"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 solutions for them that do not involve abandoning the language all together[†:].

Crockford gives a good overview of JavaScript's grammar without attempting to be exhaustive. He assumes that you are already at least familiar with JavaScript (which is why you would be interested in knowing "just the good parts", presumably) and there is an underlying assumption that you have experience with at least one other language (probably a "C-like" language).

Crockford's is a short book. It's a bit terse at times but his examples are clear and he supplements these with railroad diagrams[‡:]. That terseness also translates more/less directly into density, like he's running 10:1 compression on his thoughts here. They require some unpacking and digestion.

Of particular note: Crockford dedicates the entire 9th chapter to code-writing style. Why? He argues that it is an essential skill, that good code-writing eliminates ambiguities (see also: Appendices A & B) and makes the code easier to read and therefore easier (and cheaper) to maintain overtime -- doubly so if that code's lifespan exceeds that of its original developer.

This book is a great one to keep next to David Flanagan's "el Rhino diablo". That said, I believe this one should be consulted first to confirm good function and good form before winding back onto something more encyclopedic.


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† = Which is, of course, fortunate because you have no choice but to use JavaScript when creating applications for the web. (And don't give me that bullshit about using Flash because that's a very narrow view of the web.)

‡ = To be perfectly frank, the railroad diagrams are bewildering at first. If you have never seen them before, they provide a serious "WTF?" moment the first time. When I encountered the second set of railroad diagrams was when I knew that I was going to need to re-read the first quarter of the book just to be safe.

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2010 UPDATE: 3rd read. Still good, still relevant. Definitely the kind of book you get a little more out of each time. (For one thing, I slightly flubbed the quote above about the arrays, but not so bad as to retract it.)