Comments on: Review: The best JavaScript book I’ve read

By: echo85

echo85 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:59:47 +0000

This is the best javascript text I’ve encountered as well. Can anyone suggest a similar style book about Python?

By: Vladimir Kelman

Vladimir Kelman — Thu, 07 May 2009 00:26:48 +0000

I remember Douglas Crockford himself saying that there is only one really good JavaScriopt book: JavaScript. The definite guide. by David Flanagan. (It was a couple of years ago, though. Now there is Jon Resig with his books too.)

By: Dave Ward

Dave Ward — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 14:25:20 +0000

Wow, that’s a great deal. Hope you enjoy it.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:55:41 +0000

I’m so happy I saw this post today. I’m in India right now work on a project and was able to pick up this book for just Rs200 (~$4)! Looking forward to reading it :)

By: 22022009 « cssguy

22022009 « cssguy — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:53:19 +0000

[...] The best JavaScript book I’ve read [...]

By: Bruno Campagnolo de Paula weblog » Resumo do dia para 2009-02-18

Bruno Campagnolo de Paula weblog » Resumo do dia para 2009-02-18 — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 03:18:30 +0000

[...] Review: The best JavaScript book I’ve read | Encosia [...]

By: rascunho » Blog Archive » links for 2009-02-18

rascunho » Blog Archive » links for 2009-02-18 — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 20:06:39 +0000

[...] Review: The best JavaScript book I’ve read | Encosia Learning a language as a set of tasks is one way to get up to speed quickly, but it’s not a very good way to thoroughly learn a language’s nuances and idioms. (tags: encosia.com 2009 mes1 dia18 JavaScript book livro review *****) [...]

By: Dave Ward

Dave Ward — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:59:09 +0000

I really like the way he explains the difference between classical inheritance and prototypal inheritance. Once you understand that, it all makes sense.

Definitely. His explanation of it here was instrumental in my understanding of OOJS: http://www.crockford.com/javascript/private.html

By: Dave Ward

Dave Ward — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:56:30 +0000

I just noticed your new logo… and it is very good!

Thanks!

By: Dave Ward

Dave Ward — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:56:04 +0000

Fortunately the book is light enough to carry around.

I do exactly the same thing. It has a permanent home in one of the sleeves in my laptop bag.

By: Gabriel Svennerberg

Gabriel Svennerberg — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:22:00 +0000

Great review! I’ve also just read this book and it’s really good. I’ve watched some of the videos with Crockford at YUI Theater as well. He truly is a great source of knowledge. I really like the way he explains the difference between classical inheritance and prototypal inheritance. Once you understand that, it all makes sense.

If you’ve been programming in Javascript for a while and want to get a more solid understanding of the language, this is a mandatory read.

By: Elijah Manor

Elijah Manor — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:38:58 +0000

I just noticed your new logo… and it is very good!

I haven’t read this book, but I am very interested now that you have talked so highly of it.

Thanks for your recommendation!

By: Andrew Webb

Andrew Webb — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 07:34:33 +0000

Good review, and one I totally agree with. I’m reading Crockford now, as it happens. It took me two goes to get into it.

Having programmed in C, C++, and C# since 1985, JavaScript looks disarmingly similar at first glance, thanks to the C syntax. But, it turns out, JavaScript is very different, and has a whole other way of being ‘object oriented’. Crockford keeps in mind that a lot of his audience will be coming from a class-based (what he calls classical) background, and is at pains to point out the differences in JavaScript.

As for Google searching, the trouble is that there’s almost too much material on JavaScript, and little guidance on what/how/when to use what features. E.g. I was look for a substring method yesterday, and a search yielded many articles on string.substring and string.substr. But Crockford says to avoid it and use ’slice’ instead. I’ll stick with Crockford as my primary reference. Fortunately the book is light enough to carry around.

By necessity Crockford introduces concepts before being able to fully explain them (the explanation comes a bit later), and so I would say that a newcomer like me will only get the full benefit of this book on a second full read-through. Actually I plan to read it three times.

Highy recommended!

By: Bill Beckelman

Bill Beckelman — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:37:14 +0000

Thank you for the recommendation. I marked the video to watch in the morning and will look for the book.

By: Aaron Powell

Aaron Powell — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 05:12:24 +0000

I too am a big fan of Crockford and I strongly recommend that anyone who’s seriously wanting to get into hard-core JavaScript development check out the videos he has on YUI Theater – http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/.

Start with the series “The JavaScript Programming Language” to really get a good understanding of what makes JavaScript tick and then check out the rest of his videos.