I also started with Espruino on the ESP8266-01. It's limited on available pins and breadboard interfacing, plus power was a problem for me for a while.
If I did it all again, I'd get a NodeMCU or maybe another board that has power and serial interface sorted first and only look at the boards like 01 and 12 for later when considering how application might be best deployed.
Espruino is a JavaScript interpreter for low-power Microcontrollers. This site is both a support community for Espruino and a place to share what you are working on.
I also started with Espruino on the ESP8266-01. It's limited on available pins and breadboard interfacing, plus power was a problem for me for a while.
If I did it all again, I'd get a NodeMCU or maybe another board that has power and serial interface sorted first and only look at the boards like 01 and 12 for later when considering how application might be best deployed.