JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Master the World's Most-Used Programming Language

I've read hundreds of computer books as a hobbyist and self-learner. This is by far the most concise and well written I've ever read. I'm beginning my JavaScript journey in order to learn Typescript in order to learn Deno and I had to get a handle on the various levels of JavaScript 'archaeology' so I can make sense of the massive ecosystem of tools and documentation. JavaScript has undergone massive changes and growth in its lifetime and it's hard to know what's useful and what's outdated leftovers as you peruse the net looking for resources. Just get this book - it's incredibly well crafted, the writing style stays consistent from start to finish (a lot of books turn to utter crap at about two thirds) and there are incredibly useful nuggets of information that explain complicated topics in a paragraph. I will be re-reading this book in about a year. I look forward to it immensely because the author has created an absolute masterpiece in technical writing. Hat's off, Flanagan!

Oh, wow, another edition of this classic book. Is it worth "upgrading" that old copy on your bookshelf?First, if you have any edition prior to the 6th edition the answer is a definitive, "Yes!" There is no question that so much has changed since 2006 which is when the 5th edition was published. JavaScript feels like a whole new language since then (not really, but significant changes in the last 14 years have happened).But, what if you have the 6th edition? What did David Flanagan change? Overall, the 7th edition comes in at 40% smaller than the 6th edition. Do you keep both? Nope. The 7th edition is much better thought through and eliminates much of the old and adds in important new things.Seven chapters on "client-side" JavaScript are condensed into one "JavaScript in Web Browsers" chapter. The topics within that chapter are a much tighter presentation of the material you need to know. If you really need to know more about JavaScript and CSS or JQuery, go look to references on these topics. Flanagan was right to trim that fat from this book.In the 6th edition, there were barely 20 pages focused on server-side JavaScript. Now there is a good chapter dedicated to "Server-Side JavaScript with Node". Finally, he has added a whole new chapter on tools and extensions. In other words, Flanagan has caught up with how JavaScript is really used.The remaining changes are around the fundamentals. He has added information on symbols and has greatly reworked chapters on object and classes as one would expect. Modules have been split out into their own chapter. And, he has added a good "summary" section to each chapter.Overall, I think the book has been "refactored" in a good way. It is much tighter. And, certainly more relevant to modern JavaScript programming. Of course, JavaScript will continue to evolve so I expect future editions will continue. But, this edition feels like a checkpoint one should mark. I have done so and my 6th edition is being duly donated.

OK I usually give tech books about a 2-3 rating. This one surprised me not only of its girth, but hey the author (or editor) actually introduced topics in a logical, progressive manner - building on base knowledge as book progressed, with chapters in meaningful topic order of complexity. Most books the authors can't make up their mind if they're writing a dictionary or maybe someone different wrote each chapter, and they put it together all jumbled up on a disorganized mess with advanced topics the first. This book acgtually is one I can learn from and explains examples welll, thoroughly. A lot of books shove a code excerpt in and pick out one line to discuss in the meantime you're confused out of context why all the other lines were even provided they just got lazy with providing different properly detailed, focused examples. This book far better than that. Rare 5 star rating.

The book covers a lot of topics. Make sure to read his explanation on how the examples are laid out in the book. This is probably a good book to get after 6+ months of coding unless you have experience coding in other languages. I would say it's geared more towards intermediate, advanced, and expert level JavaScript. A lot of the examples are math heavy, so they may leave you scratching your head if you haven't taken a math class in a bit which will overcomplicate things for you if you are a beginner. If you are new and looking for a book to read, I highly recommend "Absolute Beginner's Guide to Javascript by Kirupa Chinnathambi". I purchased the third edition of that book along with this book when I was first getting started. I read them both in a week but this one was much harder to understand once the code got a bit more complicated.Overall it's a great book, just not for a coder starting out.

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