Over the past several years, as the role of the browser has grown, rich desktop-like apps have emerged built entirely in the browser. To enable this movement, a new generation of powerful JavaScript frameworks have emerged including EmberJS, AngularJS, BackboneJS, and React. In this 30 minute crash course on front end frameworks, Bloc co-founder and CTO Dave Paola will cover the history of front end web development, the recent emergence of these new Javascript frameworks, and go over some of the pros and cons for learning them. We'll hear from Bloc co-founder and CTO Dave Paola and Bloc Developer Christian Schlensker. Prior to Bloc, Dave was a developer at Kontagent, has over 15 years of software development experience, and has founded numerous other companies. Christian comes to Bloc from Pinchit and TAG where he was a developer. Prior to that, Christian was also a graphic designer. In our experience, beginners are often overwhelmed by buzz words like "HTML5," "JavaScript," and "Ruby." Without an experienced guide, they can spend months going down rabbit-holes drilling into specific languages, and emerge frustrated that they can't build a real website. Dave will start by helping you visualize the front end web development landscape. Comparing Angular, Ember, Backbone, and React 2 Once you understand the landscape, Dave will introduce the four major front end frameworks that have emerged over the past two years. He'll discuss the pros and cons of learning each one, from the point of view of a beginner. These four frameworks are: AngularJS, EmberJS, BackboneJS, and ReactJS.