How important is ES6?

So I’m currently in the javascript curriculum, and I completed the ES6 stuff…but I still don’t understand a lot of it and know that I’ll probably have to go through the whole section a few times for it to actually sink in. I’m currently on the regex stuff, which makes a lot more sense, and seems much simpler. Once I finish the regex, should I go back and study ES6 until I get it, or can I save that until after I finish the rest of the javascript curriculum (minus the projects). Will it mess me up if I can’t grasp it?

Also, not sure if this is against the rules to ask (sorry to the mods if it is), is there a videoseries or something that goes over ES6 in a different way, that could help me understand it?

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ES6 introduced a number of very important, very useful features and changes to the specification. It’s arguably the most famous version release because of these. And you could feasibly go on to write JavaScript without making use of these features. We did it for years leading up to ES6’s release a few years ago.

But, there’s a reason ES6 is such a well-known release, and it’s because these features were well-sought after and generally regarded as moving in the right direction. For that, I would say you’re holding yourself back if you don’t eventually pick up on some of its more useful features (lets/const, Promises, arrow functions, just to name a couple). And, most modern frameworks/libraries make heavy use of these features. So you may find them more daunting to take on if you don’t.

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I also struggled with this section. The new features themselves aren’t a problem. It’s the way the challenges are set up. You see variables getting declared as functions that return a function that itself contains a function. In more than one of these challenges, I was able to pass the challenge by deleting all these crazy layers of functions and re-writing the code with just one normal-looking function.

Take this challenge for example:

ES6: Use Destructuring Assignment to Pass an Object as a Function’s Parameters

The solution given in the hints:
const half = (function() {
“use strict”; // do not change this line

// change code below this line
return function half({max, min}) {
// use function argument destructuring
return (max + min) / 2.0;
};
// change code above this line

})();

Why the multi-layer function when one function works perfectly fine on its own? (and passes the challenge)?

function half({max, min}) {
return (max + min) / 2.0;
}

ALso, this section introduces new concepts without adequately explaining them. For example, object constructor functions. I had to look this up on a separate site to learn what these are.

Thanks. So ill have to make sure i get it down. Does anyone know if there are videos that explain it well?

This website explains object constructor functions. Also, I think the Javascript curriculum will go over this in later sections.

https://www.w3schools.com/js/js_object_constructors.asp

Hi there,
This is also my first time posting here as well. I originally started working with this stuff about 3 years ago.
“Hello Everyone!”, LOL

Remember that all new things are better retained through repetition, review, and good practice exercises.

I’ve gone through some HTTP and CSS stuff first and decided to make a multi-tier web page for practice as I went along. It was alot of fun.
At the time, I figured that I’d need to have a way to test my page as I was building it, so I learned about web servers and downloaded and setup the Xammp web server app for my laptop. With that, I could build my web pages and test the results live. That was fun.
Well, I got to a point where I needed to collect info from the pages and do something with them. So I decided to learn about MYSql, as a database which I could use to store any data I got from my pages.
I also learned how to work the interface between front-end and the database by using PHP and PDO. That was interesting.
Well, all my pages were working great and I was able to pass data from forms on my pages over to the SQL database and see the data in the database.
It was at this point that I realized, what should I be doing next. I needed to be able to pass stuff back and forth between pages and have them auto-update and all that.
This is where I figured that JavaScript was the next step for me to get into.

So, I started working with the JavaScript curriculum’s on freeCodeCamp and some others.
After some time working through Basic JavaScript, ES6, RE’s, Debug, Basic Data Structures, I’m now finishing up with Basic Algorithm’s. (Yes, I’m still excited to see how I continue to catch on!)

There were times when I would get stuck on concepts or an exercise and just could not figure it out.
Finally, after realizing that the issue was either error with the lesson plan or just not enough info to tie the exercise together (even after spending time searching elsewhere).

I finally realized not to let myself get too bogged down spending days trying to figure out any one particular problem, if I could not find assistance through searching. It is OK to use the ‘get hints’ areas and if all else fails just go for the answer. Then I’d go back and do the same exercise several times again to help things sink in for me.

The bottom line, is that it is OK to not be able to figure it out, even after searching and looking through other sites. Don’t waste days hung-up on any particular thing. Ask for help through a forum somewhere.

One thing I’d like to see a lot more of would be expanded areas for lots of exercises to work through for each of the lessons. Instead of just one exercise for each lesson, there should be lots of practice exercises using diff things for each lesson you are working on.

I’ve tried searching for practice exercises to beginners to JavaScript, which would focus on just the basic building blocks (instead of using the same exercise over and over), but mostly what I found were more project oriented stuff. Which doesn’t really help the novice just starting.

Anyway, too much chat. This is what I’ve done so far and where I’m at.
I had not officially joined a paid curriculum, one because of the cost, but also because I wasn’t sure how I’d catch on to things.
But so far I’m doing ok. I’m not going full time on the learning, just putting in a few hours here and there as I can get them.
I’m still interested in learning more still!!

Its important to realise that many (not all) ES6 features are simply syntactic sugar. In other words, they are nicer, easier to read ways to write Javascript that don’t change the underlying structure of the language.

For this reason, there is no urgency to learn ES6. It’s much more important to learn the fundamentals really well.

You do need to learn ES6 at some point, because, as has been said above, the features are very heavily used in modern JavaScript and they really have transformed the language. But learn the basics first.

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