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 h...
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Oct 11, 2010
A.
rated it: 
A short, dense book, describing a subset of Javascript and distinguishing which parts of the language "should" be used and which not. The author wrote JSLint, a widely-used tool for enforcing his preferences on your scripts. The preferences he wrote into JSLint are reflected here.
Some of his opinions seem obsessive and eccentric (it's not OK to write "i++"?), but others are invaluable. For example, you should make a habit of following the Kernighan & Ritchie st More...
Some of his opinions seem obsessive and eccentric (it's not OK to write "i++"?), but others are invaluable. For example, you should make a habit of following the Kernighan & Ritchie st More...
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Jan 07, 2010
Lea
rated it:
Crockford's book is already considered one of the classic JS books and I agree. Not because its complete (it only touches ECMAScript core, not even DOM), or particularly good at making things seem simple (it probably makes them look overcomplicated). Its because it approaches JavaScript in a completely different way than probably any other book you've read. It broadens your horizons as a JS developer, makes you think differently. And as soon as you finish it, you haven't only learned a few facts
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May 27, 2010
Joey
rated it: 
I was never going to be thrilled with this book because ugh, javascript.
But I was expecting more than a typical 2-star throwaway tech book. It was hard to get past the inconsistency (globals variables are bad, let's tack new methods onto global prototype objects!), bad editing, and repetition (I think one code snippet was repeated a total of 3 times).
A lot of people seem to like this book. If the idea of subsetting a language to produce a better variant is new to you, or if you More...
But I was expecting more than a typical 2-star throwaway tech book. It was hard to get past the inconsistency (globals variables are bad, let's tack new methods onto global prototype objects!), bad editing, and repetition (I think one code snippet was repeated a total of 3 times).
A lot of people seem to like this book. If the idea of subsetting a language to produce a better variant is new to you, or if you More...
Feb 08, 2012
Maggie
rated it: 
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"
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Aug 13, 2011
Derek
rated it:
Wisdom drips from every page of this slim volume. It reveals the power of JavaScript, and, where possible, idioms for elegant design and coding.
It is by no means an easy book. It is not a beginner's entry point to the language. Indeed, a real understanding of programming language semantics is needed to appreciate its lessons. Disappointingly, this means that its influence can at best be only indirect: if others turn its wisdom into more accessible tutorials.
My complaints woul More...
It is by no means an easy book. It is not a beginner's entry point to the language. Indeed, a real understanding of programming language semantics is needed to appreciate its lessons. Disappointingly, this means that its influence can at best be only indirect: if others turn its wisdom into more accessible tutorials.
My complaints woul More...
Jan 22, 2011
Tim
rated it:
Such a good book. I'm a JavaScript newbie who has hacked many scripts over the years. Much of the frustration I've had with JavaScript is from browser-specific issues - when borrowing a script from a random webpage doesn't work as expected.
This book doesn't get into that detail because the book is about language features, and it gives me confidence in the language as being useful and powerful in spite of its implementations and in spite of the sloppy code I've used and written in t More...
This book doesn't get into that detail because the book is about language features, and it gives me confidence in the language as being useful and powerful in spite of its implementations and in spite of the sloppy code I've used and written in t More...
Dec 22, 2011
Jason
rated it: 
Just as they say there's a great single album in Sandinista!, I had heard that there was an elegant language hidden in JavaScript. Maybe there is and Crockford just doesn't know how to make the case for it.
This is a very thin volume, and much of it is padding (language reference, grammar, etc...) About half is incredibly ugly workarounds, e.g. to create private scopes in a language that doesn't provide it.
The "Good Parts" are: Prototypical Inheritance, Duck Typi More...
This is a very thin volume, and much of it is padding (language reference, grammar, etc...) About half is incredibly ugly workarounds, e.g. to create private scopes in a language that doesn't provide it.
The "Good Parts" are: Prototypical Inheritance, Duck Typi More...
Jul 22, 2010
Tim
rated it:
“We see a lot of feature-driven product design in which the cost of features is not properly accounted. Features can have negative value to consumers because they make the products more difficult to understand and use. We are finding that people like products that just work. It turns out that designs that just work are much harder to produce than designs that assemble long lists of features.
Features have a specification cost, a design cost, and a development cost. There is a testin More...
Features have a specification cost, a design cost, and a development cost. There is a testin More...
Feb 06, 2011
Joem
rated it:
A nicely-paced, well-written book about Javascript that actually made me interested in Javascript. And it's short/concise, which is a benefit of a programming book nowadays. When you can get a general reference for free on the internet, there's no need to include comprehensive references in a book.
(One technical complaint, which I think is fair since this is a technical book: the fixed-width font looked way too much like the normal font. In a book with lots of code examples, and code e More...
(One technical complaint, which I think is fair since this is a technical book: the fixed-width font looked way too much like the normal font. In a book with lots of code examples, and code e More...
Jan 06, 2010
Alex
rated it:
This is a must-read book if you use Javascript seriously. When I put the book down, I'd learned and understood a few critical ideas about using Javascript that are changing the way I program. In particular, I found the section related to object creation (prototypal inheritance, implications for using the new keywords, etc.) I also greatly enjoyed the appendices -- I eat up lists like the awful and bad parts of Javascript, and the introduction to JSLint is going to be very fruitful. Not ever
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Aug 28, 2011
Daniel
rated it:
An appropriately opinionated exploration of JavaScript. The exhaustive diagraming of the language syntax and common methods can be skipped by those who have used the language before. The observations in the chapters on Functions (4), Inheritance (5), Style (9), and lists of gotchas in appendices Awful Parts (A) and Bad Parts (B) make this a must read for anyone developing with JavaScript. The author has a very strong point of view that is presented throughout the book, but I found warranted give
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May 12, 2010
Jake
rated it:
This is a great book about JavaScript. It does not hide the fact that there are serious design flaws in the language. Instead (as the name suggests) powers through showing the good parts of the language and follows up with a couple chapters on some bad parts.
The syntax of the language is shown using clever 'railroad' diagrams. These convey the language in an efficient manner. Having not seen this type of diagram before I greatly enjoyed it.
This book is short and to More...
The syntax of the language is shown using clever 'railroad' diagrams. These convey the language in an efficient manner. Having not seen this type of diagram before I greatly enjoyed it.
This book is short and to More...
Jan 26, 2012
Eric
rated it:
The Good Parts is an excellent overview of JavaScript, with plenty of attention paid to its quirks, elegant features, & awful features. In particular, the "Awful Parts" appendix & the chapter on style were amazingly useful. If you're an experienced programmer coming from another language, I imagine that this book would be easily the best introduction. Crockford's terse writing and the book's brevity are also strengths. If that doesn't do it for you, there are also repeated allusions to
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Dec 26, 2011
Rob
rated it:
"There is danger and misery at the edges."
As the title implies, Douglas Crockford takes a subset of JavaScript, identifies it as "the good parts" and proceeds to explain why these parts are good (and should therefore be used). Crockford commends JavaScript for being a very expressive language but is also honest about the failings of individual parts (e.g., how arrays aren't really arrays but are in fact "array-like objects") and proposes some genuine so More...
As the title implies, Douglas Crockford takes a subset of JavaScript, identifies it as "the good parts" and proceeds to explain why these parts are good (and should therefore be used). Crockford commends JavaScript for being a very expressive language but is also honest about the failings of individual parts (e.g., how arrays aren't really arrays but are in fact "array-like objects") and proposes some genuine so More...
Jan 12, 2010
Thomas
rated it:
This along with JavaScript: The Definitive Guide are the two must read books for any JS programmers out there. Crockford lays out in very clear terms what's good (and bad) about JS in it's current form. His guidelines for how to use it effectively seem very solid based on my experiences.
It helps that you can easily read through the majority of this book in a couple hours. But it's also one to keep around and flip through every so often when you need a refresher.
It helps that you can easily read through the majority of this book in a couple hours. But it's also one to keep around and flip through every so often when you need a refresher.
Oct 19, 2010
Zlatan
rated it:
There are a bunch of reviews for this book, but that's understandable, being that it's written by Crockford himself, the daddy of javascript (as I like to call him). This is exactly the reason why I won't write another one. Instead, I just want to point out that if you liked this book, you can catch Crockford on YUI Theater, where you can watch his interesting screencasts on javascript. You won't be disappointed :)
Oct 10, 2011
Cory
rated it:
Really useful quirks and patterns for getting the best out of JavaScript, and perhaps more importantly not shooting yourself in the foot with bad parts. Crockford's tone can be condescending and dry but the content is really good. Expect to refer back to parts of this book several times before fully internalizing them.
Jan 18, 2012
George
rated it:
It's a treat to read a book that doesn't want to be encyclopedic, comprehensive, or boring. Javascript: The Good Parts changed my mind about Javascript, and taught me a little bit. This is a book to read and enjoy, rather than a book to crib from for operational tidbits. And how often does that come along?
Jun 07, 2011
David
rated it:
Why five stars? The biggest recommendation is that it's a tech book I actually finished, rather than my usual pattern of losing interest half way through. It's an advanced book but it is well paced and has a nice learning curve. The examples are a bit obtuse at times, tower of hanoi, but its opinionated approach is the way tech books should be.
Jun 30, 2009
Anthony
rated it:
I can't recommend this book highly enough, if you are going to get one book on javascript get this one. It's an incredibly quick read and concentrates on showing you a subset of javascript which is more portable, safer and more secure. While it's a slim book it's dense in information
Jan 04, 2011
Jon
rated it:
Good, but not as mindblowing as the internet (mostly reddit) led me to believe. The explanation on closures was the best I'd seen so far (and something I desperately needed), but the rest of it felt like things I already knew. The language design stuff was interesting though.
Feb 06, 2010
Bob
rated it:
A great resource from one of my favorite curmudgeons. I don't agree with absolutely everything he has to say, but you really can't go to far wrong with it. Makes me wish that JavaScript didn't get effed-up the way it is now. Thank you Microsoft, and others.
Jul 21, 2011
Mustafa
rated it:
This book is a must read for all mid to senior web developers. It introduces an important concepts and some sort of java script good practices as well as it spots the good parts and the awful parts.
It doesn't take time to finish and absorb it.
It doesn't take time to finish and absorb it.
Nov 17, 2010
Lorenzo
rated it:
if you think you know javascript you should read this book
if you want to build something complex and professional with javascript: you must read this book
if you think javascript is not a serious and powerful language: you must read this book
if you want to build something complex and professional with javascript: you must read this book
if you think javascript is not a serious and powerful language: you must read this book
Mar 06, 2010
Paul
rated it:
This book caught my eye last week because of how comically skinny it is, given the title. Nevertheless, i just flipped through it as i'm about to code some javascript and i'm glad i did. It is dense in little gotchas that i've been tripping over.
Jan 09, 2012
Peteris
rated it:
Having worked with Javascript for a while, the biggest takeaway was the idea of "the good parts" -- recognizing and using only a subset of constructs in a programming language. By identifying this core, we can circumvent irreversible design errors, learn the language faster and write better code.
Dec 14, 2011
Marcus
rated it:
I wish all programming books were this concise and relevant, I'd probably read more of them if they were. This is a great book to get you up and running in one of my favorites languages, the much under-appreciated JavaScript.
Nov 10, 2011
Dean
rated it:
This is my kind of programming book! Very short, to the point and easy to read with by far the most informative information and examples on Javascript I have ever found. Any web developer should be required to read this book.
May 26, 2011
Benjamin Oakes
rated it:
A good read. It made me relearn and rethink JavaScript in a lot of ways. However, I previously watched the Crockford on Javascript lectures, which essentially have the same content.
Apr 14, 2011
Steve
rated it:
The best introduction to JavaScript I've found. One of the few topics where I will probably want to avoid reading most other books on the subject! Not for the faint hearted; OOP experience required. Wonderfully concise.
My only complaint is with the Shakespeare quotes at the beginning of each chapter. It seems like they were added solely because the quotes contained words that related to chapter. This random associated didn't add anything of value and ended up being a distractio More...
My only complaint is with the Shakespeare quotes at the beginning of each chapter. It seems like they were added solely because the quotes contained words that related to chapter. This random associated didn't add anything of value and ended up being a distractio More...
