I want to learn all there is to know about JS. Which/what manual should RTFM? Should I read it front to back completely before attempting to write my first bit of code? Before writing any php, should I read every single word written on php.net?
Docs for programming languages are not written like a book to be read starting with the first page through to the last. Kind of like the bible.
Exploratory clicking on MDN can help. For the language itself, a recent official ES paper. When learning yet another programming language seriously, I’m usually skimming through the standard library symbols to see the spirit of it, because stdlib/lang creators usually know both design and rationale. I also clicked through all of the tabs in a developer console in my browser to see what’s useful there. I doesn’t take up much time, and is much more complete. Personally I’ve never understood the value of these blog posts, because their appearance on your horizon is erratic and unpredictable unlike documentation and exploration, e.g. this article brought nothing new to me despite I’m only 2-3 years into javascript/web (out of much longer swdev career which taught me to educate actively), but ymmw.
My absolutely respectful but straightforward advice is: stop relying on blog posts, just go and click where you didn’t. It’s not a secret sacral knowledge, it’s you being anxious of unknowns of your development tool and of scary docs which are actually your friends.
You should read the manual for the language features and debugging tools you use most. Don’t assume you know everything about Console.log because you use it all the time one way.
Thanks for answering with an ambiguous answer. Of course I don't know everything about anything. That's why search engines were invented. I mean, even O'Reily doesn't know everything else there wouldn't be other authors!
So, which manual am I reading for learning everything there is possible to know about Console.log that will mean I never have to turn to a search engine again (with console related questions)?
For what it’s worth, reading the ECMAScript spec was one of the best things I’ve done to deepen my work as a developer. It doesn’t touch on console commands, but these do:
It’s not that I’m just reading language docs all day, but I’ve found it to be a really productive use of time when I do. It’s a vehicle for discovery that tutorials, SO answers, and blog posts don’t tend to always cover. For instance, I learned about Realms in JS which allow for a distinct global context, and more recently the proposed ShadowRealms API which not only just sounds cool, but allows for some neat isolation if ever you need to run JS in the browser that shouldn’t affect the window (such as a web IDE).
For those who are brave enough to delve into the Shadow Realms:
Point being: there are formal manuals and specifications for every part of the web stack. They can be intensely difficult to grok but are a valuable resource. It’s not fair to say RTFM to every question about the web stack, it’s unreasonable to expect anyone to hold all of that in their brain. Still, these things do exist and have a lot of value.
Thanks. However, that's 4 separate links that you've provided. (R)ead (T)he (F)antastic (M)anual suggests there is one to be referenced. It's not read a manual.
That's kind of the point. When it comes to programming, there is no single manual. You learn some basics, roll up your sleeves, and bang out code. You get to something you're unfamiliar, so you look it up. You learn something new. You go back to bang out code until the next "new". However, this time while searching, you read a different way of doing something you've done in the past that is "more better" or "less incorrect" or "more efficient". The thing to note, is not one of those websites visted and read are the same.
> However, that's 4 separate links that you've provided. (R)ead (T)he (F)antastic (M)anual suggests there is one to be referenced. It's not read a manual.
That’s not what RTFM means and has never meant that. The definition is an angsty way to tell the inquirer to stop bothering whomever and go look it up. The number of sources is irrelevant.
If you’re going to go so far as to change Fuck to Fantastic, then Manual can be changed to Manuals.
> which manual am I reading for learning everything there is possible to know about Console.log that
> will mean I never have to turn to a search engine again (with console related questions)?
Interestingly, I cannot find the console methods in there. Perhaps they are not part of the spec? I remember when Javascript was new (before 2000) it was said that Javascript was unique among languages for not having the concept of input and output.
console is not part of the language, iirc it was first introduced by Firebug - or some similar debugging tool then every other environment implemented something with the same syntax for their environment but slightly differing behaviors since not a part of the standard (of course you can also find things in a standard that vary by implementation, but things that are not in the standard I distrust even more)
Docs for programming languages are not written like a book to be read starting with the first page through to the last. Kind of like the bible.