It's funny because in these modern times - for the first time in JS history perhaps and depending on the JavaScript you are writing for a living - you don't necessarily need to know all too much about the DOM to make some amazing web pages and apps.
This is especially true if you use node.js to write server-side JavaScript or use jQuery to hide some complexity or if you are making things with HTML5 Canvas, where your DOM interactions are often limited to that single object (or perhaps multiple Canvases). Some of the most impressive things I've seen in the last year were JavaScript sites that had nothing to do with even the slightest shred of DOM manipulation.
Of course I'm not saying that one shouldn't need or want to understand the DOM. It's just interesting to me how things have subtly changed, and as someone who loves and spends a large amount of time with Canvas, to see all these beautiful new things on the web with no DOM-aches needed.
(After all I agree 100% with Resig: JavaScript isn't broken, its the DOM that tends to foul things up.)
You still need to manipulate the DOM when using jQuery, the difference is that you are using an API that is actually reliable. I still need to do this:
This is especially true with toolkits/frameworks written in node.js. I wrote a server side version of jQuery in node.js, called nQuery, that changes the DOM paradigm by allowing you to access the DOM in real-time from the server with RPC via the $(). It turns the DOM paradigm into something quite different.
This is especially true if you use node.js to write server-side JavaScript or use jQuery to hide some complexity or if you are making things with HTML5 Canvas, where your DOM interactions are often limited to that single object (or perhaps multiple Canvases). Some of the most impressive things I've seen in the last year were JavaScript sites that had nothing to do with even the slightest shred of DOM manipulation.
Of course I'm not saying that one shouldn't need or want to understand the DOM. It's just interesting to me how things have subtly changed, and as someone who loves and spends a large amount of time with Canvas, to see all these beautiful new things on the web with no DOM-aches needed.
(After all I agree 100% with Resig: JavaScript isn't broken, its the DOM that tends to foul things up.)