[icambron]

It's very cool, but some complaints:

- I shouldn't have to know advanced database management to do AJAX or user authentication. Seems like a dependency bug.

- The tree emphasizes jQuery effects to an odd degree (three levels) and it doesn't depend on JS mastery. Seems obscure and out of place.

- There's too much specificity in a lot of the descriptions and links. I'd focus less on tools and more on skills. For example, instead of "You can use frameworks like Ember.js,...", say "you can build a complete, highly interactive SPA". Instead of "You can use mod_rewrite", say "You are comfortable deploying, configuring, and maintaining high-traffic sites in a complex environment." The User Testing and Prototypes skills are much better in this regard.

- I'm not sure I love the Web Development Mastery skill, because I'm not sure what it captures besides "I checked off all the other boxes".

Edit: removed use of "just" that makes it sound more critical than I meant it.

[flipstewart]

> "The tree emphasizes jQuery effects to an odd degree (three levels) and it doesn't depend on JS mastery."

Do you find that use of jQuery requires a mastery of JavaScript? There was a time when I could use jQuery(especially jQuery plugins) but didn't have a clue about how to do very basic things with JavaScript.

[icambron]

I shouldn't have said "mastery"; I just meant that you should have to check the JS box first. I agree you can use jQuery without a strong fundamental knowledge of JS. So fair point.

The description for the first level of JS Frameworks and Libraries is "you can tap into libraries like jQuery". So it's really saying is that jQuery requires JS, but you can use jQuery Effects without knowing jQuery. Also, there's no way you could get to level 3 of jQuery Effects tree (writing your own effects) without at least knowing some JS [1]. So pretty sure there's a bug in there.

But that's probably way too much pedantry about a skill tree that's just for fun. Onto the actually interesting question of how well you can know jQuery without knowing JS. I think it works like this: if you know how to use jQuery, ipso facto you can use JS at least as well. If you're just doing some pattern-matched jQuery stuff, that's cool, but it's also pattern-matched JS stuff, because, well, that's what you're writing in. The more advanced you are at JS, the more advanced you're capable of being in jQuery. There's no way you're going to be able to, say, write your own plugins are build complicated stuff without knowing the language you're writing it in. [2]

It's also probably worth noting that once you know JS really well, learning your way around jQuery is almost trivial. So I posit that trying to learn jQuery without learning JS is a Bad Idea.

[1] I guess that's a general issue with skill trees. B requires A as a prerequisite, but the tree doesn't capture that B level 2 requires A level 2.

[2] I confess this not an argument from experience and that I could be wrong; I'd love to hear stories to the contrary. I had the misfortune of learning JS in the bad old days before jQuery and friends. But I believe it both because it makes a priori sense and also because of the large number of SO jQuery questions where the OP's issue is really that they don't know JS.

[Torn]

There should be a Javascript tree to this too.

Unless you mean web designers, not web developers?

[stephengillie]

Where's the Canvas\HTML5 game made achievement?

For that matter, where's the rest of the server administration tree? It could branch, with helpdesk administration into enterprise desktop support, with network administration into BGP routing, and with corporate server administration into enterprise server administration.

[arxpoetica]

Had the same complaints. It's cool, but I definitely qualify for a whole slew of skills that this doesn't cover that would have brought me to different results. And I agree about the JavaScript factor. For example, Node.js has opened up the back end in very unique ways for many programmers _of JavaScript skill_.

[X4]

Order doesn't matter as long as it's effcient. If you just know jquery not javascript, that's ok if you can complete complex front-end jobs too, you can master Javascript after/while you got/get shit done. Everything else is premature optimization.

[thatthatis]

Agree with the dependency bug and the jquery effects.

Disagree that the specificity is bad. If someone doesn't already have the skill, the specificity helps. I'd suggest something like "Can build complete highly interactive SPAs with frameworks like Ember.js..."

[fennecfoxen]

It's a little dogmatic in places. For example, stored procedures and custom functions to improve database performance are a perfectly legitimate approach, but not the only one, and it comes with limitations as well as benefits. :P

Also, way to totally omit NoSQL data stores and automated testing. Selenium anyone? no one? bah.