r/Glasgow Tools

I recommend no one language in particular because a lot can depend on what you have available, local resources and interests.

If you want to deeply understand how computers work, C or C++.

If you want to understand modern web, JQuery.

Want to be a generalist? Java. But that doesn't mean you understand Spring, even though it *is* Java.

I have a degree, but it's not in computer science. My boss has no degree but is one of the best practical coders I know. Thinking about it, all the best people I know are weird. Deeply, deeply weird.

Pure JavaScript is a good and easily accessible language to grasp concepts (a bit like BASIC for us oldies) but these days you rarely use it directly, it's all JQuery etc. But to grasp JQuery you need that grounding, otherwise you will have problems.

So, for example, use pure JavaScript to add a click event to a DIV. Then do it in JQuery and see how much easier it is. Congratulations, you now understand more than 90% of all the "script ninjas". Loops, branches, separation of concerns etc is all the same.

I am sorry, I don't use social media other than Reddit but you *will* have local coder groups, hackerspaces, LUGs and so on. If there genuinely isn't one, *start one*. That's the kind of thing employers like to see.

Stick with the JS if that is what you have available. And if there is no local group, start it.