It is quite easy to pick pick up and make small patches/enhancements to projects written in JavaScript with minimum knowledge. When you are at the point when you are patching tools you rely on, you already know a lot. It is also much easier when you are starting with properly set up existing project.
The situation in article is equivalent of trying to add maven dependency to raw java project without maven, because you dont know maven exists and then wonder why other dependencies are missing or project is not imported correctly to eclipse. That is literally John from article.
> When you are at the point when you are patching tools you rely on, you already know a lot.
I think you misunderstood. I am talking about making patches/enhancements to tools written in languages I do not regularly use. So I didn't "know a lot" about the language or environment or toolchain involved, I generally knew nothing (from a dev POV) about it. The small exceptions there would be a Java project (StanfordNLP) and a C project (the PHP language/runtime), where I had use the language in question to write 'hello world' type programs as a student, as part of my Network Engineering diploma, close to 20 years ago.
> The situation in article is equivalent of trying to add maven dependency to raw java project without maven, because you dont know maven exists and then wonder why other dependencies are missing or project is not imported correctly to eclipse.
The first command "John" runs in the article is: `npm install packageName --save`, as recommended by the package’s README.
> The first command "John" runs in the article is: `npm install packageName --save`, as recommended by the package’s README.
Likewise, java library would have "add this dependency" in its README followed by xml snippet. It would not start from "create maven project" nor explained how you get pom.xml. It is assumed you know what maven is.
> I am talking about making patches/enhancements to tools written in languages I do not regularly use. So I didn't "know a lot" about the language or environment or toolchain involved, I generally knew nothing (from a dev POV) about it. The small exceptions there would be a Java project (StanfordNLP) and a C project (the PHP language/runtime), where I had use the language in question to write 'hello world' type programs as a student, as part of my Network Engineering diploma, close to 20 years ago.
That is exactly what I am talking about. You do not need to know a lot. In java world, you need to know about maven existing and that maven dependency means you have to have maven project.
In JavaScript, you are expected to know that npm dependency means you have to have npm project.
The situation in article is equivalent of trying to add maven dependency to raw java project without maven, because you dont know maven exists and then wonder why other dependencies are missing or project is not imported correctly to eclipse. That is literally John from article.