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You Don't Know JS: Up & Going
(You Don't Know JS #1)
by
It’s easy to learn parts of JavaScript, but much harder to learn it completely—or even sufficiently—whether you’re new to the language or have used it for years. With the "You Don’t Know JS" book series, you’ll get a more complete understanding of JavaScript, including trickier parts of the language that many experienced JavaScript programmers simply avoid.
The series’ firs
...moreebook, 72 pages
Published
April 2015
by O'Reilly Media, Inc.
(first published March 20th 2015)
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Start your review of You Don't Know JS: Up & Going

Software is eating the world, the web is eating software, and JavaScript rules the web. The irony is that JavaScript (as of 2018) is still a vastly misunderstood programming language regarded in many quarters as a toy or kludge limited to handling DOM manipulations and browser events. Worse, if you're a current front or backend web developer coming to grips with JavaScript you are likely to be misled by hundreds of out-of-date online tutorials purporting to teach you "The Good Parts" of the lang
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Don't read and rate this book as a standalone book!!
It's just an intro book for the whole series "YDKJS", presenting main features of the language such as types, functions, scope, the 'this', closures and prototypes. The other books of the series intends to get into the details behind each of these features.
It's a nice introdution to Javascript. The only bad thing about the book is the fact that the author recommends using comments in the code to get it well explained/documented (he says commen ...more
It's just an intro book for the whole series "YDKJS", presenting main features of the language such as types, functions, scope, the 'this', closures and prototypes. The other books of the series intends to get into the details behind each of these features.
It's a nice introdution to Javascript. The only bad thing about the book is the fact that the author recommends using comments in the code to get it well explained/documented (he says commen ...more

Good intro to the series, it covers the basics well. I have JavaScript experience but found this good for picking up little bits that I was fuzzy on.
It is really just an intro for the rest of the series though. I don't think there's enough here for beginners to get going, but also not enough for more experienced programmers for it to be worth buying it.
I recommend starting with this but plan on carrying on through the rest of the series too.
Types and Grammar makes a good second book to read, ...more
It is really just an intro for the rest of the series though. I don't think there's enough here for beginners to get going, but also not enough for more experienced programmers for it to be worth buying it.
I recommend starting with this but plan on carrying on through the rest of the series too.
Types and Grammar makes a good second book to read, ...more

In general, this was a good introduction to both JavaScript and what will be covered in the other books in the 'You Don't Know JS' series. Thank you to the author (Kyle) for dedicating their time to writing these on a relatively small budget (if the Kickstarter is anything to go by), and for making these free to read on GitHub (great for those who want to learn how to code, but can't afford to).
Unfortunately, I take issue with some of the language used in this book.
- "but JS developers seem to s ...more
Unfortunately, I take issue with some of the language used in this book.
- "but JS developers seem to s ...more

A modern replacement of the Jumpstart JavaScript book by Sitepoint.
Kyle introduces JS and a few ES6 features you need to know from the start. Nothing too dragged out. It's actually very short and concise.
Also nothing complex, but mandatory to know before going deep. Last chapter is a handy reference to the other books for YDKJS and short intro about any of the given books.
Only reason the book gets 4 stars is because it lacks exercises that might help readers practice what they learn. It's not a ...more
Kyle introduces JS and a few ES6 features you need to know from the start. Nothing too dragged out. It's actually very short and concise.
Also nothing complex, but mandatory to know before going deep. Last chapter is a handy reference to the other books for YDKJS and short intro about any of the given books.
Only reason the book gets 4 stars is because it lacks exercises that might help readers practice what they learn. It's not a ...more

This book seems to me too simple for other programmers trying to get into JS and too difficult for beginners. I feel like it's trying to be a happy medium between the two.
However, I agree that a lot of JS users do not really know the core concepts of what the language has to offer and this book.
I would recommend this book to JS users who already know a bit about JS. It's a good entry into the other books in the series though, so three ⭐️ for that. ...more
However, I agree that a lot of JS users do not really know the core concepts of what the language has to offer and this book.
I would recommend this book to JS users who already know a bit about JS. It's a good entry into the other books in the series though, so three ⭐️ for that. ...more

Noy a bad intro to the series, the author tends to get a bit verbose, but I guess that's to be expected. However, this has clarified some key concepts and set the stage for the remaining books.
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I quote from the writer:
" The YDKJS series is dedicated to the proposition that all JS develop‐
ers can and should learn all of the parts of this great language. No
person’s opinion, no framework’s assumptions, and no project’s
deadline should be the excuse for why you never learn and deeply
understand JavaScript. " ...more
" The YDKJS series is dedicated to the proposition that all JS develop‐
ers can and should learn all of the parts of this great language. No
person’s opinion, no framework’s assumptions, and no project’s
deadline should be the excuse for why you never learn and deeply
understand JavaScript. " ...more

Good introduction to JS. Although this book was just an overview of the following books, it already gave me much insight on what I was missing with understanding JavaScript fundamentally. It provides clarity of the weird quirks of JavaScript by taking its time to explain why JavaScript works the way that it does.

I have had preliminary knowledge of JS before reading this book, so it was easier understanding most of the concepts being discussed in the book.. i'd always recommend to any other newbie trying to make sense of JavaScript. Great read!
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This was an amazing little book, easy to read and understand. I found it while reading my feed on Quora and decided to give it a try.
It demystifies things like coercion, closures, hoisting and the this identifier. This book whets your appetite into learning all parts of JavaScript and not just the good parts.
I can't wait to read the whole series! ...more
It demystifies things like coercion, closures, hoisting and the this identifier. This book whets your appetite into learning all parts of JavaScript and not just the good parts.
I can't wait to read the whole series! ...more

Nice intro into series. While staying at a basic and fundamental level, this book gives a nice inspiration on what series of You Don't Know JS will bring to the table.
Very excited to read other books of this series. ...more
Very excited to read other books of this series. ...more

It is awesome book for novice to professional JS developers. It's main focus on why? It isn't how. You can find good tricks about JavaScript.
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In general, this book is a good JavaScript book.
personally, I didn't like the way Kyle take about JavaScript The Good Parts book.
anyway, I recommend this book to anyone beginner in javascript. ...more
personally, I didn't like the way Kyle take about JavaScript The Good Parts book.
anyway, I recommend this book to anyone beginner in javascript. ...more

CONTEXT: JavaScript is a strange language by some standards, yet is inarguably a critical piece of knowledge for anyone programming for the web. This book is one of 6, but you could consider it to be the intro to the REAL set of FIVE books. If you are not already a strong JS developer then you will benefit by reading this first book because it lays out the issues all in one place. But do NOT expect any good answers to the issues (then you'll appreciate the insights that you do get). If you are f
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Got this from for and recommended by a friend. Found out the book not really useful if you're a seasonal programmer that already familiar with Javascript, this book feel more like an intro to promote another books in the series.
There are 3 chapters in this book. The first 2 chapters is for person that didn't have programming experience before and if it you, i would also not recommend this book as the way how to programming explained in this books is not how we program in real world.
E.g: make j ...more
There are 3 chapters in this book. The first 2 chapters is for person that didn't have programming experience before and if it you, i would also not recommend this book as the way how to programming explained in this books is not how we program in real world.
E.g: make j ...more

Very good, short introductory book. The author seems like he's really had enough of people only vaguely understanding Javascript, and he's dedicated to teach us the s*&%t out of JS :D It's fun, I appreciate this serious, non-superficial way of approaching teaching.
I plan to read the entire series, so I started with the intro book. It was fun, and I'm looking forward to learning the hard parts.
Also, now I understand why "asdf" does not equal, and is neither greater or smaller then 3. Still, I pr ...more
I plan to read the entire series, so I started with the intro book. It was fun, and I'm looking forward to learning the hard parts.
Also, now I understand why "asdf" does not equal, and is neither greater or smaller then 3. Still, I pr ...more

This is the first book in the series of five. It introduces some basic programming/JavaScript concepts (loops, conditions, scope...), some intermediate/advanced concepts (closure, prototypes...), and prepares you for going deeper into these ideas in later books.
While it does a great job explaining basic stuff I had a hard time getting even the slightest idea of what he's talking about when he moved on to closure, modules, and prototypes, but it's not so big of a deal, because he kinda wanted jus ...more
While it does a great job explaining basic stuff I had a hard time getting even the slightest idea of what he's talking about when he moved on to closure, modules, and prototypes, but it's not so big of a deal, because he kinda wanted jus ...more

In-depth Javascript!
I really want to give the book 3.5 stars but we can’t do half stars here... I really enjoy this book and am excited to learn JS more in depth. What I enjoy most is that Kyle Simpson is pushing to get developers to dive more into the concept of why we use certain functions within javascript. I would recommend this book to anyone who is serious about learning to program with more of a focus javascript (obviously). Simpson dives right in and several times has to remind us that t ...more
I really want to give the book 3.5 stars but we can’t do half stars here... I really enjoy this book and am excited to learn JS more in depth. What I enjoy most is that Kyle Simpson is pushing to get developers to dive more into the concept of why we use certain functions within javascript. I would recommend this book to anyone who is serious about learning to program with more of a focus javascript (obviously). Simpson dives right in and several times has to remind us that t ...more

"JS developers seem to stand out from the crowd in the sense of typically not learning very much of the language. This is not a good thing, and it's not something we should continue to allow to be the norm."
A great introduction to the series with some enlightening tidbits on the foundational elements of Javascript as well as convincing arguments for why one should learn the language more deeply. Having learned JS the "backwards" way - through real-life projects without much foundational knowledg ...more
A great introduction to the series with some enlightening tidbits on the foundational elements of Javascript as well as convincing arguments for why one should learn the language more deeply. Having learned JS the "backwards" way - through real-life projects without much foundational knowledg ...more

I want to begin reading a lot more programming material and a lot of people told me this was a good place to start. The author clearly knows his stuff because he's able to explain fairly complex things in relatively few words. By the end of the book I was keen to learn more from his other books. As a fairly experiened developer, I was aware of the main concepts of JS already. However, I found out why these concepts came to be and learnt some more intricate details about them. There are a few com
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JS is the bane of my web creation existence. It's an integral part of any modern website and so needs to be understood.
YDKJS Up & Going didn't significantly make me understand JS more. What it did, was make me understand how much more I didn't know, and how significantly more that was going to be, in coming years.
I'll go ahead and tell you that with a few little snippets here and there, I was amazed at how my thinking could be changed and this isn't even the in-depth volume. Those next in the se ...more
YDKJS Up & Going didn't significantly make me understand JS more. What it did, was make me understand how much more I didn't know, and how significantly more that was going to be, in coming years.
I'll go ahead and tell you that with a few little snippets here and there, I was amazed at how my thinking could be changed and this isn't even the in-depth volume. Those next in the se ...more

A very good refresher for someone like me, who learned the basics of JavaScript piece by piece from scattered sources. Not only it provides a proper introduction in JavaScript and the very basics of programming, but also lays down a clear path for the most important concepts of the language and a guide (the rest of the titles in this book series) on how to learn them properly.
I'm not entirely sure if this is a good book (and thus series of books) for a complete beginner in programming. I would a ...more
I'm not entirely sure if this is a good book (and thus series of books) for a complete beginner in programming. I would a ...more
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Kyle Simpson is an Open Web Evangelist from Austin, TX, who's passionate about all things JavaScript. He's an author, workshop trainer, tech speaker, and OSS contributor/leader.
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“If you tried to assign any different value to TAX_RATE after that first declaration, your program would reject the change (and in strict mode, fail with an error — see “Strict Mode” in Chapter 2 ).”
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“Another common usage of variables is for centralizing value setting. This is more typically called constants, when you declare a variable with a value and intend for that value to not change throughout the program.”
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