Ask HN: A friend wants to learn JavaScript – Which are the best free courses?

5 points by jonplackett ↗ HN

9 comments

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Depends if they know any other programming language. As a programmer coming from another language I found the course by Mosh is really good. Also I think the web dev simplified YouTube channel is a good resource.
They’ve never coded before. Completely fresh!
I don’t think it’s a good language as the first programming language tbh. Way too many gotchas owing to its early design decisions. Python or even Java are much more accessible IMO.
Thanks. I’m going with JS since I write JS fairly competently and I’d like to be able to help them. I just learned a long time ago and don’t know the latest best noob resources.
freecodecamp is a pretty decent resource.
Grasshopper is a mobile app that teaches programming concepts. It is basically JS syntax and semantics. For someone new to programming in general, this is what I suggest. It has a great curriculum and is easier for the unexperienced to start with and see if programming is a fit and interesting to them.
For someone who has never coded before, I would still recommend Codecademy: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/introduction-to-javascript

It certainly depends on what their goal is afterwards, is it to go into frontend webdev like React or just learning JS as an intro to computer science in general? There's going to be a jump from coding in Codecademy tutorials to building a project from scratch, but I think their interactive interface is very friendly for beginners.