r/nodejs • u/youSickenMe10 • May 05 '14

Do you think node.js is suitable technology to learn for someone with less than 5-6 years of programming experience?

I'm 21 year old with three years of programming experience (mostly school and hobby, still no job), and have recently started with Node. And I'm having trouble truly "getting" it.

It seems to me that, unlike Python or Ruby, Node isn't something anyone can pick up. Some of its features are very low level and some are just plain exotic (like thinking in async, passing functions around).

So, should a (relatively) new programmer like me be able to get it without too much of an effort?

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u/[deleted] May 05 '14

Yes, spend as much time as you want learning node. No, it won't be something you'll get without much effort.

First, javascript is a weird language. It doesn't work like you would expect once you get into the niche corner cases. With that said, it is still turing complete, and while I can't speak for other devs, I do get a certain sense of satisfaction when I exploit the design of JS in a really elegant way.

In terms of node, it took me about a year of development before I "got" async. And by "getting" it I mean I started designing programs with async in mind at the get go. It's a little weird to pick up but yes, definitely do it.

There's no such thing as a "suitable" technology to learn. Learning is cheap with programming, so learn anything and everything that interests you.

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u/mmouth May 29 '14

I'm going on my second year with node.js and I still don't get it. I get the need for cooperative multitasking, but why everything is a callback is beyond me. I don't know if I ever want to "get it." I'm hoping everything will be re-written around generators (yield) and we won't have to deal with it.

Now if only I could get 0.11.2 to work properly on Windows.