It doesn’t matter whether you want to learn frameworks first or JavaScript first. If you want to become a frontend developer who knows JavaScript and frameworks, you will need to learn JavaScript sooner or later.

Don’t beat yourself up if you cannot understand documentation or articles about frameworks. It means your fundamentals aren’t strong enough yet. Go improve your fundamentals and try again.

If you need help with JavaScript, I have a course that can help. It’s called Learn JavaScript. You can check it out at learnjavascript.today.