tinkering around but never mastering javascript

I normally hack javascript when i need to, but i have noticed that many people also do this.The reason for this i attribute to the internet and especially google.

There are plenty of resources on the internet offering solutions on how to deal with a specific problem, so one ends up googling how to do something in javascript without going through the basics of the language.

What we end up with is skills at googling and fixing problems but no mastership of the language.This can be said to be the double edge of having plenty of resources available at your finger tips.

For instance, stack overflow is an excellent resource.But i think one should turn to stack as the last resort.The habit of rushing to stack overflow and copying code does not offer any self improvement.A better alternative would be to hit the docs and read a good portion.Still this should come after attempting to solve the problem.

Nevertheless programming is a craft thats all about experience, if you continue hacking at javascript each day for 10 years, you'll eventually master it, but the point is it would be easier if you took time to go through the docs and learn the basics of a language.

This goes for jquery too, its possible to use jquery without knowing a good portion of javascript.This is a bad idea and sooner or later, if you're writing serious code, problems are going to arise that need more than just the basic knowledge of jquery.

So what will be the right time to master javascript?
Why not try a daily schedule.Taking on a chapter a day, there are plenty of good books on javascript out there.

Mac as a development environment

Apple pcs and notebooks are very elegant and offer a high level of aesthetics compared to standard hardware, but what about using a mac for development.

Experience with a macbook pro has proved that mac's are excellent for development.Want a vague proof of this, just take a look at conference videos, most serious developers use macs.And its just not for the aesthetics but there are heavier reasons for this.

Historically linux was the choice environment for many.The popularity of linux is waning due to recurrent issues involving GUI systems and the classic old drivers problem.Its just a pain that should be abstracted, and this is what mac osx does best.The UI is clean and elegant and you still get the power of the unix shell.

The write once run everywhere nature of web apps has also promoted the use of osx.Due to the fact that you can create a web app from any on any operating system that will be available to any system with a browser, this has removed the constraint of having to develop on a particular environment.Thus developers are free to choose which system provides the best user experience, and apple is well known for this.

A general trend I have noted is that most development software and library creators tend to cater for mac users since its a fact that many debs are on that platform.