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.

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Re: Oh, so that's how a book about a programming language should be written...,  June 06 2008
Submitted by Anonymous Reader   [Respond | View]

This book may be great for advanced programmers but it is really bad for beginners. The railroad diagrams are very unintuitive. Would examples have killed you?

The book is beyond terse with way too few examples and very poor explanation for beginners. Definitely don't get it if you're a beginner.

Mr. Crockford on the other hand has fantastic videos on the web with a wonderful energy to teach but seems to fall into the hole so many intellectuals do where they can't go back to step 1 and explain from there clearly.

He is a wonderful speaker though. Maybe we just need more of his great videos.


Oh, so that's how a book about a programming language should be written...,  June 04 2008
Submitted by robreed   [Respond | View]

You could say that I'm the sort of person who complains a lot. I'd prefer to think of myself as someone with high, but reasonable, expectation who is often disappointed.

The purpose of that introduction is to try to convince you that I'm more likely to assume the role of critic than flatterer. Are that setup, maybe you'll guess that what follows is one doozy of a compliment.

It may be true that I have never enjoyed reading 19 pages of any programming book more than the first 19 pages (the first 2 chapters) of "JavaScript: The Good Parts".

Chapter 1 "The Good Parts", which serves as an introduction, is a pithy assessment of the good and the bad of JavaScript, and as importantly, the good and the bad of the approach, attitudes, and biases people bring with them to the topic that threaten to skew their opinions of the language. The author accomplishes this in four pages.

Before I continue, I want to make the point that I am not a huge fan of JavaScript, but these issues are not specific to Javascript. Many of the author's remarks apply to almost any language, or more generally the circumstance of working with something new and unfamiliar, especially when we are only reluctantly doing it because we are obligated to.

Chapter 2 "Grammar" must be the most succinct, well-written treatment of the grammar of a programming language I have ever read (and unfortunately I have read more than my fair share). I know we tend to think of writing in computer books as no more than a means to an end, but I would argue that Chapter 2 in "JavaScript: The Good Parts" is art.

I have read the entire book, but feel inspired to comment on just the first two chapters because they are special. I will say that the rest of the book does not disappoint.

The author's obvious sincerity and the matter-of-fact style of the writing may even persuade experienced programmers to set-aside their predispositions and prejudices in favor of fairly considering JavaScript.

Thanks to the author!

Finally, I want to say that I hope to see more ":The Good Parts" titles in the future from O'Reilly. I would argue that a great approach that works for more than just programming topics.

To answer a question readers of this review may be asking, while this is a very good first JavaScript book, it is not an appropriate introduction to programming. That's unfortunate for all of the prospective programmers out there. I would love to see an introductory programming book inspired by this one.

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