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What's a good Javascript book?

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  What's a good Javascript book? I Am Here <iamhereintheworld@gmail.com> - 2012-10-08 06:35 -0700
    Re: What's a good Javascript book? "Evertjan." <exxjxw.hannivoort@inter.nl.net> - 2012-10-08 13:52 +0000
      Re: What's a good Javascript book? "Jukka K. Korpela" <jkorpela@cs.tut.fi> - 2012-10-08 17:03 +0300
        Re: What's a good Javascript book? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2012-10-08 15:22 +0100
          Re: What's a good Javascript book? "Mel Smith" <med_cutout_syntel@aol.com> - 2012-10-08 08:56 -0600
    Re: What's a good Javascript book? Stefan Weiss <krewecherl@gmail.com> - 2012-10-08 16:11 +0200
      Re: What's a good Javascript book? John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> - 2012-10-09 10:43 +0100
        Re: What's a good Javascript book? Stefan Weiss <krewecherl@gmail.com> - 2012-10-09 13:12 +0200
          Re: What's a good Javascript book? John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> - 2012-10-10 15:32 +0100
            Re: What's a good Javascript book? Stefan Weiss <krewecherl@gmail.com> - 2012-10-10 20:13 +0200
              Re: What's a good Javascript book? John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> - 2012-10-11 14:28 +0100
        Re: What's a good Javascript book? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-10-09 17:56 +0100
          Re: What's a good Javascript book? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-10-10 00:32 +0200
            Re: What's a good Javascript book? Daniel Pitts <newsgroup.nospam@virtualinfinity.net> - 2012-10-09 16:37 -0700
            Re: What's a good Javascript book? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-10-10 06:44 +0100
              Re: What's a good Javascript book? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-10-10 20:09 +0200
              Re: What's a good Javascript book? Dr J R Stockton <reply1241@merlyn.demon.co.uk.invalid> - 2012-10-11 19:43 +0100
    Re: What's a good Javascript book? Gregor Kofler <usenet@gregorkofler.com> - 2012-10-08 16:21 +0200
    Re: What's a good Javascript book? "Michael Haufe (TNO)" <tno@thenewobjective.com> - 2012-10-08 07:56 -0700
    Re: What's a good [JavaScript] book? Matt McDonald <matt@fortybelow.ca> - 2012-10-08 11:38 -0400
      Re: What's a good [JavaScript] book? Matt McDonald <matt@fortybelow.ca> - 2012-10-08 11:42 -0400
        Re: What's a good [JavaScript] book? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-10-10 00:41 +0200
    Re: What's a good Javascript book? Danny <dann90038@gmail.com> - 2012-10-08 11:57 -0700
      Re: What's a good Javascript book? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-10-08 20:39 +0100
    Re: What's a good Javascript book? I Am Here <iamhereintheworld@gmail.com> - 2012-10-09 06:19 -0700
      Re: What's a good Javascript book? Gregor Kofler <usenet@gregorkofler.com> - 2012-10-09 18:43 +0200
        Re: What's a good Javascript book? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-10-09 10:06 -0700
          Re: What's a good Javascript book? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-10-09 11:43 -0700
            Re: What's a good Javascript book? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-10-09 20:07 +0100
            Re: What's a good Javascript book? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-10-09 13:40 -0700
          Re: What's a good Javascript book? Gregor Kofler <usenet@gregorkofler.com> - 2012-10-09 20:55 +0200
            Re: What's a good Javascript book? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-10-09 13:45 -0700
            Re: What's a good Javascript book? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-10-10 04:31 -0700
        Re: What's a good Javascript book? Stefan Weiss <krewecherl@gmail.com> - 2012-10-09 20:09 +0200
          Re: What's a good Javascript book? Gregor Kofler <usenet@gregorkofler.com> - 2012-10-09 21:01 +0200
            Re: What's a good Javascript book? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-10-09 13:50 -0700
        Re: What's a good Javascript book? John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> - 2012-10-10 15:26 +0100
          Re: What's a good Javascript book? Tim Streater <timstreater@greenbee.net> - 2012-10-10 15:58 +0100
            Re: What's a good Javascript book? John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> - 2012-10-11 14:39 +0100
              Re: What's a good Javascript book? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-10-11 06:52 -0700
                Re: What's a good Javascript book? John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> - 2012-10-11 17:13 +0100
                  Re: What's a good Javascript book? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-10-11 10:39 -0700
                    Re: What's a good Javascript book? John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> - 2012-10-12 10:37 +0100
                      Re: What's a good Javascript book? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-10-12 07:11 -0700
                        Re: What's a good Javascript book? John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> - 2012-10-13 10:53 +0100
                      Re: What's a good Javascript book? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-10-12 09:49 -0700
                        Re: What's a good Javascript book? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-10-12 10:22 -0700
                          Re: What's a good Javascript book? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-10-12 13:17 -0700
                      Re: What's a good Javascript book? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-10-12 20:32 +0100
                        Re: What's a good Javascript book? John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> - 2012-10-13 10:50 +0100
                          Re: What's a good Javascript book? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-10-13 19:45 +0100
                            Re: What's a good Javascript book? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-10-13 21:55 +0200
                              Re: What's a good Javascript book? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-10-13 21:52 +0100
                                Re: What's a good Javascript book? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-10-13 23:49 +0200
                                  Re: What's a good Javascript book? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-10-13 23:57 +0200
                                  Re: What's a good Javascript book? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-10-13 23:34 +0100
                                    Re: What's a good Javascript book? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-10-14 02:09 +0200
                                  Re: What's a good Javascript book? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-10-14 00:00 +0100
                                    Re: What's a good Javascript book? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-10-14 01:58 +0200
                                      Re: What's a good Javascript book? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-10-14 07:17 +0100
                                        Re: What's a good Javascript book? Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn <PointedEars@web.de> - 2012-10-15 01:17 +0200
                            Re: What's a good Javascript book? John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> - 2012-10-14 13:40 +0100
                              Re: What's a good Javascript book? Gene Wirchenko <genew@ocis.net> - 2012-10-14 19:03 -0700
                                Re: What's a good Javascript book? John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> - 2012-10-15 10:42 +0100
      Re: What's a good Javascript book? "Evertjan." <exxjxw.hannivoort@inter.nl.net> - 2012-10-09 22:49 +0200
    Re: What's a good Javascript book? Scott Sauyet <scott.sauyet@gmail.com> - 2012-10-09 12:00 -0700
    Re: What's a good Javascript book? I Am Here <iamhereintheworld@gmail.com> - 2012-10-16 06:57 -0700

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#16476 — Re: What's a good [JavaScript] book?

On 08/10/12 11:38, Matt McDonald wrote:

 > [long, unbroken lines of text]

I apologise for allowing Mozilla's *Thunderbird* to play games with
line breaks. I will henceforth write replies in vIM.

-- 
`The theologian Meric Casaubon argued--in his 1668 book, *Of Credulity
and Incredulity*--that witches must exist because, after all, everyone
believes in them. Anything that a large number of people believe must
be true.'--Carl Sagan--*The Demon-Haunted World*.

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#16522 — Re: What's a good [JavaScript] book?

Matt McDonald wrote:

> On 08/10/12 11:38, Matt McDonald wrote:
> > [long, unbroken lines of text]
> 
> I apologise for allowing Mozilla's *Thunderbird* to play games with
> line breaks. I will henceforth write replies in vIM.

I can see nothing wrong with your article.  Your perception of your article, 
however, is tainted by Thunderbird supporting format=flowed and your using 
both; which you can see by pressing Ctrl+U when your article is focused in 
the list.


HTH

PointedEars
-- 
Danny Goodman's books are out of date and teach practices that are
positively harmful for cross-browser scripting.
  -- Richard Cornford, cljs, <cife6q$253$1$8300dec7@news.demon.co.uk> (2004)

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#16483

hmmm, you never specified what 'GOOD' stood for, if you meant to help you learn js, then I'd say The Bible will do IMHO, on the other hand if you want a reference book, Flanagan's Definitive Guide is one of the more thorough I've found, I have that and others for referencing like Professional JavaScript with Nicholas Zakas.

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#16485

Danny wrote:
> hmmm, you never specified what 'GOOD' stood for, if you meant to help
> you learn js, then I'd say The Bible will do IMHO, on the other hand
> if you want a reference book, Flanagan's Definitive Guide is one of
> the more thorough I've found, I have that and others for referencing
> like Professional JavaScript with Nicholas Zakas.

I'm a JavaScript beginner with a lot of programming experience in other
languages. I'm reading Nicholas Zakas "Professional JavaScript". It
seems very clear, and I like the idea of indicating which browsers
implement which features.

However, I plan to read multiple books and relevant standards, consult
web sites on areas that seem difficult or may vary between browsers, and
do many experiments to confirm I'm understanding what I read.

So far, I don't think I've learned any programming language for which
everything I needed to know was in one book, and I don't expect
JavaScript to be any different.

Patricia

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#16501

Thanks guys, for all the replies. Count on me as a new addition to this group :)

The 3 books I have are "Javascript Cookbook", "Sams Teach Yourself Javascript in 24 hours" and one called "HTML, XHTML, CSS and Javascript" which is absolutely useless. Also, I recently bought "Supercharged Javascript Graphics" where I can't follow the code, which is what brought me to this group.

Yes, it's the referring to object properties as array subscripts that I find confusing, but also as colon separated items inside a {} block. I'll post more on this when my head clears up a little, I've got a slight fever at the moment, and I just can't stay at the computer too long :)

Anyway, a little introduction telling me which country each of you are from would be nice to start with :) Me, I'm Indian.


Bye for the moment.

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#16502

Am 2012-10-09 15:19, schrieb I Am Here:
> Thanks guys, for all the replies. Count on me as a new addition to this group :)
>
> The 3 books I have are "Javascript Cookbook", "Sams Teach Yourself Javascript in 24 hours" and one called "HTML, XHTML, CSS and Javascript" which is absolutely useless. Also, I recently bought "Supercharged Javascript Graphics" where I can't follow the code, which is what brought me to this group.
>
> Yes, it's the referring to object properties as array subscripts that I find confusing, but also as colon separated items inside a {} block. I'll post more on this when my head clears up a little, I've got a slight fever at the moment, and I just can't stay at the computer too long :)
>
> Anyway, a little introduction telling me which country each of you are from would be nice to start with :) Me, I'm Indian.

The titles indicate that the content of these books *must* be utter crap.

So far Crockford's "JS The Good Parts" has been the only JS book I found 
worth reading.

Gregor

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#16504

On Tue, 09 Oct 2012 18:43:47 +0200, Gregor Kofler
<usenet@gregorkofler.com> wrote:

>Am 2012-10-09 15:19, schrieb I Am Here:
>> Thanks guys, for all the replies. Count on me as a new addition to this group :)
>>
>> The 3 books I have are "Javascript Cookbook", "Sams Teach Yourself Javascript in 24 hours" and one called "HTML, XHTML, CSS and Javascript" which is absolutely useless. Also, I recently bought "Supercharged Javascript Graphics" where I can't follow the code, which is what brought me to this group.
>>
>> Yes, it's the referring to object properties as array subscripts that I find confusing, but also as colon separated items inside a {} block. I'll post more on this when my head clears up a little, I've got a slight fever at the moment, and I just can't stay at the computer too long :)
>>
>> Anyway, a little introduction telling me which country each of you are from would be nice to start with :) Me, I'm Indian.
>
>The titles indicate that the content of these books *must* be utter crap.

     "*must*"?

     Jo(e) Author writes the definitive JavaScript book.  The
publisher gives it a title you do not like.  Hmm.

>So far Crockford's "JS The Good Parts" has been the only JS book I found 
>worth reading.

     After not trusting books bacause of titles, you trust a book with
"crock" in the author's name?  If you are going to be bigoted, please
be consistent about it.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

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#16509

Gene Wirchenko wrote:
> Gregor Kofler wrote:
>> schrieb I Am Here:

>>> The 3 books I have are "Javascript Cookbook", "Sams Teach Yourself
>>> Javascript in 24 hours" and one called "HTML, XHTML, CSS and
>>> Javascript" which is absolutely useless. Also, I recently bought
>>> "Supercharged Javascript Graphics" where I can't follow the code,
>>> which is what brought me to this group.
>>> [ ... ]

>> The titles indicate that the content of these books *must* be utter crap.
>
>      "*must*"?

No, of course not, but we're all entitled to some minor hyperbole, no?


> Jo(e) Author writes the definitive JavaScript book.  The
> publisher gives it a title you do not like.  Hmm.

There are a lot of demands on my time, and plenty of books that I
might want to read, including, these days, plenty of books on
Javascript.  So the initial weeding out is going to be fairly
ruthless.  The title and author are going to be the first things I
consider.  So, if I hear "Javascript Cookbook", my first thought is
that it's supplying a collection of recipes, means to solve predefined
problems.  I have a few O'Reilly Cookbooks; one of them is a decent
book, but none of them is something I would suggest as a way to learn
the basics of a language, or even as a good means of progressing from
basic to intermediate.  So in lieu of any further information, that
one immediately sounds like a bad idea for a beginner.

Then we have "Sams Teach Yourself Javascript in 24 Hours".  I've only
seen these Sams Teach Yourself X in 24 Hours books; I've never
bothered to read them because I've rarely wanted to buy a book on
something that I thought I could learn in a day.  Either the title is
overoptimistic or the subject is too trivial to write a book about.
So I see no reason to pick this book up, unless something else (most
likely a recommendation from someone I trust) says otherwise.

And finally, "HTML, XHTML, CSS and Javascript".  This is much more
promising.  If I'm looking for a book on Web Technologies, there is
nothing in this title to suggest anything wrong.  But if I want to
focus on Javascript, the title is going to make me think that my
material is going to make up only about a quarter of the book.
Perhaps I should look elsewhere for a dedicated book.

So perhaps you shouldn't judge a book by its cover -- or its title --
but if the author and/or publishers have buried the worthwhile content
behind a misleading title, I don't feel too bad about overlooking it
until further evidence is unearthed.

  -- Scott

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#16513

Scott Sauyet wrote:
...
> Then we have "Sams Teach Yourself Javascript in 24 Hours".  I've only
> seen these Sams Teach Yourself X in 24 Hours books; I've never
> bothered to read them because I've rarely wanted to buy a book on
> something that I thought I could learn in a day.  Either the title is
> overoptimistic or the subject is too trivial to write a book about.
> So I see no reason to pick this book up, unless something else (most
> likely a recommendation from someone I trust) says otherwise.

I have used one of those books, when I needed to get some basics of Java
down in a hurry.

I actually did it in about 24 hours of working time, over a long
weekend, but I think it might have taken longer for someone without much
practice at learning programming languages.

It would not have worked as the only book for my Java education. I've
read many other books, the Java Language Specification, big chunks of
the API documentation etc.

If you need to rapidly get to being able to program a bit in a language,
and have to do it in a very short time, it may be worth looking at the
appropriate Teach Yourself XXX in 24 Hours, but don't imagine you have
finished learning the language at the end of the book.

I skipped that book for JavaScript because I do have more than 24 hours
to learn it, and wanted to go straight to a more thorough treatment.

Patricia

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#16517

On Tue, 9 Oct 2012 11:43:20 -0700 (PDT), Scott Sauyet
<scott.sauyet@gmail.com> wrote:

>Gene Wirchenko wrote:
>> Gregor Kofler wrote:
>>> schrieb I Am Here:
>
>>>> The 3 books I have are "Javascript Cookbook", "Sams Teach Yourself
>>>> Javascript in 24 hours" and one called "HTML, XHTML, CSS and
>>>> Javascript" which is absolutely useless. Also, I recently bought
>>>> "Supercharged Javascript Graphics" where I can't follow the code,
>>>> which is what brought me to this group.
>>>> [ ... ]
>
>>> The titles indicate that the content of these books *must* be utter crap.
>>
>>      "*must*"?
>
>No, of course not, but we're all entitled to some minor hyperbole, no?

     When it is advice on the very area, it makes the advice much less
valuable.

>> Jo(e) Author writes the definitive JavaScript book.  The
>> publisher gives it a title you do not like.  Hmm.

[snipped argument that I could write]

>So perhaps you shouldn't judge a book by its cover -- or its title --
>but if the author and/or publishers have buried the worthwhile content
>behind a misleading title, I don't feel too bad about overlooking it
>until further evidence is unearthed.

     I quite agree.  Let me add "for Dummies" books to the list.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

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#16510

Am 2012-10-09 19:06, Gene Wirchenko meinte:
> On Tue, 09 Oct 2012 18:43:47 +0200, Gregor Kofler
> <usenet@gregorkofler.com> wrote:
>
>> Am 2012-10-09 15:19, schrieb I Am Here:
>>> Thanks guys, for all the replies. Count on me as a new addition to this group :)
>>>
>>> The 3 books I have are "Javascript Cookbook", "Sams Teach Yourself Javascript in 24 hours" and one called "HTML, XHTML, CSS and Javascript" which is absolutely useless. Also, I recently bought "Supercharged Javascript Graphics" where I can't follow the code, which is what brought me to this group.
>>>
>>> Yes, it's the referring to object properties as array subscripts that I find confusing, but also as colon separated items inside a {} block. I'll post more on this when my head clears up a little, I've got a slight fever at the moment, and I just can't stay at the computer too long :)
>>>
>>> Anyway, a little introduction telling me which country each of you are from would be nice to start with :) Me, I'm Indian.
>>
>> The titles indicate that the content of these books *must* be utter crap.
>
>       "*must*"?

Well... yes.

"JavaScript Cookbook" - recipes for problems the author seems worth 
writing about.

"Teach Yourself JS in 24 Hours" - makes me wonder, why "I am here" is 
here (in this NG).

"HTML, XHTML, CSS and Javascript" - PHP, Apache, MySQL and Python is 
missing...

(I miss the "Way of the JavaScript Ninja" or whatever it was called.)

>       Jo(e) Author writes the definitive JavaScript book.  The
> publisher gives it a title you do not like.  Hmm.

Joe Author should be man enough to get the title he or she seems 
appropriate.

>> So far Crockford's "JS The Good Parts" has been the only JS book I found
>> worth reading.
>
>       After not trusting books bacause of titles, you trust a book with
> "crock" in the author's name?  If you are going to be bigoted, please
> be consistent about it.

The title is fitting. I don't care about author's names.


Gregor

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#16518

On Tue, 09 Oct 2012 20:55:20 +0200, Gregor Kofler
<usenet@gregorkofler.com> wrote:

>Am 2012-10-09 19:06, Gene Wirchenko meinte:
>> On Tue, 09 Oct 2012 18:43:47 +0200, Gregor Kofler
>> <usenet@gregorkofler.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Am 2012-10-09 15:19, schrieb I Am Here:
>>>> Thanks guys, for all the replies. Count on me as a new addition to this group :)
>>>>
>>>> The 3 books I have are "Javascript Cookbook", "Sams Teach Yourself Javascript in 24 hours" and one called "HTML, XHTML, CSS and Javascript" which is absolutely useless. Also, I recently bought "Supercharged Javascript Graphics" where I can't follow the code, which is what brought me to this group.
>>>>
>>>> Yes, it's the referring to object properties as array subscripts that I find confusing, but also as colon separated items inside a {} block. I'll post more on this when my head clears up a little, I've got a slight fever at the moment, and I just can't stay at the computer too long :)
>>>>
>>>> Anyway, a little introduction telling me which country each of you are from would be nice to start with :) Me, I'm Indian.
>>>
>>> The titles indicate that the content of these books *must* be utter crap.
>>
>>       "*must*"?
>
>Well... yes.

     No.  They might well not be suitable, but a mistitled book is
still useful.

>"JavaScript Cookbook" - recipes for problems the author seems worth 
>writing about.
>
>"Teach Yourself JS in 24 Hours" - makes me wonder, why "I am here" is 
>here (in this NG).
>
>"HTML, XHTML, CSS and Javascript" - PHP, Apache, MySQL and Python is 
>missing...

     Why no.  The title includes browser-side only.

>(I miss the "Way of the JavaScript Ninja" or whatever it was called.)
>
>>       Jo(e) Author writes the definitive JavaScript book.  The
>> publisher gives it a title you do not like.  Hmm.
>
>Joe Author should be man enough to get the title he or she seems 
>appropriate.

     It has nothing to do with manhood, but with marketing and
contracts.

>>> So far Crockford's "JS The Good Parts" has been the only JS book I found
>>> worth reading.
>>
>>       After not trusting books bacause of titles, you trust a book with
>> "crock" in the author's name?  If you are going to be bigoted, please
>> be consistent about it.
>
>The title is fitting. I don't care about author's names.

     Nor I much.  I was poking fun.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

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#16527

Gregor Kofler wrote:
> (I miss the "Way of the JavaScript Ninja" or whatever it was called.)

I think _Secrets of the Javascript Ninjas_ is actually about to be
released, believe it or not.  I do technical reviews for some Manning
books, and they just asked me for my mailing address for the
complimentary paper copy they send to their technical reviewers.  I'm
guessing that means that it will hit the shelves quite soon.

Like other of Resig's work, it is a mix of some very good and some ...
let's say less good ... content, or it was when I did my last review
of it several years ago.

  -- Scott

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#16507

On 2012-10-09 18:43, Gregor Kofler wrote:
> So far Crockford's "JS The Good Parts" has been the only JS book I found 
> worth reading.

It's certainly worth reading, but for the OP: this book does not teach
JavaScript; instead it defines a subset of the language and calls it
"The Good Parts". Some of the "bad" and the "ugly" parts are also
mentioned in passing, but the book is in no way a reference of what's
syntactically possible in JavaScript or ECMAScript. Crockford's JSLint
behaves in much the same way, as it will sometimes stop parsing and
complain about a supposed syntax error, where the syntax is actually
valid ES, but not included in Crockford's idea of good style.

I would recommend the book for advanced readers, not for beginners. When
reading it, I would also recommend keeping in mind what the book
actually is: a longish opinion piece about what the language should have
been, according to one person.

- stefan

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#16512

Am 2012-10-09 20:09, Stefan Weiss meinte:
> On 2012-10-09 18:43, Gregor Kofler wrote:
>> So far Crockford's "JS The Good Parts" has been the only JS book I found
>> worth reading.
>
> It's certainly worth reading, but for the OP: this book does not teach
> JavaScript; instead it defines a subset of the language and calls it
> "The Good Parts". Some of the "bad" and the "ugly" parts are also
> mentioned in passing, but the book is in no way a reference of what's
> syntactically possible in JavaScript or ECMAScript. Crockford's JSLint
> behaves in much the same way, as it will sometimes stop parsing and
> complain about a supposed syntax error, where the syntax is actually
> valid ES, but not included in Crockford's idea of good style.
>
> I would recommend the book for advanced readers, not for beginners. When
> reading it, I would also recommend keeping in mind what the book
> actually is: a longish opinion piece about what the language should have
> been, according to one person.

Agreed. If I look for reference (or learning) I'd suggest online 
ressources. My personal favorite is MDN, which also hosts a nice 
introduction:

<https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Guide>

Gregor

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#16520

On Tue, 09 Oct 2012 21:01:02 +0200, Gregor Kofler
<usenet@gregorkofler.com> wrote:

[snip]

>Agreed. If I look for reference (or learning) I'd suggest online 
>ressources. My personal favorite is MDN, which also hosts a nice 
>introduction:
>
><https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/JavaScript/Guide>

     After a quick look, it looks reasonable.  Thank you for posting
this link.

Sincerely,

Gene Wirchenko

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#16532

On Tue, 9 Oct 2012 at 18:43:47, in comp.lang.javascript, Gregor Kofler
wrote:

  <snip>
>So far Crockford's "JS The Good Parts" has been the only JS book I
>found worth reading.

His code for emulating Java-like constructors and inheritance are an
example of horrible software design, and his reason for doing this is
remarkably feeble.

On the other hand, scattered here and there through the book are the
things in ECMAScript that are traps for the unwary. Because of this, I
mark the book as high as 2 out of 10.

  John
-- 
John Harris

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#16534

In article 
<nAf1eOFeWYdQFwWj@J.A830F0FF37FB96852AD08924D9443D28E23ED5CD>,
 John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote:

> On Tue, 9 Oct 2012 at 18:43:47, in comp.lang.javascript, Gregor Kofler
> wrote:
> 
>   <snip>
> >So far Crockford's "JS The Good Parts" has been the only JS book I
> >found worth reading.
> 
> His code for emulating Java-like constructors and inheritance are an
> example of horrible software design, and his reason for doing this is
> remarkably feeble.

As are any reasons he might advance for having written the book in the 
first place. As has already been said, it's merely one man's opinion 
about what constitutes good style.

-- 
Tim

"That excessive bail ought not to be required, nor excessive fines imposed,
nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted"  --  Bill of Rights 1689

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#16554

On Wed, 10 Oct 2012 at 15:58:33, in comp.lang.javascript, Tim Streater
wrote:
>In article <nAf1eOFeWYdQFwWj@J.A830F0FF37FB96852AD08924D9443D28E23ED5CD
>>,
>John G Harris <john@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> On Tue, 9 Oct 2012 at 18:43:47, in comp.lang.javascript, Gregor Kofler
>> wrote:
>>    <snip>
>> >So far Crockford's "JS The Good Parts" has been the only JS book I
>> >found worth reading.
>>  His code for emulating Java-like constructors and inheritance are an
>> example of horrible software design, and his reason for doing this is
>> remarkably feeble.
>
>As are any reasons he might advance for having written the book in the
>first place. As has already been said, it's merely one man's opinion
>about what constitutes good style.

It's worse than just his personal style. He tells lies about the
language as well.

  John
-- 
John Harris

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#16556

John G Harris wrote:
> Tim Streater wrote:
>> John G Harris  wrote:
>>> Gregor Kofler wrote:

>>>> So far Crockford's "JS The Good Parts" has been the only JS book I
>>>> found worth reading.

>>>  His code for emulating Java-like constructors and inheritance are an
>>> example of horrible software design, and his reason for doing this is
>>> remarkably feeble.

>> As are any reasons he might advance for having written the book in the
>> first place. As has already been said, it's merely one man's opinion
>> about what constitutes good style.

> It's worse than just his personal style. He tells lies about the
> language as well.

For example?

I've found many places where I disagree with his opinions, but I
haven't noticed anything that look like lies to me.  What have you
seen?

  -- Scott

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