Reddit Reddit reviews JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Activate Your Web Pages (Definitive Guides)

We found 22 Reddit comments about JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Activate Your Web Pages (Definitive Guides). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.

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22 Reddit comments about JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Activate Your Web Pages (Definitive Guides):

u/ridicalis · 18 pointsr/javascript

The first thing that comes to mind is understanding scope. In particular, if you come from a C-esque language, this might be one of your biggest hangups. Understanding how the scope works before you write your code will inevitably lead to a better-written product.

(tl;dr for the rest of this: know the fundamentals)

The route I came up, I started as an OOP developer and thought JS was a toy language for much of my career. It wasn't until I took the time to understand the language that I came into my own as a JS dev, and it is currently my favorite language to develop for. If you're the book-reading sort, I would suggest the following resources in sequence:

  • JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (David Flanagan)
  • JavaScript: The Good Parts (Douglas Crockford)
  • JavaScript Patterns: Build Better Applications with Coding and Design Patterns (Stoyan Stefanov)

    If you follow this link and look at the Frequently Bought Together section, you'll see that these three form a common trifecta. What you can expect:

  • The first book will give you a fundamental understanding of the language (I would personally skip the DOM-related parts, since that's more framework/environment than language)
  • The second book will tell you "Okay, we just gave you a drawer full of knives, here are the ones that won't send you to the hospital"
  • The third book gives you a rationale for how and why to apply the language in certain ways. It deals with JS-specific issues, and also brings in some of the Gang of Four patterns and other best practices.

    (edit: added link to Amazon page for the first of the three books, fixed formatting)
u/meathead80 · 12 pointsr/exjw

There's a reason why there is a Javascript book (1096 pages) and another called Javascript: The Good Parts (176 pages).

I think the bible could use a similar treatment.

u/liaguris · 6 pointsr/learnjavascript

I learnt ( in fact I am still learning ) JS from YDKJS ( all books read almost 80% , you can view them legally here ) , EJ (read almost 60% , you can download it legally from here , the site of the book is here ) and MDN , with a background of : I know what if and for does and i also know what a function is . My advice is to jump from one resource to another if you feel you are stuck . Also I did not read them linearly . Another book that is useful although a bit outdated is DOM enlightment (read almost 20% of it) . I do believe that professional JS , and javascript.info are also worth to take a look .

Other resources for JS are a meh from me .

I have no clue about the third book in the video .

edit : js the definitive guide is also worth looking although a bit outdated .

u/RecycledAir · 6 pointsr/javascript

I've recently been working on my JS skills and heres a few resources I've found super useful:

Books:

Javascript Patterns

Javascript: The Good Parts

Javascript: The Definitive Guide (While an exhausive resource on the topic, this one is a bit verbose)

Web:

Mozilla's Javascript Guide (One of the best free online javascript guides/references.

How to Node (Tutorials on server-side Node.js)

Daily JS (Interesting JS related news)

Echo JS (Similar to above but updates less frequently)

Hacker News (This is more general tech news but there is a ton of useful web stuff, especially as node.js is currently a hot topic. Reddit actually spawned from HN)

Online Videos (free)

Douglas Crockford's Javascript Lectures (I would recommend these to anyone getting into javascript)

u/MoTTs_ · 6 pointsr/learnjavascript

I would say either JavaScript: The Definitive Guide or Speaking and Exploring JavaScript

u/adamzx3 · 5 pointsr/javascript

I can definitely relate, this sounds just like me last year! I've done things the hard way and it took me 5x longer. I also prefer screencasts to books. I always need to create a project to solidify those fresh skills, otherwise they'll be gone in a month. Also tutorials for things like Backbone assume you know how to use jQuery, Underscore, and things like REST, and JSON responses... this can quickly get confusing if your not familiar with all of these. My largest regret is not building enough practice apps in the last year. I really should have applied more by doing, instead of staying in the theoretical world.

Here are some insights that i've made and the courses/tuts/projects that helped me the most:


Learn the language first:


u/phao · 5 pointsr/learnprogramming

Eloquent JavaScript (http://eloquentjavascript.net/) has chapters on JavaScript for web programming (chapters 12 to 19).

As far as I know, JavaScript The Definitive Guide (http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Definitive-Guide-Activate-Guides/dp/0596805527/) also has several chapters on JavaScript for the web.

u/Zuslash · 5 pointsr/webdev

I found Lynda.com to be extremely dry and slow. To me it was the equivalent of those old school mandated educational movies you would watch in classrooms back in the 90s on your faux-wood tv. Take this opinion with a grain of salt though as it has been almost two years since I have looked at anything on Lynda, I hear it may be better today.

If you are looking for web development in particular I would suggest the following:

  • Codeademy - Free and very good at introducing basic web development skills.
  • Team Treehouse - Paid subscription but well worth it in my opinion as they will walk you through everything from the most basic HTML to building advanced JavaScript applications.
  • CodeSchool - CodeSchool tends to be more advanced and I would wait until you have a strong grasp on your HTML, CSS and JavaScript before investing in their coursework.

    In addition, StackOverflow; A general programming Q&A website, has an answer to just about any programming issue you may be running into. If the answer is not already there, then chances are you will have one within 24hours.

    I began my pursuit into web development about 2 years ago. In that time I have gone through the resources listed above as well as the following books which have helped immensely:

  • HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites - Ducketts whole series is extremely friendly to the new web developer and will help you build a solid foundation quite quickly.
  • JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development - Another Duckett book which was just released focusing primarily on JavaScript.
  • JavaScript: The Definitive Guide - A massive JavaScript reference. It has answers to just about everything.

    Some personal career history if you're interested:

    In the last two years I have gone from making 18k a year as a Technical Support Representative to 80k a year as a Front-End Engineer building JavaScript applications at a large FDIC Bank. It was only in the last two years that I really dug into Web Development (and programming for that matter) and I really can't see myself ever doing anything else for a living. The job requires an immense amount of learning (which I love) and will keep your mind sharp. I really do get a kick out of problem solving all day. Programming will require a major adjustment to the way you think. I can say that the way I work through problems now is completely different to the way I did before. I feel as if critical thinking has eluded me until the last two years and it has been a major life changing event. By far the biggest contributing factor to my growth has been the team I work with. You have to do your best to find a team that is willing to work with you as a junior so you can siphon that knowledge. Even if that means taking a low paying job, however; know your worth so that you can ask for the right amount of money once you have gained the necessary skills. As a personal rule of thumb, I will not stay at a company where I am the most knowledgable member of the team. This inhibits growth as a developer and will prevent me from realizing my true potential.

    Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions.


u/GrayDonkey · 3 pointsr/java

You need to understand there are a couple of ways to do Java web development.

  • Servlets & JSPs. - Check out Core Servlets and JavaServer Pages or the Java EE Tutorial. Note that I link to an older EE tutorial because the newer versions try to switch to JSF and not much changed in Servlets and JSPs between Java EE 5 and 6. I recommend learning Servlets and JSPs before anything else.
  • JSF - A frameworks that is layered on top of Servlets and JSPs. Works well for some tasks like making highly form centric business web apps. Most of the JSF 2 books are okay. JSF is covered in the Java EE 6 Tutorial
  • Spring - Spring is actually a bunch of things. You'd want to learn Spring MVC. If you learn any server-side Java web tech besides Servlets and JSPs you'd probably want to learn Spring MVC. I wouldn't bother with GWT or any other server-side Java web tech.
  • JAX-RS - After you get Servlets and JSPs down, this is the most essential thing for you to learn. More and more you don't use server-side Java (Servlets & JSPs) to generate your clients HTML and instead you use client-side JavaScript to make AJAX calls to a Java backend via HTTP/JSON. You'll probably spend more time with JavaScript:The Good Parts and JavaScript: The Definitive Guide than anything else. Also the JAX-RS api isn't that hard but designing a good RESTful api can be so be on the lookout for language agnostic REST books.

    Definitely learn Hibernate. You can start with the JPA material in the Java EE tutorial.

    As for design patterns, Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software is a classic. I also like Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture for more of an enterprise system pattern view of things. Probably avoid most J2EE pattern books. Most of the Java EE patterns come about because of deficiencies of the J2EE/JavaEE platform. As each new version of Java EE comes out you see that the patterns that have arisen become part for the platform. For example you don't create a lot of database DAOs because JPA/Hibernate handles your database integration layer. You also don't write a lot of service locators now because of CDI. So books like CoreJ2EE Patterns can interesting but if you are learning a modern Java web stack you'll be amazed at how archaic things used to be if you look at old J2EE pattern books.

    p.s. Don't buy anything that says J2EE, it'll be seven years out of date.
u/magenta_placenta · 3 pointsr/web_design

Pro JavaScript Design Patterns

http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Design-Patterns-Recipes-Problem-Solution/dp/159059908X

JavaScript Patterns

http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Patterns-Stoyan-Stefanov/dp/0596806752/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303912468&sr=1-1

High Performance JavaScript

http://www.amazon.com/Performance-JavaScript-Faster-Application-Interfaces/dp/059680279X/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303912468&sr=1-3

Object Oriented JavaScript

http://www.amazon.com/Object-Oriented-JavaScript-high-quality-applications-libraries/dp/1847194141/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303912517&sr=1-1

JavaScript: The Good Parts

http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Good-Parts-Douglas-Crockford/dp/0596517742/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303912536&sr=1-4

Everyone loves to swing from Crockford's nuts, but I found this book a little hard to read. I lack a CS background and I fully admit I need to re-read this book as last time I read it was beginning of 2009

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide 6th Edition

http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Definitive-Guide-David-Flanagan/dp/0596805527/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1303912643&sr=1-1

I just ordered this yesterday, the 5th Edition is the book that really kicked it off for me back in 2005.

jQuery is cool and all (as are all the other libs) but you should try to learn core JavaScript as much as possible.

u/fofgrel · 3 pointsr/javascript

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide. It's long, but very thorough.

u/Jephir · 2 pointsr/javascript

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide

Douglas Crockford's JavaScript

u/U3011 · 2 pointsr/webdev

PHP and MySQL Web Development (4th Edition)

Beginning PHP and MySQL: From Novice to Professional

Read the second book, do all the examples, then go back to the first book. Pay a lot of attention toward array manipulation. When you're comfortable with that, get into OOP. Once you do and OOP clicks for you, you'll be able to go to town on anything. I've heard a lot of good about Jefferey Way's video lesson courses over at TutsPlus. I've never used them nor do I need to, but I've never heard a single bad thing about their video courses. Their Javascript and Jquery is a great starting point. This is great stuff too if you're willing to put in the time.

Professional JavaScript for Web Developers

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Activate Your Web Pages

Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS3

The Node Beginner Book
Professional Node.js: Building Javascript Based Scalable Software

Paid online "schooling":

http://teamtreehouse.com/

http://www.codeschool.com/

Bonus:

http://hackdesign.org/


I've got a shit ton (Excuse my French) of books in print and E-Format that I could recommend, but it would span a couple pages. Anything is easy to learn so as long is it's served in a hierarchical format that makes it easy to absorb the information. A year ago I started to learn Ruby and using ROR as a framework. I can say it's been quite fun and I feel confident that I could write a fully complete web app using it. I started node.JS a few months ago, but it's been on break due to being sick and some unexpected events.

My knowledge is extensive only because I wanted it to be. I'm not gifted by any means nor am I special. Not by a longshot. Some people are gifted when it comes to dev and design, most are not. Most only know one or the other. I forced myself to learn and be good at both. I'm 23, I started when I was about 12. I'm only breathing more comfortably now. I know a load of people on here and other sites who make me look like complete shit.


Also for what it's worth, sign up to StackOverflow. It's the bible and holy grail rolled up into one site. It's amazing.

u/raze2012 · 2 pointsr/learnprogramming

honestly, the site looks better tailored towards JS than the resources I used back in the day to learn. The generic things I do for a new language is:

  • look at learnxinyminutes.com to get a feel for syntax
  • try and do some problems on hackerrank.com to practice (it's easier than coming up with and verifying problems by myself IMO)
  • google for important tools/ides/plugins that people like to use with the language after I get a feel for the core language (Don't obsess too much on this step. Or even feel compelled to use these tools. This is just so that I know they exist in the case I'll need a larger scale project done.

    for JS specifically, all I'd suggest is to keep using that site if it works, and get comfortable looking through/googling the mozilla docs (closest thing to a Javadoc, I guess). I'd normally point to this book as an offline referece, but JS has changed a lot since the last edition. I'd wait until a new edition comes out before jumping on it.



u/jeromius · 2 pointsr/webdev

I'd highly recommend checking out this book: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide - it covers everything you need to know in an easy to read way - I still keep a copy on my desk as a reference, one of the best books on the subject.

u/pierotofy · 1 pointr/gis

To start, this line:

if radioanswer == qanswer{

Is not valid JS. You need to put parenthesis:

if (radioanswer == qanswer){

Then radioanswer should be assigned within the function block, not outside of it. Otherwise it will always have the same value.

Please, please do not try to improvise Javascript (even if you are not a developer by profession). You will fall into the many confusing pitfalls of the language. Find some time to read (at a minimum) https://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Definitive-Guide-Activate-Guides/dp/0596805527/ref=pd_bxgy_14_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0596805527&pd_rd_r=5DC6HMEAZ6MCTJY2YYQQ&pd_rd_w=JasEw&pd_rd_wg=wBgln&psc=1&refRID=5DC6HMEAZ6MCTJY2YYQQ and https://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Good-Parts-Douglas-Crockford/dp/0596517742/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525662051&sr=8-1&keywords=javascript+the+good+parts

It will save you countless hours of troubleshooting.

u/Neres28 · 1 pointr/Codecademy

They are essentially identical.

function functName(...)

is referred to as a function statement whereas

var varName = function(...)

is called a function literal. You can also name the function in a function literal:

var varName = function functName(...) // useful for recursive functions.

Function literals are used (for example) when passing a function to another function.

Functions are covered in length in Chapter 8 of this book; my recommended resource for anyone serious about learning JavaScript.

u/N8Programs · 1 pointr/learnjavascript

Things have changed a lot! A good summary would be:

Front-End Frameworks: Robust libraries that make developing good-looking UIs easier and make your code more scalable. (ex: Vue, React)

No More Frames: Only the <iframe> tag remains. The use of frames is discouraged, and CSS flexbox (a responsive style that makes your site work for desktop and mobile if used correctly) is used.

Fancy New Paradigms: It is no longer encouraged to program javascript in traditional OOP styles with classes + inheritance. Instead, a paradigm called Functional Programming is encouraged. Functional Programming drifts away from classes and inheritance, and towards functions, and specifically, higher order functions. In addition, creating mutable variables in excess has fallen out of favor.

So, while a lot has changed, if you know Java 8, are familiar with Lambda Expressions + Closure, and ready to devote some time to JavaScript and the frontend, you'll be making near-professional to professional looking websites in around 6 months (at least, that is my experience). And even if you aren't, JavaScript isn't hard to learn. I would recommend the following books + websites:

MDN - Good JavaScript Resource + Tons of documentation. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/

Javascript: The Good Parts - https://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Good-Parts-Douglas-Crockford/dp/0596517742 (Bit outdated)

How Javascript Works - https://howjavascriptworks.com/ (Recent)

Javascript: The Definitive Guide - https://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Definitive-Guide-Activate-Guides/dp/0596805527 (Bit outdated)

u/sotopheavy · 1 pointr/webdev

I have the first of these and plan to get the second two soon as they have come highly recommended by /r/programming at one time or another.

u/mobcat40 · 1 pointr/PHP

Sure, though I've also read people in your position are better at building apps with JS if they're new to it because things like PHP are completely different in how you start growing an app (classical vs prototypal inheritance) not to mention that if you also do PHP instead of just straight JS you're getting used to and learning 2 languages that are completely different in how you code. In either case you're right you have to learn JS anyway, here are the best resources after codeacademy basics stuff:

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Activate Your Web Pages (Definitive Guides):

http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Definitive-Guide-Activate-Guides/dp/0596805527/

JavaScript: The Good Parts:

http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Good-Parts-Douglas-Crockford/dp/0596517742/

Programming JavaScript Applications: Robust Web Architecture with Node, HTML5, and Modern JS Libraries:

http://www.amazon.com/Programming-JavaScript-Applications-Architecture-Libraries/dp/1491950293/

A cool talk from last year of the Fluent conference (and the author of that last book) explaining how different something like PHP and JavaScript are and why JS doesn't deserve the bad rap it used to get (He's a pretty cool guy from Adobe and I got to talk to him last week about all of these things we're talking about right now and where web development is heading, and why JS as a single language for the web can work even better):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKCCZTUx0sI

This was a really cool overview on JS today, and you get to see Unreal Tournament and the Unreal 4 engine run in a web browser:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZqhRICne_M

u/serentilla · 0 pointsr/nottheonion

This is why in bookshops you see The Bible, The Definitive Guide and The Bible, the good parts

u/rodion_89 · -5 pointsr/javascript

Don't listen to jakelear, w3schools is an excellent resource for beginners.

That said, once you are on your feet and getting deeper into JavaScript check out these books. They are wonderfully useful and informative.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596517742
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596805527
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/193398869X