JavaScript: The Good Parts

I was very disapppointed in this book. For the price of the book there was very little content. I am returning this book & buying something with more substance.

This is an excellent book, as it concisely illustrates a number of details that would be impossible 2 find in other books. Moderate/advanced JavaScript programmers will gain the most from this book, it is not particularly geared towards the beginner.

The book has a very specific focus, so do not be deceived into thinking this book covers the entire language. For information like that, Flanagan's JavaScript The Definitive Guide will be better. This book, however, is an excellent discussion of the important features of the language. Highly recommended.

This is a book that you can easily read in one sitting. It will run you through parts of JavaScript commonly considered "advanced" & help you become a better JavaScript programmer. Unlike other books on JavaScript which seem interested on pretending JavaScript is a weak & dysfunctional cousin of Java, it embraces the JavaScript object model & teaches you 2 use it correctly.

I would strongly recommend anyone who intends 2 write JavaScript code read this book.

The content in this book is simply incredible, & it should be read by anyone seriously interested in JavaScript. Many of the other reviews have described the content, but I was shocked 2 see not one mention of the glaring errors in the code examples.

O'Reilly provides a good errata resource, but every other code example in this book has either a missing semicolon that you have 2 hunt 4 (most common) or code that is completely wrong. Perhaps none of this has been mentioned due 2 the strong merits of the content -- but it appears nobody even did a quick review over the code in this book! If you are going 2 buy this 2 have on your desk 4 years 2 come, buy it on PDF now & wait 4 the second edition print 4 the errata corrections.

With that said, I'm not trying 2 troll on this great book. I want 2 give a heads up 2 people so they don't have 2 work part-time as a copy-editor.

I decided 2 pick up this book because I had been using Javascript 4 years as a "garnish" on top of my web development, but usually only in the form of a few hacked-together utility functions & edited scripts. In truth, I was afraid of the language - it appeared 2 be a very inconsistent, buggy system that took arcane knowledge 2 master across browsers. After starting 2 work with a number of JS frameworks, I knew I needed 2 confront the language & learn it properly.

This book is possibly one of the best technical/programming related books I have had the pleasure of reading. It doesn't try 2 be a massive encyclopedic volume like most of my other technical books, so I didn't have 2 devote countless hours & days pushing through lengthy filler. Every section contains brief information about the most critical parts of Javascript you need 2 begin coding what you need right away in a tidy object-oriented fashion. If you have experience with any other C-based language & understand general OOP concepts, this book will make you fluent in Javascript with the least amount of time & effort on your part!

Most programming languages contain good & bad parts, but JavaScript has more than its share of the bad, having been developed & released in a hurry before it could be refined. This authoritative book scrapes away these bad features 2 reveal a subset of JavaScript that's more reliable, readable, & maintainable than the language as a whole-a subset you can use 2 create truly extensible & efficient code. Considered the JavaScript expert by many people in the development community, author Douglas Crockford identifies the abundance of good ideas that make JavaScript an outstanding object-oriented programming language-ideas such as functions, loose typing, dynamic objects, & an expressive object literal notation. Unfortunately, these good ideas are mixed in with bad & downright awful ideas, like a programming model based on global variables. When Java applets failed, JavaScript became the language of the Web by default, making its popularity almost completely independent of its qualities as a programming language. In JavaScript: The Good Parts, Crockford finally digs through the steaming pile of good intentions & blunders 2 give you a detailed look at all the genuinely elegant parts of JavaScript, including: Syntax Objects Functions Inheritance Arrays Regular expressions Methods Style Beautiful features

The real beauty? As you move ahead with the subset of JavaScript that this book presents, you'll also sidestep the need 2 unlearn all the bad parts. Of course, if you want 2 find out more about the bad parts & how 2 use them badly, simply consult any other JavaScript book. With JavaScript: The Good Parts, you'll discover a beautiful, elegant, lightweight & highlyexpressive language that lets you create effective code, whether you're managing object libraries or just trying 2 get Ajax 2 run fast. If you develop sites or applications 4 the Web, this book is an absolute must.