Eloquent Javascript, 3rd Edition: A Modern Introduction to Programming

By Marijn Haverbeke

Book Overview

Completely revised and updated, this best-selling introduction to programming in JavaScript focuses on writing real applications.

JavaScript lies at the heart of almost every modern web application, from social apps like Twitter to browser-based game frameworks like Phaser and Babylon. Though simple for beginners to pick up and play with, JavaScript is a flexible, complex language that you can use to build full-scale applications.

This much anticipated and thoroughly revised third edition of Eloquent JavaScript dives deep into the JavaScript language to show you how to write beautiful, effective code. It has been updated to reflect the current state of Java?Script and web browsers and includes brand-new material on features like class notation, arrow functions, iterators, async functions, template strings, and block scope. A host of new exercises have also been added to test your skills and keep you on track.

As with previous editions, Haverbeke continues to teach through extensive examples and immerses you in code from the start, while exercises and full-chapter projects give you hands-on experience with writing your own programs. You start by learning the basic structure of the JavaScript language as well as control structures, functions, and data structures to help you write basic programs. Then you'll learn about error handling and bug fixing, modularity, and asynchronous programming before moving on to web browsers and how JavaScript is used to program them. As you build projects such as an artificial life simulation, a simple programming language, and a paint program, you'll learn how to:

- Understand the essential elements of programming, including syntax, control, and data
- Organize and clarify your code with object-oriented and functional programming techniques
- Script the browser and make basic web applications
- Use the DOM effectively to interact with browsers
- Harness Node.js to build servers and utilities

Isn't it time you became fluent in the language of the Web?

* All source code is available online in an inter?active sandbox, where you can edit the code, run it, and see its output instantly.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1593279507
• ISBN13: 9781593279509
• Release Date: December 2018
• Publisher: No Starch Press
• Length: 472 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.9" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Poor English and Obtuse

This book is often lauded as a way to learn Javascript on your own. The types of people who recommend this book are inevitably experienced programmers who are out of touch with the mindset of a beginner. When you Google 'How did *you* learn Javascript?' this book is almost never mentioned, if at all. Pages are dedicated to ridiculous visuals for the exercises while the English remains nigh unreadable. It is not, as you might surmise, a result of technical jargon but rather a poor grasp of basic explanation in the English language; very technical exercises are not reduced to digestible chunks, but rather built upon using descriptions of real-world behavior that the program attempts to replicate. I cannot stress enough how unhelpful and unnecessary doing this is. Index references are also errant. When a concept is introduced it is ignored until around ten or so pages later at which time you've forgotten the purpose. It requires such a great amount of outside reading and flipping pages back and forth constantly that there is almost no point to the book being written. The contents of this book are similar to an elementary school teacher instructing students on basic mathematical operations and then asking them to build formulas out of them. I am okay at Javascript now and I only ever open this book out of a sick curiosity because I'm in disbelief at how bad it is. No offense to the author, but this book is simply not what it purports to be. It cannot figure out if it is a beginners guide, a reference book, or a documentation guide for experienced programmers looking to switch to Javascript. It does none of these things particularly well.