JavaScript: The Good Parts

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 170 pages
• Published by: O'Reilly Media, Inc. May 8, 2008
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0596517742
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0596517748
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 0.5 inches
• Weighs: 9.6 ounces

Product Description
Most programming languages contain good and terrible parts, but JavaScript has more than its share of the bad, having been developed and released in a hurry before it could be refined. This authoritative book scrapes away these terrible features to reveal a subset of JavaScript that's more reliable, readable, and maintainable than the language as a whole-a subset you can use to create truly extensible and efficient code. Considered the JavaScript expert by many people in the development community, author Douglas Crockford identifies the abundance of good ideas that make JavaScript an outstanding object-oriented programming language-ideas such as functions, loose typing, dynamic objects, and an expressive object literal notation. Unfortunately, these good ideas are mixed in with terrible and downright awful ideas, like a programming model based on global variables. When Java applets failed, JavaScript became the language of the Web by default, making its popularity almost completely independent of its qualities as a programming language. In JavaScript: The Good Parts, Crockford finally digs through the steaming pile of good intentions and blunders to give you a detailed look at all the genuinely elegant parts of JavaScript, including: Syntax Objects Functions Inheritance Arrays Regular expressions Methods Style gorgeous features The real beauty? As you move ahead with the subset of JavaScript that this book presents, you'll also sidestep the need to unlearn all the terrible parts. Of course, if you want to find out more about the terrible parts and how to use them badly, simply consult any other JavaScript book. With JavaScript: The Good Parts, you'll discover a gorgeous, elegant, lightweight and highlyexpressive language that lets you create effective code, whether you're managing object libraries or just trying to get Ajax to run fast. If you develop sites or applications for the Web, this book is an absolute must.

About The Author
Douglas Crockford is a Senior JavaScript Architect at Yahoo!, well known for introducing and maintaining the JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format. He's a regular speaker at conferences on advanced JavaScript topics, and serves on the ECMAScript committee.

Reader Reviews
This is a beautiful book. First of all - at only 170 pages it is short. Even though some of the key points are repeated through the book it's dense with information. You don't need any JavaScript experience, but it's not a "beginning programming" book so if you haven't been programming before this is not the right book for you. Reading this book a couple of times will give you an appreciation for the JavaScript language that you almost certainly didn't have before. It'll give you tools to write better programs that you and others will actually be able to maintain over time. I've learned lots of little things that I maybe knew from experience, but now I _know_ and I know why. This book will help you battle with JavaScript rather than against it. Comment | | (Report this)