Which should i focus on more? vanilla javascript and vanilla css or using different external things?

#1

should I be more focused on mastering css and javascript or should I be more focused on developing with different libraries like jQuery or bootstrap?
from my understanding is that you should only utilize another external thing is when you absoultly need it or if you absolutely need somwthing that it does and you have no idea how to make it, or it would benefit many elements of the page.

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#2

Understanding vanilla javascript and css is important however in any production environment you’ll likely take advantage of several frameworks so you should still be comfortable using them. Vanilla javascript will be useful when writing resource intensive tasks since you’ll be able to heavily optimize them.

#3

vanilla. Otherwise frameworks become a handicap instead of practical tools, and you end up trying to use the same tool for everything and not knowing how to fix it when it fails.

It’s fairly common to see people asking for help on really basic CSS stuff just because they need to modify the slightlest thing from their bootstrap and don’t even know where to start. O loading damn jQuery to deal with a couple of query selectors and other things that can be done in 4 lines of vanilla javascript, or even CSS 3.

Know your basics first, then apply the frameworks.

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#4

I would have to concur with nsuchy. The better you understand the fundamentals, the better you understand what these libraries are trying to do.

In many languages ‘libraries’ really are not your enemy, but your friend (think where C/CPP would be without StdIO !).

Greater issue is that on the web support across devices can sometimes be haphazard and mixing scripts can have unintentional consequences.

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#5

Everyone has raised some solid points. I think one thing to keep in mind too is, gearing the languages you learn to the job you want or the jobs you’re looking at. For example let’s say you forgo mastering css and become insanely good with Bootstrap, you know it backwards and forwards. Now lets say you land an awesome job but…they don’t use Bootstrap. Maybe they use Foundation instead, maybe they focus more on sass or less use.

Same thing with only learning jQuery. jQuery is awesome but what if they company you want to apply to doesn’t use it or uses a different library? At least with having vanilla JS knowledge in your pocket you can do pretty much anything a library can. Maybe not as quickly as typing a few lines from said library, but not at all impossible.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with learning frameworks and libraries, they speed up production, they take a lot of the grunt work out of building a site or app, but you’d be shooting yourself in the foot not knowing the basic principles of where they come from.

I should add, this can also be applied to freelancing. You should gear your language knowledge to what best suits your clients (and future clients) but let’s say you come across a quick css fixing job, or someone having problems with a JS script. With the proper background knowledge you can most likely help them out, make some quick cash, and maybe get in a little networking and hook yourself a future client :wink:

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#6

I completely forgot that stdio.h existed. In school they had a 0 “standard_set.h” that was a bunch of headers every project would need.
Stdio fstream string and the one that you use for cout and cin.

I just now realized that those weren’t intrinsic to it, and why you need to include them.