JS & Web: The leading manuals
As is tradition, we wrap up the year with the best resources of the past year, and the latest trends to watch out for in the upcoming year. This time, however, we want to wrap up the top resources of the decade— resources you may have come across, but forgot to read, or need to reread. Here's your second chance.
Just RTFM
All of it. Every last word. Yes the even the topics you think you know. `String.prototype.length` doesn't correctly count characters like emojis, it counts code points. If you don't know str.length, can you image what you don't know about HTML or even Unicode?
95% of a JavaScript developer's coding involves reusing similar coding patterns, methods and functions— but that's just the tip of the coding iceberg. There is far more to be discovered. You don't know JS.
Unicode is the basis for the web. While abstractions keep us from thinking about Unicode each day, the edge cases around Unicode are fascinating, and sometimes, even terrifying.
Outside reading the actual specs (which you absolutely must do), the MDN docs are the docs you need to read front-to-back, twice, again, even the basics like String.prototype.length.
MDN Web Docs
Developers must spend the majority of their professional lives writing their own code, and reading other developers' code. It's critical that a clear, concise, and consistent code be written. AirBnB's JavaScript style guide has long been regarded as the canonical source— and we couldn't agree more.
Getting your conceptual bearings:
The developer-roadmap is a fantastic tool to help debug your developer blindspots. Software Engineering is a very broad field and in a rapidly transforming industry. Absolutely check it out.
Guided Resources
Focused Topics
jQuery was huge in the early 2010s. It was the first major framework to address the issues of cross browser compatibility, while
A little spammy, but a great bottoms up systems approach:
