What is front-end-handbook-2017?

This repository holds the source files for the Front-End Developer Handbook 2017, a freely available guide written by Cody Lindley and sponsored by Frontend Masters. The handbook is aimed at anyone who wants to understand what front-end development is, how to learn it, and which tools practitioners use. It works as a starting point for beginners, a reference for working developers, and an orientation resource for managers or employers who want to understand the field. The handbook is organized into three sections. The first covers what front-end development actually is as a practice: the skills involved, the kinds of work front-end developers do, and how the role fits into a broader team. The second section points to learning resources, both self-directed (tutorials, courses, books) and more structured paths. The third section surveys the tools commonly used in the field at the time of writing, from code editors to build systems to testing tools. The content centers on the core web technologies: HTML, CSS, the browser document model, and JavaScript. It sticks to those and to tools built directly on top of them. The authors describe the handbook as a curated shortlist rather than an exhaustive catalog, with the goal of giving readers enough context on each topic without going so deep that any one section becomes overwhelming. Note that this is the 2017 edition, and a newer 2019 edition is available at the Frontend Masters website. The 2017 content reflects the tools and practices that were current at that time, so some recommendations may be outdated. The handbook is published under a Creative Commons license that allows reading and sharing but not commercial use or modification. The full text is readable online and was also available for download in several ebook formats.