Mark Richardson wrote:Therefore, is there any type of stack or project which I work on where I keep current on both skill-sets?
Oh sure. I do this all the time with every web app I write. While it's (arguably) hip to write back-ends using NodeJS and JavaScript, I still write the majority of my back-ends (as RESTful APIs) in Java.
Then write an SPA using JavaScript for the front end.
You
can do so using just JavaScript and jQuery (no one, but no one uses
just JavaScript in the browser, it's too painful and will actual hamper your efforts to learn JavaScript while you wrestle with browser bugs and difference rather than JS), or look into one of the modern front-end frameworks such as
Angular or React. I'm currently using React and liking it a lot.
Contrary to what you might expect, using something like React will
not cause you not learn JS in favor of the framework -- in fact, if learning ES6 is your goal, React is a good way to force that.
If you want to just start with ES5, then jQuery is likely the best way to go.
Avoid, like the bubonic plague that they are, antiquated frameworks like the aforementioned Vaadin or Google Web Toolkit.
And from your goals, you probably don't want to fall into the trap of using
JSF or other server-side UI renderers. They stink of the tarpits and will not achieve your goal of embracing modern JavaScript development.