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I am posting this question to get some opinion from fellow developers on which version of Angular to start to learn when migrating from AngularJS to Angular.

I have been working with AngularJS 1.3.7. I have realized that AngularJS 1 is pretty old now and there have been more than significant changes in Angular 2 and higher versions. Also Angular 5 just come out.

I have plans of learning Angular and currently confused with which version to start. I am assuming that Angular 2 is currently trending in market now followed by Angular 4(I might be wrong though). Should I take a sequential approach and start from Angular 2 and then higher versions or is is safe to jump directly to Angular 4 or 5 without having any Angular 2 knowledge ? Or probably my question should be, can I learn Angular 4+ directly without have any prior knowledge of Angular 2 ?

A lot of companies that have now been using AngularJS for years are still using it, and don't have immediate plans to migrate to 2+. So there's marketability, plus the inevitable requirement of knowing both as an Angular developer.

I know my question is broad and might get some downvotes and red flags, but I am curious to hear from folks who have experienced the transition from 2 to 4+.

Also, I wanted to know about the key differences between AngularJS 1 and Angular 2+. Are they completely different, or will some of the knowledge transfer?

And lastly, I would like to know some of the good resources/tutorial to learn Angular.

RITZ XAVI
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    Latest version FTW – Trash Can Nov 22 '17 at 20:34
  • Angular 5 or whatever the latest version is. And no, you will be at a lost with your AngularJs knowledge. The learning curve is quite long, so be ready to feel frustrated – yBrodsky Nov 22 '17 at 20:34
  • The latest version. Also to upgrade angularjs you do not have to upgrade to each successive version (js to 2 to 4 to 5). You can go straight to 5 or use the upgrade module and run them side by side. – Igor Nov 22 '17 at 20:35

2 Answers2

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They are basically the same. The Angular project moved to Semantic Versioning, which means every breaking change results in the major version to be increased. Angular 5 is just a newer version of Angular2.

Just use the newest.

http://angularjs.blogspot.co.at/2016/10/versioning-and-releasing-angular.html?m=1

Günter Zöchbauer
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  • In this general form your answer just applies to any software: they're all the same, *except* for, well, the breaking changes. And newer versions are newer, nothing surprising there. – Ingo Bürk Nov 22 '17 at 20:38
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    That's not how I see it. AngularJS is an entirely different product, while Angular 2 to 5 is the same product with different versions, and I assumed that this confusion caused the question. – Günter Zöchbauer Nov 22 '17 at 20:41
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You should use the newest version of Angular for new projects and for learning.

Difference between versions

The difference between Angular v1 and Angular v2/3/4/5+ is drastic, as the platform was completely rewritten in TypeScript, and with different conventions.

The difference between Angular v2/3/4/5+ is simply that breaking changes were released between each major revision; however, they're still the same platform and tutorials / documentation will generally remain applicable between these 4 versions.

Semantic Versioning

Angular now follows the semantic versioning scheme. Patch releases (e.g. 5.0.X) will not change the functionality, minor releases (e.g. 5.X.0) will contain only additive changes, and breaking changes (e.g. X.0.0) are reserved for major releases.

Originally, the rewrite of AngularJS was called "Angular 2" by the team, but this led to confusion among developers. To clarify, the team announced that separate terms should be used for each framework with "AngularJS" referring to the 1.X versions and "Angular" without the "JS" referring to versions 2 and up.

Trent
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