matthistory's review against another edition
5.0
Do you do web development and use Javascript? Then you MUST READ THIS BOOK.
nakedsushi's review against another edition
4.0
4-stars for a short technical book. This one was clear, concise, and introduced lots ways to use javascript that I never thought of before. I'm excited to start using javascript as a real programming language now.
pentalith5's review against another edition
5.0
This book is fantastic. There are at least 400 pages-worth of information crammed into those 176 pages. This book is definitely not written with the beginner programmer in mind. Even for an intermediate programmer such as myself, I often needed to read sentences three or four times in order to understand them. (Not because the writing was sloppy, but because of having to scour the depths of my brain to remember the meaning of terms like "lexical scope" and "prototypal inheritance").
I love this book for the same reason I love programming. Programming is an endeavor which demands exactitude. And one of the main problems that Crockford identifies with JavaScript is that it is much too forgiving of sloppiness, which can lead to errors or security risks. So the purpose of the book is to prove that if you peel away the Bad Parts of JavaScript, you reveal a shining core of Good JavaScript. Crockford teaches us how to avoid the pitfalls and write reliable, fast, and powerful code using the language of the Web which is, for better and worse, not going away any time soon.
One of the Best parts about the Good Parts is that they are all you need to write any program conceivable in JavaScript. Fortunate for us, and a testament to the fact that JavaScript is a totally legit language, the Bad Parts are avoidable, and not terribly hard to avoid either. Just a few more lines of code. And honestly, I've never been the type of programmer who sacrifices readability for density, so I'm happy to do a little extra work in order to build the most stable program possible. Crockford seems to agree. We are on a wavelength, I tell you.
So anyway. Read this book after you've gone through a few online tutorials on JavaScript, but don't wait too long after you've started coding, so that bad habits don't sneak in and solidify too much.
I love this book for the same reason I love programming. Programming is an endeavor which demands exactitude. And one of the main problems that Crockford identifies with JavaScript is that it is much too forgiving of sloppiness, which can lead to errors or security risks. So the purpose of the book is to prove that if you peel away the Bad Parts of JavaScript, you reveal a shining core of Good JavaScript. Crockford teaches us how to avoid the pitfalls and write reliable, fast, and powerful code using the language of the Web which is, for better and worse, not going away any time soon.
One of the Best parts about the Good Parts is that they are all you need to write any program conceivable in JavaScript. Fortunate for us, and a testament to the fact that JavaScript is a totally legit language, the Bad Parts are avoidable, and not terribly hard to avoid either. Just a few more lines of code. And honestly, I've never been the type of programmer who sacrifices readability for density, so I'm happy to do a little extra work in order to build the most stable program possible. Crockford seems to agree. We are on a wavelength, I tell you.
So anyway. Read this book after you've gone through a few online tutorials on JavaScript, but don't wait too long after you've started coding, so that bad habits don't sneak in and solidify too much.
heymacarena's review against another edition
informative
fast-paced
4.0
A bit outdated nowdays but still one of the best books to understand that some parts of the language are best left alone, while giving you insights on how to use the good parts to replace the not so good ones
pustulio's review against another edition
3.0
Es un excelente libro para saber más del javascript, pero creo que si debes de tener un conocimiento previo a leer este libro. No lo recomendaría para alguien que inicia de 0.
EL JAVASCRIPT
EL JAVASCRIPT
thirtytwobirds's review against another edition
3.0
A decent explanation of how to work around some of the most terrible parts of Javascript. If you have to write JS, it's worth reading.
wagmore's review against another edition
4.0
Well, I see that it's been a couple of years since I read this excellent piece of technical writing. Seems like it's about time for a refresher on some of the esoteric stuff.
nonsensetwice's review against another edition
1.0
This book was clearly written by someone who wanted JavaScript to conform to their idea of how a programming language should operate, rather than someone who had taken the time to thoroughly learn the language and leverage its idiosyncrasies. Almost everything is a “mistake” or a “bad part,” but you can avoid these mistakes and bad parts if you use this language in this very strict sense. The book overall was very dogmatic and, quite honestly, annoying. Why write a book where you’ll spend more time trashing a language than giving insight into how to use it better? With very little exception, this turned out to be an unsavory read.