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Ask HN: Best current book to learn JavaScript?

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Re: Ask HN: Best current book to learn JavaScript?

#41

Post by theprop »

abraves10001 wrote: post #28
dorkwood wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Codecademy is good for the absolute basics, but I found anything beyond that seriously lacking. I remember really hating the tutorial on 'How to use APIs with Javascript', for example. It basically told me exactly what to type in and I 'passed' the course without understanding any of it.

I had the same experience, it gives a false sense of security. I can pass the courses without having even a remedial understanding of the underlying concepts.

Yes, true. It's basically good for someone who's never programmed before and thinks "there's no way I could do this"...it gets someone going that way I feel...

Re: Ask HN: Best current book to learn JavaScript?

#45

Post by Kequc »

Is it strange that when I consider learning a new language, I don't turn to books? My instinct is that I can learn more quickly and interactively online. Particularly JavaScript, as the browser you are using to browse the websites teaching you JavaScript is already a full JavaScript interpreter and development suite.

No waiting for your code to be processed server side, or anything like that. I pick up a book later on, commonly, if I know the language and want to know more about techniques for building something specific with it.

Re: Ask HN: Best current book to learn JavaScript?

#48

Post by erickj »

Kequc wrote: post #45

Is it strange that when I consider learning a new language, I don't turn to books? My instinct is that I can learn more quickly and interactively online. Particularly JavaScript, as the browser you are using to browse the websites teaching you JavaScript is already a full JavaScript interpreter and development suite. No waiting for your code to be processed server side, or anything like that. I pick up a book later o…

I use books for libraries and large software projects. For languages I use books as references (early on, sometimes)

But for learning a new language, an editor and a hello world app are where I start.

Re: Ask HN: Best current book to learn JavaScript?

#49

Post by gmiller123456 »

fredophile wrote: post #22

I found JavaScript: The Good Parts useful. It's very short and gets right to the point. The author focuses on the parts of the language people tend to use every day and highlights some gotchas and common mistakes that you might not expect (like == vs ===) if you're coming in from other languages.

IMHO, this is not a good book for learning JavasScript. It's probably a good read for someone with intermediate knowledge of JavaScript looking to expand their understanding of the language. But it covers nothing about the DOM, or how to use it on a web page, which is what virtually 100% of anyone learning JavaScript will be wanting to learn it for. So, yes you can learn the language from this book, but if you actually want to do something useful with the language you'll need to move on to another source.

And, although the book is dated, I think it still does a good job of explaining the core concepts of the language even of today.

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