How to start developing Javascript apps?
<p>I started out with Rails development, but soon I realized Rails without JS is pretty much useless. So, I am trying to play with JS in my free time.</p>

<p>So, what are the "<strong>tools of trade (IDEs if any)</strong>" for JS development?</p>

<p>My primary focus is usage of APIs, Ajax etc, so that I don't get lost when I get develop Rails apps which uses JS. </p>

<p>There are many tutorials for using JS for Open graph API or twitter API, but that is to get things done and abstract some feature sets which a beginner should know.</p>

<p>I generally start learning a language by making a calculator, end to end (always works for me). But I cannot make a calculator and use API/Ajax calls.</p>

<p>So, what are your suggestions?</p>

<p>PS: I am aware about Douglas Crockford's video lectures, they are awesome, but I need some thing more concrete.</p>

<p><strong>UPDATE</strong>:</p>

<p>My 2 original questions:<br>
1. What are the tools of trade for JS? <strong>Like Eclipse:Java::X:Javascript, What is X</strong> (multiple Xs are allowed)?<br>
2. What sample app do you recommend for me to start with?</p>
