Subscriber Reviews

Average Rating:  Based on 51 Ratings

"Changed the way I write software" - by Bruce Van Horn on 13-MAY-2013
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I'm sure others have said it already.  If you don't know javascript, start with this book and ignore the others as they will only lead you astray.  I've been able to take the ideas I learned from Crockfordian JavaScript to make me a more adept C# programmer and a better teacher.
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"Classic" - by Tello on 30-JUN-2012
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Douglas puts together in a clear voice the good parts of JavaScript.  For anyone serious about JavaScript and using it in their career should read this book.  You will find that your time was well spent.
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"Probably the best programming book I've ever read" - by mfdj on 11-JUN-2012
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You'll love this book if you're like me and have a solid grounding in strictly-typed, more formal language (Actionscript 3) and always struggled with the weird scoping and prototype inheritance model.

Mr. Cockford's overview of the language is kind of a monumental achievement. By choosing to discuss the language in terms of good and bad it's easy to focus on the meaningful grammar and useful aspects of javascript and not get bogged down in the ugly. Too many books just regurgitate the language spec with examples.

With that brevity comes an understanding that the reader understands programming concepts, OOP, and some basic design patterns. It's for taking your muddled novice skills to the next level.
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"JavaScript: The Good Parts" - by mitchellm44 on 10-MAR-2012
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In looking over the reviews that indicated this book to be "poorly written" - make me think that the commenters might not have been hit with the descrepancies in the language (yet).

I have seen this book as a book that MUST be read by anyone who want to be proficient in JavaScript - there are nuances to this language that you might not understand on a first take - especially coming from a "similar" syntax language (which I did).

I saw the Google TechTalk video, where Doug Crockford put up a slide on the way you use curly-brackets in JavaScript can cause you to not even see an error - if you put your brackets under the function - you lose - if you put your bracket to the right of the function - you got it right. If you dont understand that the implied semicolon occurs when you dont, and your error goes unreported - you will fight with your confusion for more time than you would need to - if you had read this book - and understood it.

This should be required reading for anyone thinking of serious web development in the 2nd decade of the 21st centure. Before the 21st century - I am not sure that the understanding of this language had matured enough to grok the differences. Please learn the language correctly and don't assume you know.

Using the jslint functions wil help you understand this even more.

Your programming of this language will only improve as you understand the pitfalls of this language - and use it to solve real problems - the right way - described here.
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"Enlightening" - by Patrick Roumanoff on 25-MAR-2011
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This excellent book made me discover javascript even though I have been "using" the langage for more than 10 years I discovered I didn't know the first thing about it.

it is short, concise and very informative.
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