Paradigm: "First do this, don't bother why" // Framework VS Language

Question

When you are a beginner, some will advice you to "learn a framework first, not a language", because it's easier to learn this way.

Some programmers are good at Rails and not as good at Ruby, they tell me they don't need to know what's happening under the hood as long as it works. Same happens with people learning first Django instead of Python, learning SASS first instead of CSS, JQuery first instead of Javascript.

What did you learn first? What would you recommend learning first?

Answer 1

I'm a completionist. I prefer to look at my program and say that's my code, 100%.
I prefer learning the language because once you "master" it, you can go to a framework to ease up your work. When you only learnt how to work with a framework and can't do something, you'll have a hard time going back to the language ... I guess.

Answer 2

In my opinion, a person should learn the language before any frameworks that work on top of it, even if they don't plan on ever using it.
You may not always have those tools available to you, so being able to use the language without them may be necessary.
Unfortunately, I don't follow my own advice. :P I absolutely cannot design a webpage without 12-column and jQuery, even though I learned to use those later.

Answer 3

language first, framework second, because u need to understand whats going on under the hood to master the language to perfection, because even professionalls make mistakes and u can compensate them. Its like fighting with a blunt sword, if you dont know how to sharpen the plate, you gonna be less effektiv.

Answer 4

And Python is too awesome to go directly to a framework. Kuba would certainly agree. 😉