--- title: Best JavaScript in Plain English posts — February 2021 description: The most upvoted JavaScript in Plain English posts from February 2021, curated by the daily.dev community. canonical: https://daily.dev/sources/jsPlainEnglish/best-of/2021/02 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:url: https://daily.dev/sources/jsPlainEnglish/best-of/2021/02 og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Best JavaScript in Plain English posts — February 2021 | daily.dev og:description: The most upvoted JavaScript in Plain English posts from February 2021, curated by the daily.dev community. og:image: https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--VAY5ToZt--/f_auto/v1724209435/public/daily.dev%20-%20open%20graph --- # Best of JavaScript in Plain English — February 2021 1. 1 [](https://daily.dev/posts/why-it-s-okay-to-feel-like-an-imposter-7xrlco8il "Why It’s Okay To Feel Like An Imposter") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Why It’s Okay To Feel Like An Imposter Vladimir Agaev had no degree in computer science and taught himself how to program. He felt like a fraud, I felt like I was never really ready and that I needed to learn constantly. He discovered that everybody feels the same to a certain extent. This feeling, this fear is actually rooted in the nature of our work. 43 7 2. 2 [](https://daily.dev/posts/meet-the-hern-stack-where-everything-is-written-in-javascript-r1fhpe0h "Meet the HERN Stack, where everything is written in JavaScript") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Meet the HERN Stack, where everything is written in JavaScript Meet the HERN Stack, where everything is written in JavaScript. The HERN stack stands for HarperDB, Express, React, & Node, which are all written using JavaScript. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to choosing a tech stack because it really depends on the specific use case it’s meant to solve. 39 4 3. 3 [](https://daily.dev/posts/creating-a-chrome-extension-with-react-my8ot6vla "Creating a Chrome Extension with React") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Creating a Chrome Extension with React Building a Chrome extension with React is easy. Here we will go through the process of building a Chrome Extension using React. After this, you can add more functionalities to it very conveniently. The extension can access your active tab and change the background colour of the page. We will use this script to build our app. 38 3 4. 4 [](https://daily.dev/posts/i-m-not-using-javascript-anymore-q0sodjhh1 "I’m Not Using JavaScript Anymore") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y I’m Not Using JavaScript Anymore Deepak Vishwakarma has almost stopped writing JavaScript for the past few years. He has started developing all his library and application in TypeScript. This article does not cover the pros and cons of JavaScript. Rather than just focus on Good Parts of TypeScript, it focuses on the bad parts. 32 9 5. 5 [](https://daily.dev/posts/stop-using-class-components-in-react-13stz0u8t "Stop using Class Components in React") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Stop using Class Components in React Stop using Class Components in React Switch to functional components with hooks instead Margarita Morozova. Hooks were introduced in React 16.8\. In short, they let you use state and other React features without writing a class. UseState returns a pair: the current state value and a function that lets you update it. You can use as many useState hooks as you need. 28 6. 6 [](https://daily.dev/posts/build-a-command-line-pomodoro-timer-in-node-js-wxsyko4ts "Build a Command-Line Pomodoro Timer in Node.js") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Build a Command-Line Pomodoro Timer in Node.js Build a Command-Line Pomodoro Timer in Node.js.Tracks progress towards completing a given number of hours of work.Sets goals for continuous work block and break lengths.Emits logs for analysis at a future date. Classes vs. Functional. 26 1 7. 7 [](https://daily.dev/posts/top-node-js-trends-that-will-dominate-in-2021-qalwmhsm4 "Top Node.js Trends That Will Dominate In 2021") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Top Node.js Trends That Will Dominate In 2021 Node.js is an open-source, cross-platform, backend, JavaScript runtime built on Chrome’s V8 Js engine that executes JavaScript code outside a web browser. It is written in C, C++ and JavaScript and uses an event-driven I/O model. It allows mobile app developers to use the same language for client-side and server-side scripting. 23 8. 8 [](https://daily.dev/posts/create-a-react-app-from-scratch-in-2021-ye9z9dihq "Create a React App from Scratch in 2021") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Create a React App from Scratch in 2021 Become a better coder by learning what create-react-app is doing under the hood. The “React” equivalent of building your car engine from scratch. Create a React App from Scratch in 2021 in this article. The article is written by Meg Shulmister and published on February 20, 2015. 23 1 9. 9 [](https://daily.dev/posts/5-things-that-helped-me-learn-react-egldjs7fr "5 Things That Helped Me Learn React") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y 5 Things That Helped Me Learn React Kelsea Mcallister learned React in bootcamp. She shares 5 things she found useful when trying to wrap her head around React. Draw out a component flow chart to help you understand data flow. Organize the source component into categories based on what their purpose was. Chaining functions helps you visualize how data is being manipulated. 22 10. 10 [](https://daily.dev/posts/understanding-node-js-performance-wexdrrb3l "Understanding Node.js Performance") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Understanding Node.js Performance The event loop makes the single-threaded NodeJS runtime handle concurrency. Understanding how the event loop works significantly helps in producing better NodeJS solutions. There is a direct correlation to request processing and the number of servers required. Lower your request processing time significantly improves performance. 20 1 11. 11 [](https://daily.dev/posts/caching-in-node-js-with-redis--6xtf8msm "Caching in Node.js with Redis") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Caching in Node.js with Redis Redis is an in-memory data structure store used as a database, cache, and message broker. Caching is the process of storing copies of data in caches to allow applications to access and retrieve data faster. In this tutorial, we are going to see how we can implement Redis in a Node.js (Express) application. 18 12. 12 [](https://daily.dev/posts/turn-google-sheets-into-a-rest-api-and-use-it-with-react-ygdjvrune "Turn Google Sheets into a REST API and use it with React") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Turn Google Sheets into a REST API and use it with React Semantic UI is a framework used to design and develop beautiful and responsive layouts. It has components for Buttons, Containers, Lists, Inputs, and much more. Let’s create a form and input boxes to get our inputs like name, age, salary, and hobbies from our React App. 19 1 13. 13 [](https://daily.dev/posts/a-beginner-s-guide-to-javascript-under-the-hood-skf1obb2l "A Beginner’s Guide To JavaScript Under The Hood") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y A Beginner’s Guide To JavaScript Under The Hood JavaScript is interpreted language which means we don’t have to compile it before sending it to the browser. An interpreter takes the raw code and runs it for you. A single line of code can block a whole application down. Since JavaScript is single-threaded, it has only one stack and one process per tab. 17 14. 14 [](https://daily.dev/posts/build-a-full-stack-graphql-application-with-react-express-spfaylar0 "Build a Full Stack GraphQL Application with React + Express") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Build a Full Stack GraphQL Application with React + Express Build a Full Stack GraphQL Application with React + Express With React and Express. Mohammad Faisal explains how to build a simple full-stack GraphQL application. To follow along you have to have a basic understanding of how a normal HTTP server works and some knowledge about ReactJS. 15 2 15. 15 [](https://daily.dev/posts/automating-your-automated-tests-with-cypress-studio-fc7cdavtv "Automating your Automated Tests with Cypress Studio") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y Automating your Automated Tests with Cypress Studio Cypress Studio is an experimental feature in Cypress that will help you write your tests for you. With minimal configuration setup, Cypress Studio will allow you to click around your UI, and it will generate the element selectors. If you have multiple commands, Cypresses will log them all, so you could click multiple buttons and have it generate the selectors for you, too. 14 16. 16 [](https://daily.dev/posts/6-quirky-javascript-and-css-tricks-you-should-know-ctcarvull "6 Quirky JavaScript and CSS Tricks You Should Know") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y 6 Quirky JavaScript and CSS Tricks You Should Know Akash Thakur has compiled a list of 6 JavaScript and CSS tricks. Optionally add JS property in objects that are dynamic in nature. Reading browser URL JavaScript can access the current URL in parts. Text-overflow property can be clipped, display an ellipsis or display a custom string. 14 17. 17 [](https://daily.dev/posts/how-to-add-eslint-and-prettier-to-a-react-and-typescript-project-2021--bj8xvgrbn "How to add ESLint and Prettier to a React and TypeScript Project (2021)") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y How to add ESLint and Prettier to a React and TypeScript Project (2021) How to add ESLint and Prettier to a React TypeScript Project (2021) André Borba Netto Assis follows up with a definitive guide to make life easier for anyone who needs it. This article will be divided in 4 parts: setting up ESLint, setting up prettier, checking files content and making the two work together. 12 18. 18 [](https://daily.dev/posts/9-ways-to-convert-strings-into-numbers-in-javascript-1p-mv-21r "9 Ways To Convert Strings Into Numbers In JavaScript") Article JavaScript in Plain English·6y 9 Ways To Convert Strings Into Numbers In JavaScript Converting a Number to a String is a common and simple operation. In JavaScript, you can represent a number as an actual number (ex. 1000 ), or as a string. When it comes to performance you can use any of the '\*' multiply operator or '-' or '+' unary operators. 11 [See all JavaScript in Plain English archives](/sources/jsPlainEnglish/best-of) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} 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