Show HN: A collection of front end Learning Resources | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: A collection of front end Learning Resources

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58 pointsasachanfbd22 comments

As a backend who finally bit the bullet and started learning react a few months ago, my #1 learning resource has been ChatGPT.

I can tell it what I want it to do, iterate on the idea and see how it changes. After I did that a few times I was able to tinker myself on the project and again ask ChatGPT how to improve the code.

Perhaps it’s just my learning style, but it has been really refreshing experience to learn with something(someone).

Same... I especially love pasting in a screenshot along the outerHtml from chrome devtools and ask "make those aligned on the same line, the thing with the text on the right" and it finds the right combination of flex and margin values on elements.

Feels like a huge burden lifted off my shoulders

Yes, learning with ChatGPT is indeed a different experience. 1 problem I generally face with GPT is their old knowledge base, at times they will give you codes for older versions of technologies. I faced major challenges with vue and angular js in getting the latest information.

Do beginners find these type of big list of resources and roadmaps helpful? As someone who's been in the industry for a long time and with several years of FE experience, if someone had shown me this when I was trying to get into FE, I would have found it overwhelming, and anxiety-inducing. I can see how resources like this can give you a lay of the land and give you an idea for how a particular technology fits into the big picture, but beyond that I don't know how useful they are in guiding your learning path. I can also say that not only is it not necessary to know everything in those roadmaps to reach an advanced level of proficiency, just because you are familiar with a bunch of different technologies doesn't mean you're an expert.

When I'm studying a new subject I need guidance rather than a fire-hose of links to resources, but that may just be me.

"Beginner" is a broad term which adds to the confusion.

I program as a hobby without any formal training. Despite doing it on and off for a few decades, I still consider myself an 'advanced beginner' for those reasons. So, having a lay of the land already, a resource like this is helpful when I'm looking for information in a specific area within front-end development.

Somewhat tangential: it's easy to drown in the surfeit of resources out there, to the point of paralysis. I've come to the conclusion that, in the end, you end up teaching yourself. To that end it almost doesn't matter what resource you start with. Just pick one and start asking and answering questions. For those questions you can't answer, the relevant resources will reveal themselves through your search.

+1 to the other commenter's suggestion that GPTs are a huge help in this regard, as long as you set a requirement for yourself not to use any code you don't understand. And GPTs are incredibly helpful with this meta step too.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree on the overwhelming part, I'm in process of creating a topic wise list. The idea is to make a common repository where people like us with some level of experience in development can add resources for others to follow(and keep them up-to-date). Also make a list of topics and important links for that topic so that it doesn't become overwhelming.

Maybe it's simpler to learn quantum physics from scratch.

Maybe not as hard, but at least your quantum mechanics knowledge will remain useful for more than three years!

Feedback taken! I'll make it easy to consume.

Lists of things are not a particularly good fit for Show HN and really not for HN in general. Some recent moderator comments explaining it:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39402244

And it comes up in the Show HN-specific rules https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

Got it! I'll keep that in mind, thanks.

Anybody know any good Android tutorials?

(One that explains why every step is necessary, and what exactly it does in greater detail, as well as the underlying structures. YT tutorials are a bit outdated and are bad at explaining details.)

I'd like to see resources on how to many my front-end less bland. I know how to make it functional. I know I can always use a template, but that's mostly only for the landing page.

Not a frontend engineer, but wondering whether svelte is a more promising start for beginners instead of nextjs and other react based frameworks?

The problem is the job market isn’t there yet. That’s what drives React, that and many people already know it and don’t want to change

I wouldn't say the job market for React is much better than svelte, solid or lit right now.

It was. Now it is more of the same as React and Vue. Solidjs and Lit (my preference) are real interesting alternatives.

Depends on why do you want to learn it? Career enhancement - may be no, go for established framework to get better job. For a part time project - may be yes, it's easier to learn and performs better.

Learning after react will give you better idea about complexities and problem statements both the framework solves.

Yes in that the learning curve is easier, no in that it's JS wrapped in a domain-specific format and not as "vanilla" as a plain React SPA.

I would try making a small app in React first, and then moving to Svelte to get an idea of why Svelte was made in the first place.

I mean there are pros and cons of each. Why svelte over solidjs for example? It depends on your usecase. React for all it's flaws is the most widely used... so if people are aiming for a job it is still the best bet.

Awesome. Something similar for backend development would be great.

Thanks! If someone can start, I'll contribute. I can manage only 1 at a time.

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