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Eloquent JavaScript 4th edition (2024)

eloquentjavascript.net

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Re: Eloquent JavaScript 4th edition (2024)

#241

Post by shanusmagnus »

cal85 wrote: post #221
shanusmagnus wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Note the YDKJ books can come off as very ‘only my opinion is the right one’ kind of like JS the good parts I got the same feeling and it's very off-putting. KS seems like a dick. It's ironic that so much of his dickishness seems to be reacting against what he takes as Doug Crockford's dickishness. Ah the irony.

He did a day workshop at my old company about 10 years ago. He did come off as a dick, and very opinionated, but I really liked his no-stone-unturned approach, and ended up buying a few of the books when they came out later, and I got so much good stuff from reading them. I personally disagree with many of his opinions and have no problem with this at all; he covers everything (including parts of the language he clea…

These are great points.

I wonder sometimes at how much my whole line of reasoning should matter at all. In other words: if it as you describe (and I agree with your representation of the issue) then KS can be as dickish as he wants, he's providing awesome information that I can then use as I like. His actual personality should be irrelevant.

And yet, to me, it isn't. I suppose it's deep-seated social processing at work that's hard to override.

Re: Eloquent JavaScript 4th edition (2024)

#242

Post by shanusmagnus »

bigtunacan wrote: post #223
shanusmagnus wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Note the YDKJ books can come off as very ‘only my opinion is the right one’ kind of like JS the good parts I got the same feeling and it's very off-putting. KS seems like a dick. It's ironic that so much of his dickishness seems to be reacting against what he takes as Doug Crockford's dickishness. Ah the irony.

I know Kyle and he is very opinionated and adheres very tightly to his set of beliefs. I think this can rub some people the wrong way and maybe this leads to the belief that he is a dick. From my personal experience I think he's actually a really nice guy. He's also been unemployed for quite a while now and seems to be struggling with something. Doesn't seem very kind to kick him while he's down even if it's a virtua…

I'm all for not kicking people while they're down. But if you build your brand in part on throwing haymakers every which way, people are going to have bad feelings about you that will come out in passing discussion, as here.

Re: Eloquent JavaScript 4th edition (2024)

#243

Post by irishsultan »

ricardobeat wrote: post #201
svat wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In what way does it break down? Maybe if one is thinking of boxes, going by "a change to the value of a "? The book says: > When a binding points at a value, that does not mean it is tied to that value forever. The = operator can be used at any time on existing bindings to disconnect them from their current value and have them point to a new one In this case: let a = 22; The binding a points to the value 22. let b =…

Have you given any kind of training or lessons in programming (honest question)? Everything can break down! This is exactly what I’m talking about: > The binding b points to the same value that a points to It may look obvious to you , but someone will interpret “the same value” as literally the same. So they might expect a change in a to reflect on b. Whereas if you tell them the “a box contains 22” and “the b box al…

> It may look obvious to you, but someone will interpret “the same value” as literally the same.

But it is literally the same? Numbers are immutable, so there is a performance optimization where you can avoid using pointers internally, but the fact that they are immutable also means there is no way to distinguish between them being the same value and them being "different instances".

If you do `let a = []; let b = a; a = [1]` would your students expect that b equals [1] or would they understand that a and b now contain different arrays? If the latter, then why would think that after `let a = 22; let b = a; a = 50;` b also equals 50?

Re: Eloquent JavaScript 4th edition (2024)

#244

Post by darepublic »

deprecative wrote: post #125
kabes wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for "You don't know js", it's a must read for any js programmer IMO. I haven't read eloquent JS though, you say it's a different level of learner. Can you expand a bit? Is Eloquent for after "you don't know js" or vice-versa? Edit: nevermind, reading the TOC of eloquent JS gave me a good enough idea

I get so jealous that people can absorb information via books as an adult. I can read the same chapter a hundred times and nothing sinks in. I know this is off topic but do you, or anyone passing, have a system or tips for how y'all do this? I've got so many programming books but they only collect dust after I read through them without benefit.

When I was a kid my dad taught me to write everything out three times. Applied as a grown up I just write down a lot of notes for things I am learnind

Re: Eloquent JavaScript 4th edition (2024)

#246

Post by wyclif »

berkes wrote: post #238
wyclif wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's all good advice. You should definitely not read programming books like normal books. But I'll extend it somewhat: ~ Yes, always do all the exercises. It's important how you do them. No copypasting. Enter all the code examples in your text editor of choice and run them if possible. Experiment liberally and don't be afraid of errors; instead, adjust the program in response to the errors. Create a directory and s…

That's some great advice. When you say "don't overwrite", di you mean to start from scratch every chapter? I can imagine this would work for me: repetition is key. But also to get frustratingly boring after a few chapters. I'll just treat is as any trunk based git repo. Commit significant progress, several times per hour. Then rebase to "summarize" my learnings into a history. I'll commit them to a public repo and tr…

No, I just meant save every exercise as a file, like chpt1ex1.js, chpt1ex2.js, &c. A lot of consecutive exercises are just variations on the previous exercise, helping you build your knowledge, but that makes it tempting to overwrite the previous exercise or never save the file. Then you don't have anything to review with after working hard on the book.

Re: Eloquent JavaScript 4th edition (2024)

#247

Post by walteweiss »

auggierose wrote: post #212
chrisweekly wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find my ReMarkable 2 e-ink tablet provides fantastic UX for technical PDFs. Zero distractions, handwritten (or typed!) annotations, etc.

It's not large enough, in my opinion. For PDFs, personally I think that an iPad 12.9 inch is the best choice. Adding this just in case someone is tempted to get a Remarkable for reading PDFs.

Thanks, I thought whether I want ReMarkable or iPad 12.9 for reading PDFs.

I had this the biggest iPad back in the days it was introduced, but gave it to a friend as it felt too big for me, and way too expensive for what I wanted from an iPad. (Basically just a YouTube streamer, and my long obsolete iPad 3 from 2012 still does the job, surprisingly.) I checked iPad Pro 12.9 and there are justifiable prices for used ones, so I think I’ll replace my iPad 3 with this big one, which will allow me to read PDFs more comfortably as well.

Btw, I tried printing some PDFs and I don’t like it that way. I know to each their own, someone likes the books printed, but I’m the opposite of that. So much that I had donated all the physical library of my dad’s books I had in the house after his passing out, as I realized I would never read them in paper.

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