I never wanted to learn the details of how a computer really work as, but I spend a single week learning C, just to learn the basic concepts like pointers. It really helped me understand better other languages. Besides, It would take you many years for you to master it, and the kind of jobs you would get with it would f* damn boring. Don't waste more than a week on it :)
I'm learning Rust at the moment, I feel I can express my ideas better with it versus go. But as a hobby. for fun.
I've being coding exclusively in JS for 3 years. And just now I feel comfortable with it.
There is so much going on with it. I bet you heard about OOP, but what about functional programing. And functional reactive programing ?
There are so many libraries and framework in JS. It just crazy.
There is angular vs ember. And what about react or famo.us ?
And there is nodejs, and things like npm, gulp, browserify.
To learn javascript, the language is one thing. But all its tools is another.
The reality is this, the more languages you learn, the easier it is to learn a next one. Today I know over 10 languages, but I master only one. And that is what matters, the one you master.
But what I things is super important for a programmer this days is a basic knowledge of shell and git. IMO
I don't want to start a flame war here. But why do I ever need to hit the backend? If not to save state. Logic must run only on the frontend
I don't see any need for a Rails controller. In the age of unhosted apps https://unhosted.org/, any backend based app will lose in terms of performace (the network latency will always be there)
Ruby has awful performance characteristic. But it so cute. (seriously, someone have told me this, and sure enough, they love coffescript)
Let's assume if your project works. You get $500.000 in funding and 7 months later you realize that you need to ditch Rails because of the performance.
Just one example of the perf issues I have with Ruby.
Try to compile a super simple SASS file. One time it takes 0.3 sec, the next 2 sec, then the following 1.5 sec. Like WTF is happening. And it is cached !!!!
I see people complaining about JS fragmentation. While it is a problem, it is just a consequence of how hard it is to create a complex webapp this days.
The thing is this.
Things in tech are always changing, and in this web dev of ours, things change faster than anything else. It's crazy. And it is hard. SUPER HARD. And we got to deal with it. So, deal with it.
Things like Exilir, closurescript or any other non-javascript thing are not the answer. Simply because they don't provide a solution on how to architecture your app (front and back end). There is a reason why the JS world is fragmented today. If someday closurescript becomes popular, I guarantee it will be fragmented with frameworks. Simple because WE STILL DON’T KNOW how to create webapps. Sure it would be more functional, pure or whatever. But who cares ?
Now let me tell you what is the situation in the JS community today.
There is the frontend and the backend JS ecosystems, and they have different approaches on how to architecture an app. While the frontend folks used (past tense here) to subscribe to a monolithic approach (angular/ember) the backend folks always subscribed to the unix way (single purpose tools doing one thing well).
Now think about the backend folks, The unix way have around for over 40 years, and the nodejs folks have embraced it. I guess they got something right. Just a though here. (Compare this with convention over configuration)
Nodejs tools like npm, browserify and gulp are the way to go for building your app and they completely replace rails asset pipeline and rvm (and much more flexible). And there will be no replacement for them anytime soon. They are around for about 5, 3 years and 2 years (an eternity) and they get things right.
JavaScript 1.6 (ES6) feels like a complete different language.
Things like Map, modules and generators are game changers. And 6to5 is the best way to translate ES6 into ES5. So you should learn them ASAP if you wanna be ahead of the curve.
Now let me tell you this about Ruby versus JS world. While the former offers lots of magic with the goal of making the programmer job easier, the later offers the right primitives without any sugar at the cost of convenience. It seems crazy at first (I came from python world, and I used to love their battery included approach) but there is wisdom in the JS approach.
My conclusion, JS and its community has many flaws, but learn to see beyond the trees. The jungle is beautiful and vibrant. And thats be best we got.