Must Read: JavaScript: The Good Parts

Posted on by

JavaScript: The Good Parts

JavaScript: The Good Parts

I just finished JavaScript: The Good Parts by Douglas Crockford and I highly, highly recommend it for anyone who is coming from a programming world that isn’t JavaScript. It’s an intelligent, and well-written book, but it also does the best job of anything I’ve seen yet at explaining some of the nuances of JavaScript and why they can be beneficial.

I was absolutely one of those people who looked at JavaScript as a runty kid brother when I compared it to ActionScript 3. I started off wanting a lot of what ActionScript 3 had in JavaScript. This book completely changed my opinion because it did a fantastic job of laying out how some of the seemingly less-well designed parts of JavaScript end up being pretty powerful. It also highlights some of the areas (like Scope) where JavaScript uses C-like syntax but doesn’t implement it in the same way and may trip up developers. Finally there are a couple of chapters on the bad and awful parts of JavaScript to be aware of.

In a lot of ways it’s the perfect book for someone coming from AS3 to JavaScript. I think it will give you some new found respect for JavaScript and help with some of the parts of JS that seem a little contrary.

Related posts:

  1. AIR for JavaScript Developers is now Available for Download
  2. JavaScript Templating – Kind of Like ItemRenderers or Binding from Flex
  3. “Users don’t care about Flash vs Javascript; they care about usability and productivity.”
  4. WebSocket Charting Demo with HTML5 and JavaScript
  5. Come Learn JavaScript and HTML on the On AIR Tour Europe
  • polyGeek

    Obviously a short read. Buh-dum-pmp :-)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Hah! Incidentally it is a small book so it’s easy to get through. But not short on content ;)

  • http://www.tink.ws/blog Tink

    ”
    I was absolutely one of those people who looked at JavaScript as a runty kid brother when I compared it to ActionScript 3.”

    That is true, until Adobe changed their marketing tact.

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Ehh, I don’t know that it was Adobe marketing as much as it was me just not branching out. And it’s not like Flash and ActionScript are going away or aren’t relevant. I’m just not as interested in building games or video experiences so it’s been fun to jump into JS.

  • Andrew Traviss

    Ryan, my problem with JS, as an AS developer, has never been that I don’t think it has any good ideas. It just doesn’t seem to have many (currently implemented) good ideas that aren’t already implemented in AS. Is this book going to do much to disprove this notion?

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    A quick caveat. One, I wasn’t an AS2 developer, I jumped from some basic Java to AS3 so I never did much in AS2. That said, I don’t know if it will disprove that notion as much as it shines a spotlight on why some of the differences between JS and AS3 can be helpful. You’re right that there aren’t that many good ideas that aren’t already in AS3, but I thought it was very helpful at providing examples and context around some of the major differences and how they can be used powerfully.

    Does that make sense?

  • Andrew Traviss

    Yes it does, thanks. Not quite as eager to pick this one up based on that as I was at first glance, but it will probably still find a place on the bookshelf.

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    And it’s tiny, something like ~150 small pages, so it’s pretty quick to just glance through.

  • David Wright

    Hi Ryan,

    I agree that the book is great. But I think an even better book is JavaScript Patterns by Stoyan Stefanov. If you are coming from AS3 or AS2 this really explains well, the JavaScript way.

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Awesome! I’ll grab that one today. Thanks David!

  • http://blog.digitalbackcountry.com Ryan Stewart

    Awesome! I’ll grab that one today. Thanks David!

  • http://twitter.com/Kauai_Realtors Cory Beadle

    I have not read this book, but I will have to check it out.. still not a professional with Java, but its a never ending journey. Great website, I will be back for more!

    Thanks!

  • http://twitter.com/Kauai_Realtors Cory Beadle

    I have not read this book, but I will have to check it out.. still not a professional with Java, but its a never ending journey. Great website, I will be back for more!

    Thanks!