[xiodine]

While I really support starting up with a framework, I wouldn't recommend React for someone starting out with JavaScript. React strongly recommends JSX for starters (from my limited experience with it) and also has a build system, that even if neatly abstracted away introduces a small delay and another additional thing to do before you're up and learning.

Personally, I feel starting out with jQuery as a perfect introduction. There are no build tools, just a simple refresh and you see all your changes.

[ralmidani]

A few years ago, jQuery would have been an excellent choice, but it’s pretty dormant now, and frameworks are moving away from imperative code towards declarative code. For learning how to build very basic apps it could work, so I suppose a person could spend a few weeks with it, but I don’t think it’s a good long-term investment.

If someone understands HTML they should be fine using JSX after a tutorial or two. The build system adds some friction, but with create-react-app you can get pretty far without having to understand much about build systems (and you even get auto-refresh).