I apologise if this is the *dumbest* question ever, but does one need to know Javascript before learning JQuery? Or does it merely assist? Can One learn JQuery without knowing any Javascript?

 

Cheers

Jay

Hi Jay,

 

I think while you can learn jQuery without any knowledge of javascript, knowing at least some javascript will help you a great deal. I would encourage anyone who wants to learn jQuery to be familiar with standard js first.

 

Thanks,

Zach

Javascript first man so you know what variables, functions etc. are.

 

I'm trying to pick it up atm, very interesting.

I Second what the others said above. jQuery is not a language by itself, it is a framework running on top of Javascript that that significantly reduces development time and complexity. It is possible to learn just jQuery, but it is a really bad idea to go down this route.

 

All the syntax you write literally is JavaScript, the dollar sign is just a variable name pointing to the jQuery object.

Cool,

 

thanks for the advice guys

 

Jay

This is not a dig at the OP, as you only learn by asking questions, so fair play. But I am truely amazed at the responses above... its possible to learn Jquery and not javascript?! That makes absolutely no sense, jquery IS javascript..

 

Jay - give stuck into plain old javascript first and find your feet with that, then if you need to, enhance it with libraries/toolkits like jquery or dojo

Edited February 21, 201412 yr by pilgrim_fgau

This is not a dig at the OP, as you only learn by asking questions, so fair play. But I am truely amazed at the responses above... its possible to learn Jquery and not javascript?! That makes absolutely no sense, jquery IS javascript..

 

Jay - give stuck into plain old javascript first and find your feet with that, then if you need to, enhance it with libraries/toolkits like jquery or dojo

 

Will do!

 

Does it help to have a previous basic understanding of PHP? (Can you tell I'm scared? haha) I've put off learning JS for years until I gave up web development. Since reuniting the fire with it all I figured after I'm back in the speed of front end code with HTML5/CSS3 I'd learn JS/JQ next.

 

I don't suppose you have any book recommendations for a complete JS newb, do you?

 

$regards = Jay

php and javascript are unrelated, php being a server side scripting language, javascript primarily a browser scripting language, both do different things, however both have similarities as with any programming language.

 

Take a look at Javascript : The Good Parts by O'Reilly, its probably a good starting point. I find it really useful to really dig into javascript properly from the start and understand the language and its functional programming capabilities, it will really help you to write good javascript in a lot let less, but more concise code.

 

Once you get to grips with using javascript, then start playing about with libraries etc, personally, and this is really because its what I am used to do, is if I only need some light javascript work with some fluffy UI work I would use jquery as its nice and simple to use out of the box. If im working on a larger web app that relies on a lot of client coding for example a Web 2.0 application, I would use Dojo, simply for its AMD way of implementing a more OO style of coding. But hey, each to their own.

I know the difference in how PHP and Javascript operate in terms of server-side/client-side. I just wondered if knowing another programming language helps - much like being bilingual I guess. I'll check out the book reference.

 

Many thanks

Jay