A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript: The new approach that uses technology to cut your effort in half

by Mark Myers

Learn JavaScript with half the effort, aided by technology. Master each chapter with free interactive exercises online. Live simulation lets you see your practice code run in your browser. 2,000 lines of color-keyed sample code break it all down into easy-to-learn chunks. Extra help through the rough spots so you're less likely to get stuck. Tested on non-coders—including the author's technophobe wife. Become fluent in all the JavaScript fundamentals, in half the time. Display alert messages to the user Gather information through prompts Manipulate variables Build statements Do math Use operators Concatenate text Run routines based on conditions Compare values Work with arrays Run automated routines Display custom elements on the webpage Generate random numbers Manipulate decimals Round numbers Create loops Use functions Find the current date and time Measure time intervals Create a timer Respond to the user's actions Swap images Control colors on the webpage Change any element on the webpage Improvise new HTML markup on the fly Use the webpage DOM structure Insert comments Situate scripts effectively Create and change objects Automate object creation Control the browser's actions Fill the browser window with custom content Check forms for invalid entries Deal with errors Make a more compelling website Increase user-friendliness Keep your user engaged

Genres: Programming, Coding, Nonfiction, Reference, Technology, Computer Science, Technical

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2013

About the author

Mark Myers is a former lecturer in the Communications School of Boston University. He develops interactive training and websites. He holds an A.B. from Harvard.

His professional focus is on using technology to reduce the effort and tedium of learning, primarily through interactivity. He is developing the "A Smarter Way to Learn" series on programming, a collection of instructional books paired with online interactive exercises. He runs the website http://www.ASmarterWayToLearn.com.

Mark, his wife Judy, and their three politically-active cats live in Taos, NM, where he cooks under the ghostly supervision of Marcella Hazan, reads extensively, plays showboat frisbee once a week, and longs for more episodes of "Breaking Bad."

Reviews

[Grace Nellore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just like its HTML/CSS counterpart, I think this book is wonderful as a quick reference guide. It is clear and well organized, and gets straight to the point--code everywhere. Learning by doing is a great strategy, but I feel that for long-term learners, a book like "The Eloquent JavaScript" might be a better start. Still a good buy and I would recommend to others.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great intro to JavaScript , especially as a first programming language

Pros:
-Gets you writing code quickly
-Includes online practice problems, that if completed, really help you retain the information
-Doesn't assume previous programming experience and has clear explanations where needed
-Author asks for and responds to feedback

Cons:
-won't be the only JavaScript book you need, as it doesn't really cover design patterns, or any super in depth stuff
-doesn't go over any of the new ES6 stuff

This was my first programming book and I'm glad it was. I couldn't recommend it enough to people who have never programmed before and decided to make JavaScript their first programming language. After you finish this book, I would recommend reading some others to round out some of the topics and go a little more in depth, but that is to be expected since this isn't meant to be an all inclusive book.

[Jamil Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good javascript practice. It will seem repetitive, but it forces some common things into memory, and it forces to execute quickly.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full disclosure: I've been using CodeCademy for a while to learn Javascript when I switched over to this book. So I'm not a total neophyte, but I definitely don't know everything about Javascript. (I also read the last quarter-ish of the book after taking a 6 month coding bootcamp immersive course, so it was all much more familiar.)

Written in small portions, the chapters are manageable in under half an hour for the most part. This means that people could conceivably do a chapter a day and finish the book in about three months. Pretty short when you consider this is teaching you a new language. I will say that the chapter stop being manageable in under half an hour around chapter 50. That's when it got more complicated, at least for me. That said, I think it's still a manageable set of tasks that each chapter sets forth.

The book is particularly invaluable given the corresponding online exercises that the author has devised and made available. It's not quite the gameified approach that CodeCademy takes, but it's close. There's some timed exercises along with some regular ones. I think the way that the exercises are laid out makes sense: he starts you off by asking simple questions, then progresses to slightly more complicated ones while making it so that if you type the correct beginning character, the answer autocompletes. After that, he moves on to even more complicated and sets you a time limit. It's interactive without being overly stressful and the time limits are very reasonable for those with decent to fast typing skills.

[Дмитрий Давыдов · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for beginners who don't have any programming experience, for it is very simple and straightforward. The chapters are short and each covers only one topic, so they're easy to read and understand, plus online coding exercises make learning even easier.

However, the book doesn't go beyond the surface of JavaScript, it merely slightly touches programming best practices, and it won't bring readers in-depth understanding of the language's inner machinery. So experienced programmers who want to master JavaScript are better choose something more comprehensive

[Steve Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good and basic intro book for JS

This is a great first book for someone who knows absolutely nothing about JavaScript. But I'm not sure such people really exist anymore. For the typical reader, some of this might be too elementary (and a little too repetitive). Still, it's definitely worth going through for the exercises, which are also very repetitive (but that might be a good thing). I would've liked little more coverage of JavaScript, but there are plenty of other books for that.

[Isaac · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very great book so easy to understand

[Dan Saattrup · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book for anyone new to JavaScript or programming in general.

I have a fair amount of programming experience already, but I still learnt a lot from this book, as I had no prior experience with front-end development at all (aside from HTML stuff by osmosis).

I liked that you really spend the vast majority of your time doing the online exercises rather than only reading, and I felt that the knowledge stuck a lot better compared to many other learning resources I have tried over the years.

Big recommend! I'll be, in a somewhat unorthodox order, be going through Myers' HTML and CSS book next, followed by the jQuery one. Even though I don't (currently) aspire to be a front-end developer, having the fundamentals down to be able to hack together a web app when needed, seems really useful.

[Juan Alberto · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess this book is aimed for beginners since it starts from the beginning explaining what a variable is. As a programmer with experience in other languages I just wanted to learn the quirks of JavaScript, so maybe this is not the best book for me and my review is too harsh. I tried the author's website with interactive exercises and they where ok, although repetitive. But I know the author makes a point about repetition as being a key to learning. That being said, some sections of the book are merely copy-pasted repetitions with minor differences, which comes off as annoying and as if little effort was put into writing those.

[Donald Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent for its stated purpose

Explanations are thorough without being overwhelming. He explains what items are optional, variable, and required. It is not an exhaustive treatment of all the functionality of Javascript, nor does it claim to be. It provides a strong foundation that can be built upon by other, more technical books. Easy to read for the novice non-programmer, but someone more experienced may find it moves a little slow for their liking. Again, think INTRO not advanced.

[Javkhlan Tsogtsaikhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Little fundamentals, but nothing much

I had some expectations because of the previous reviews. Unfortunately, I am very disappointed after reading this book for couple of reasons.
1. There is basically no visual representations to visualize
2. Just concepts after concepts, without having much logical connections
3. No higher order functions and array methods, which are very crucial to step up your knowledge on JavaScript
I would suggest go for other book or probably the best bet is go to Udemy and take one course with high reviews.

[Jemimah Dove · Rating 3 out of 5]

Woo-hoo! I finally finished this. Three minutes to 00:00 hrs.
It contains the very basics such that the more advanced concepts you'll go on to learn elsewhere will be more easily understood. If you're beyond beginner level, you'll probably think it useless. Just as well.
Javascript is a pretty knotty language. I'm speaking for myself when I say that.
As with any other thing, a solid foundation will pay off dividends. This book is a good start, but only a start.

[Dick · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first half of the book offers very good explanation on the key concepts in JS, it helps solidify what I already learnt. The second half is very much web programming focus, I am glad I read the HTML/CSS book before I start this half. Unlike “JavaScript for kids” this one does not involve creating interactive games but basic concepts on how to build website and database using JS. This is useful but it cannot be your first and only book on JS.

[Mike Lisanke · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was Not the book I was looking for! It was a good introduction for new programmers who didn't have specific problems adapting to Javascript programming (as I do). I was looking for a description of the execution time behavior and why (in Javascript) its so difficult to pass data from Asynchronous execution time behavior. For those that understand what I just wrote, It's apparently a niche topic for only a few writer (Why, I don't understand).

[Steven Dyk · Rating 1 out of 5]

Probably I / you could learn JS with this book, but this is tightly integrated with the online exercise tool that too often flags responses as incorrect when they are OK, but do not adhere to the specific answer accepted by the program. There are better - much better - books and online resources available for learning JS

[Shannon Callahan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only reason I put three stars due to lack of updated with new JavaScript. And this author still put some Js stuffs in html. My mentor at bootcamp said that kind of learning should be avoided. So eh.

[Sikhosana Dhliwayo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great approach to learning and Wonderful exercises

I have used several books to learn different programming languages but the approach used in this book is excellent. Hats off to Mr Myers! Thank you so much for making my journey to leaning JavaScript a bit easier👏🏼

[Jon Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book in order to learn something new about Javascript. This book is not targettg towards experienced developers. This book is probably great for beginners completely new to programming.
The book is pretty basic and too simple for people who have several years of experience.

[Aleksei Uljassov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book, it has excellent examples, plus the author provides a webpage to practice everything you have read. It took me a LOT of time to go through everything, but it is worth it and of course this book does not cover everything.

[Kyle Kenney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book! Easy and fast way to learn a coding language.

[Pxljedi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best JavaScript Book for Truly Learning JavaScript

I love doing the timed exercises. The book is broken down into small parts—which make it easier to digest the material.

[Natasha Holme · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easily digestible, discreet learning chunks, with online exercises thrown in. Worked for me.

[Diana Ghabuzyan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book for starters, it combines theory with practice, which is may be the best part. I'd totally recommend this to starters.

[Muhammad Dhuddi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript:
Free Download PDF

[Chris Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Completing the exercises as you go really makes it stick. Shame that the promised certificate at the end didn't materialise but I'd definitely recommend this book.

[Ann Genesis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honestly, I think it's better and faster to learn JavaScript via w3schools.

[Faiza Akram · Rating 5 out of 5]

How neural networks extrapolate: from feedforward to graph neural networks

[Iorip · Rating 2 out of 5]

great book but the browser to practice the exercises it is very annoying. even if I write the code correct it still displaying is not correct. the reason why I am giving this book a 2 star review.

[Moammal Alawadi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book with lots of practical work ! Very beginner friendly. Recommend to anyone wanting to learn js

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Easy to follow

Each chapter is small and concise, very easy to follow. The online quiz also helps greatly. Must read if you are new to JavaScript