It seems that many of the JavaScript questions are answered by the simple use of pushing a library, without taking into account the person asking the question. I think libraries are great myself, but sometimes I think that we’re too quick to throw a library down someone’s throat.
Imagine a person asks a question and it’s apparent that they barely know JavaScript. They’re just using code they found and piecing it together with other code, and really have no firm foundation to work on. To add a library on top of that flimsy foundation seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
With that in mind, what JavaScript / programming / web browser concepts do you think are necessary to understand before a library/framework is introduced to a person? Should a framework / library be part of the learning process?
I don’t think someone has to grasp absolutely everything to use a library, I just think some people would be better served with a “Library X might help solve your problems, but before you do that, you might want to read up on the following concepts”, rather than just a “use library x” answer.
What you should learn are some fundamental programming techniques:
With that in mind, today its practically impossible to develop without a library. I recommend Dojo but others use jQuery, YUI, etc…
When choosing a library, you need to have a firm understanding of what problem you are trying to solve. Is it browser abstraction? dealing with communication? charting? animations? graphics? UI toolkits?
Each library has its “niche”, so you need to really know what you’re specific problem domain is and in turn choose a library accordingly.