Ask HN: How can i be the best frontend developer?

13 points by samyak ↗ HN
I am working in a startup from past 2 years. I have done various types of work here that includes both frontend and backend development. But over the period of time , i realized i have interest in doing frontend and i am quite good at it . Help me to be a good frontend developer by giving some tips, blogs to be followed, practices to be followed.

I love writing javascript but i mostly write with the help of jquery framework. Is it a bad thing in a longer run?

8 comments

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Learn core javascript without framework. Follow trends in html5 and css3. Dnt 4get to use other js framework like mootools yui dojo etc. Be creative and look at trending website to get inspiration
Blog to follow eg jqueryrain.com 1stwebdesigner.con hongkiat.com css3.info webdesigndepot.com etc
Its not a bad thing to use jQuery. Basic understanding of the DOM should be sufficient, writing your own DOM wrappers gets old fast. Learn how to write good, idiomatic javascript. Read Crockfords "The Good Parts" and Steve Souders Blog. Learn about namespaces, closures, scope, hoisting. Understand how prototypes work. Try some script injection / module loaders like requirejs. Look at the source of some of the great front end frameworks out there, I always recommend backbone's annotated source [0]. Learn how to use build tools like grunt for minifying, testing and linting. Learn how to use chromes developer tools for debugging and performance, there is a great course on codeschool [1]. Maybe have a look at coffeescript. Javascript is a great language that is easy to begin with but hard to master.

[0]http://documentcloud.github.io/backbone/docs/backbone.html [1] http://discover-devtools.codeschool.com/

simple - JSIO.
HTML5 and CSS are easy. Learn JS deeply, it will help you to achieve more using any kind of frameworks.
Study design along with coding. You can be the best coder in the world but if you don't understand the fundamentals of design your work will not have balance.