JavaScript: The Good Parts 1st Edition

by Douglas Crockford (Author)

573 customer reviews

ISBN-13: 978-0596517748

ISBN-10: 0596517742

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Most programming languages contain good and bad 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 bad 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 bad 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
Beautiful 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 bad parts. Of course, if you want to find out more about the bad parts and how to use them badly, simply consult any other JavaScript book.

With JavaScript: The Good Parts, you'll discover a beautiful, elegant, lightweight and highly expressive 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.

JavaScript: The Good Parts

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From the Preface

This is a book about the JavaScript programming language. It is intended for programmers who, by happenstance or curiosity, are venturing into JavaScript for the first time. It is also intended for programmers who have been working with JavaScript at a novice level and are now ready for a more sophisticated relationship with the language. JavaScript is a surprisingly powerful language. Its presents some challenges, but being a small language, it is easily mastered.

My goal here is to help you to learn to think in JavaScript. I will show you the components of the language and start you on the process of discovering the ways those components can be put together. This is not a reference book. It is not exhaustive about the language and its quirks. It doesn't contain everything you'll ever need to know. That stuff you can easily find online. Instead, this book just contains the things that are really important.

This is not a book for beginners. Someday I hope to write a JavaScript: The First Parts book, but this is not that book. This is not a book about Ajax or web programming. The focus is exclusively on JavaScript, which is just one of the languages the web developer must master.

Book Description

Unearthing the Excellence in JavaScript

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.

Paperback: 176 pages
Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (May 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0596517742
ISBN-13: 978-0596517748
Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.4 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 573 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,161 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #6 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Web Programming > JavaScript
- #10 in Books > Textbooks > Computer Science > Software Design & Engineering
- #11 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development & Design > Web Design

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Top customer reviews

One of the most important Javascript books ever written

ByRoger Penceon August 22, 2016

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Let's be clear, this book doesn't cover jQuery nor was it written by the author of CSS: The Missing Manual. This book is also not about Ajax or Web programming. It's about how to take your understanding of JavaScript up several notches. The preface clearly says this book isn't for beginners and also warns it may take multiple warnings to understand.

Don't let the silly negative reviews fool you, any serious JavaScript developer should own this book. It is certainly one of the most important JavaScript books ever written. It will make your JavaScript better.

0Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Direct Content for Strong Developers Moving to JavaScript

ByAmazon Customeron December 13, 2015

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I have decided to add JavaScript to the very long list of languages I've used in my career. Hands down, this book is absolutely perfect for the well seasoned software engineer looking for a no nonsense, no fluff, to the point, direct in content, high on information, short on explanation book about HOW TO PROPERLY USE JavaScript.

Don't pay attention to the comments about this book not having direction or too much fluff. Those are opinions of readers who did not have the capability to understand the content. I can say this because I have read this book many times and to be truthy, I didn't understand but maybe 50% of the content on initial readings.

This book is only about 100 pages (50 of which are the true core) of rock hard content. This is the book for a well seasoned traditional software engineer to begin learning JavaScript.

If you want an easier JavaScript book to read, I suggest following the instructions given in the book on page 3, "If you want to learn more about the bad parts and how to use them badly, consult any other JavaScript book."

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

Helping the best to win

ByDaniel Bondon September 15, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

In one of his videos, Douglas Crockford states: "JavaScript is a language that most people don't bother to learn before they use. You can't do that with any other language. And you shouldn't want to." Crockford has well-founded opinions and he isn't shy about expressing them. Just because you *can* do something doesn't mean you should do it. Crockford explains what and why not without wasting a lot of pages.

Chapters 3, 4 and 5 are the heart of the book. These thirty-six pages more than justify the book's cost. I tend to buy smaller books these days. This book reached a new high for the amount of useful content divided by price. (Rivaled by the "K & R" book. But have you priced that sucker lately?)

If you're new to Javascript and/or programming and wonder whether you should buy this book: go ahead. You will get more out of it than you might expect. Some chapters, such as "Arrays" are not difficult and allow a bit of relaxation. I personally like the railroad diagrams. These grammar diagrams are repeated in the back of the book -- a bit of redundancy.

I have to stretch to find something to gripe about, but here goes. In places, Crockford's explanation of a language flaw or limitation is immediately followed by a fix, usually by augmenting one of the base prototypes. It likely shows my own unfamiliarity with his subject matter, but I find these "corrections" jarring: I haven't yet grasped all the language features and here you are changing them in front of me. I'm not sure whether moving these fixes to a separate section(s) would be an improvement. Perhaps not.

Overall, a great read. Something you can refer to many times.

0Comment 2 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Excellent fast-track book for major usage features

Bygcron October 17, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

If you are new to JavaScript, then you have voluminous options available to your
for your pursuit of knowledge. In my case, I started with the ECMA-262 standard
for ECMAScript 5. You can tell that there was a lot of love there; though it
wasn't really the right place (at least for me) to get started. Instead I wanted
a "when the tires hit the pavement" overview, and the book delivered that.

The book is lovingly written in a way that all technical people should behave,
or for that matter, every conscious entity should behave: focus on the positive,
respect the negative, and move on with life. The book covers tons of great guts
of the language and how to use it "for real". I need not say more, the book
delivers on its promises, and that is why I gave it a 5/5.

The Kindle version looks great, everything is readable. The chapters and
sections are light and terse, you get a lot of bang for your buck. In terms of
the voice, it wasn't my personal preference, and for me it was really hard
reading, but that is my problem, not the author's, and consequently the rating
stands.

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Railroad Diagrams FTW!

Byrrs209on January 15, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a great book for anyone interested in JavaScript. The beginning goes a bit too deep into JS's muddy background but I guess it's somewhat helpful to know about why JS is chock-full of browser discrepancies.

My absolute favorite part of this book is the "railroad diamgrams" as they helped my fully understand how JS's syntax works, how and when white space becomes significant, and why things work the way they do (or don't). A++ D.C. ... thanks!

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Very nice book!

ByW. Ghoston September 25, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Concise and to the point, it's not only a book on Javascript -- it's also about good programming language design. Very nice book.

0CommentWas this review helpful to you?YesNo

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Five Stars

Not completely through it yet, but the information is invaluable.

Published 1 month ago by chazgw

Five Stars

Thank you.

Published 3 months ago by Brian

Not great.

Really hard to read. Did not enjoy the tone of the writing style. The actual content was interesting, just hard to access.

Published 3 months ago by Sandy Agafonoff

Five Stars

Is in good shape as advertised, thank you.

Published 3 months ago by Amazon Customer

Awesoem book

Awesome book. Must have for JS developers.

Published 4 months ago by Stephen Cirelli

Code examples are missing.

The digital book is useless, from chapter 4 onwards like the example code is white blocks. I would like a refund or the physical book.Read more

Published 6 months ago by Romiko Derbynew

Nearly a five star review... The author ...

Nearly a five star review... The author gives a couple arcane coding examples that could truly use some explanation, and there are some typos.

Published 6 months ago by Ivan

... know whether its Javascript or this book that is terrible. I guess it's the book

I don't know whether its Javascript or this book that is terrible. I guess it's the book.

Published 7 months ago by Cedric

The book that belongs on every web developer's shelf.

For many reasons every web developer or Javascript programmer needs to read this book at an early point in their journey.Read more

Published 8 months ago by Benny Bookman

Ivory Tower - Not Practical - Want Refund

The author does not once explain how doing things his way will make any difference I care about. I paid money for him to help me achieve my goals and not the other way around.Read more

Published 8 months ago by David Goloff, PhD

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