Introduction

I am often asked which programming language is the ideal one to start learning to program. The answer to that question is very simple, the programming language does not matter but the important thing is logical reasoning and the first contact with a programming paradigm, the rest will go step by step as you immerse yourself in the industry.

However, the truth is that I have encountered many opponents in learning JavaScript because of its notoriety in the industry. It is true that JavaScript was born with a purpose and the industry has placed it by solving problems for which it was not originally intended. This has caused it to have such a bad reputation among veteran developers or those who come from other programming paradigms. But we cannot ignore that JavaScript is a living language, for more than five years (2015) it receives annual updates, it has a large community that is giving it support and reviewing possible improvements.

In this article, I am going to give you reasons why you should learn JavaScript. Apart from the fact that you do not want to dedicate yourself to the frontend, where it is its first execution environment.

1. Most Popular Programming Language In The World

This statement can harm lovers of exotic languages, who improve performance or security compared to other languages but are in the minority. In our case, JavaScript is the most used and popular programming language in the world, which makes it an excellent choice for a newbie.

This happens mainly because in the frontend world (on the Web) there is no other rival language. There is a monopoly of programming languages, in the past, it competed against VisualBasic Script, Action Script (Flash) or even with JAVA Applets. But none of these languages have survived JavaScript. In fact, the only language that nowadays begins to occupy a prominent position on the frontend is TypeScript, which is a JavaScript superset, and therefore, it is highly recommended to previously know how JavaScript works in depth.

2. Javascript Jobs

In any field or software development environment, we find several programming languages that solve the same type of problems. However, we have commented that JavaScript has a “monopoly” on the web application frontend market. That fact already places it in a privileged position compared to other languages. The most interesting thing to find jobs in JavaScript is that all the frontend tools/frameworks today are based on JavaScript, and it is highly recommended to know in depth how JavaScript works. That is, if we want to opt for a job in React, Vue and even Angular (it uses TypeScript as a language) you will need to have a knowledge of JavaScript.

Therefore, learning and understanding JavaScript will allow you to get a good and well-paid job. In fact, there is a big problem in the web development industry that will allow us to get a good job: There is a lack of professionals with solid knowledge in the JavaScript language.

As of this writing (August, 2020) there are almost 40,000 jobs requiring JavaScript (in the US).

Not only is it the number of jobs required, but the average salary: $117,717 per year.

3. It’s Everywhere

When I was a university student, I heard that Java was the revolution because we could write the code only once and it ran on all devices, and it is true that Java managed to abstract us from the operating system with its virtual machine. I felt in love with the idea behind JAVA, and today, we have a much easier and more comfortable “virtual machine” that are Web browsers (FireFox, Edge or Chrome) that execute JavaScript code. Therefore, in all the environments that a Web browser is installed, we will have JavaScript, this means that we can have practically all the devices that an end user can use.

This does not end here, for more than 10 years JavaScript can be executed on servers thanks to nodejs. In fact, this allows us to have code written in JavaScript on small devices without the need for a graphical environment.

4. Beginner-Friendly

Again, I want to talk about my beginnings in Computer Science. When I began to develop software at the age of 11 (approximately) I first learnt the Pascal and C programming languages without tools, without the help of the compiler to know what was happening. In fact, it was quite hard to start learning to develop software and you needed a mentor to guide you a bit on this path.

Today, there are many facilities to start developing software, but JavaScript is a language that allows beginners to start developing software. Of course, this software will not be the best solution to the problem to be solved, but the novice will be writing lines of code and will have started his career in software development.

The next step is to not stop learning, to wonder how to improve and improve day by day, but you will already be in the world of development. That is, JavaScript is a novice friendly language, and this allows new developers to enter.

It is the task of the most veteran developers, to guide the newcomers on the right path of development; and for newbies to listen and learn from the experience of their fellow veterans. But that’s another topic that we can discuss at another time.

5. Community

Being unique in the world is something that humans have sought for years. In fact, in the fashion, automotive or jewelry industry it is something that has an extra cost for users.

In our context, being unique or being alone is a danger. Our work is a collaborative one. It is a work in which you have to be totally synchronized with your colleagues and it is where being many is an advantage. That is, if the community of people who use the programming language, create libraries, solve doubts, help keep the language alive with revisions, these are advantages.

Now is when you discover that the size of the community is very important and that the JavaScript community is possibly the largest in the world compared to other languages (I do not have a statistical study of it, but it should be in the Top 3 with almost total certainty).

Some data that can help us deduce that the JavaScript community is one of the largest in the world are the following:

• Largest StackOverflow Community. StackOverflow is the largest platform for programming Q&A, and this is where you can see how the community helps solve problems of other colleagues.

• Largest Meetup Community. Meetup is a platform that allows you to connect people who have the same interest. In terms of programming languages, the number of communities dealing with JavaScript is the largest on the platform (approximately 3,600 and more than 1.5 Million members worldwide).

• Most-tagged language on GitHub. GitHub is the main opensource repository that exists today (acquired by Microsoft). In this platform, JavaScript is the most tagged programming language of all the projects that are hosted on this platform.

Conclusions

This post is not analyzing whether the JavaScript programming language is the best option to solve your problems. Whether it needs to transform or not, but we are looking at why you should learn JavaScript in 2020 and even for years to come.

It is an analysis looking at the positive points for you as a software developer and, of course, perhaps in a few years there will be another language or environment that will replace JavaScript but what you have learned in this language you can transfer to the next.

In my opinion, you should not miss the opportunity to learn JavaScript for its interesting advantages over other languages.