Filled with real world advice and wisdom.

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Book:		Learning JavaScript
Subject:		Filled with real world advice and wisdom.
Date:		2007-01-04 20:04:14
From:		Anonymous Reader

Rating: Learning Javascript gives a very thorough walk-through of the Javascript language. It doesn't just teach you how to use the language features that are the most convenient or popular. Powerful and advanced concepts (such as recursion and closures) are also covered in order to expose you to the entire language so you won't be surprised when you see it used in the libraries you may end up using. The book is filled with numerous best practices born of experience and historical anecdotes that provide valuable perspective. I've often wondered what the difference was between the various object models offered by the browser and this book answers that question. The book is not designed to be a reference manual as it is not filled with tables that contain the properties of every object or function you may run across. It does, however, provide you with more in-depth information than you would probably be able to get from a reference manual. For example, it details the three different ways you can construct a function and provides information on when and why you may want to use each. Each chapter of the book covers one aspect of the language. There are numerous examples that illustrate the concept being discussed. I really enjoyed seeing the author's depth of insight as she explains the various topics. You can tell she has been doing web development for a long time from all of the historical information she provides. This historical information has very practical value as it explains many of the idiosyncrasies of the language. I've often heard that Javascript is a very powerful and under appreciated language. This book attempts to expose that power and make it usable by all users of the language. I think the author has done a good job at doing just that.