Ask HN: A modern day alternative to “JavaScript the good parts”?

74 pointsfurqs7y ago12 comments

I've been out of touch with Javascript for about 5 years. Before that I used to do a little bit of frontend programming. I first learned javascript from "Javascript the good parts", a book by Douglas Crockford. I want to learn it again now. Is there a modern day alternative to the same book. An online resource will also work. The real requirement is that it should be concise and engaging.

12 comments

Bucephalus3557y ago

Without doubt Kyle Simpson’s You Don’t Know JS. I am going to say not only is this the best book on any programming language, but that it completely changed my understanding of what a teacher and a good intellectual is.

mikekchar7y ago

Just took a look at the ES6 portion of that. I did not realise how much I didn't know! Great stuff :-) Thanks for the recommendation.

Jefro1187y ago

I think JavaScript: The Good Parts is still relevant, you'll just want to supplement it with other resources on ES6, async, etc.

I recommend Kyle Simpson's series You Don't Know JS for understanding in depth.

Eloquent JavaScript by Marijn Haverbeke is a great interactive resource covering the basics: https://eloquentjavascript.net.

For more practical guidance on specific topics I recommend https://egghead.io if you're okay learning from videos.

cjmoran7y ago

I wasn't a newcomer to JS when I started working with ES6, but it had been a while so I picked up The Good Parts as a primer. It was still quite useful and I was able to (I think) pick up all the new ES6+ syntax more easily because of it.

hath9957y ago

Use TypeScript, it has come a very long way since it was released. It tracks very closely to JavaScript and it has an active community, shared types for libraries, and great editor support (VSCode and others). Using maximum strictness and tslint you can pretty much vaporize most of the bugs that Crockford warned about without even running your code.

https://basarat.gitbooks.io/typescript/content/docs/getting-... (ssl cert expired today -_-)

pictur7y ago

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO1cgjhGzsSYb1rsB4bFe4Q

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYqCZOwHbnPwyjawKfE21wg

http://es6-features.org/#Constants

https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS

https://medium.com/search?q=javascript

https://javascriptweekly.com/

https://nodeweekly.com/

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnjavascript/

http://www.jstips.co/

and

https://www.google.com/

jazzyjackson7y ago

I loved Eloquent Javascript [1] by Marijn Haverbeke (who also authored CodeMirror, among other projects) and the in-browser code execution was really inspiring for making a book into a code playground. I read it after years of dipping my toes into programming over and over and found the introduction of fundamentals really concise and refreshing.

[1] https://eloquentjavascript.net/

flaviocopes7y ago

Since you mention concise, I'll jump in with my JavaScript tutorials series https://flaviocopes.com/javascript/ - I try to condense information in a useful way, kind of following the 80/20 rule.

If you're just looking for the ES6-7-8 updates, https://flaviocopes.com/ecmascript/

swaggyBoatswain7y ago

https://watchandcode.com/

Watch and code is from an exgoogler. I wouldn't say its a "Javascript the good parts".

Its closer to Uncle Bobs "Clean Code" with a todomvc tutorial mixed in, with some overlap of YDKJS.

I wrote a short review here. http://vincentmtang.com/2018/05/23/my-review-on-watch-and-co...

fullofsid7y ago

https://javascript.info is a good free resource.

HNNewer7y ago

Moving away from Javascript, IMHO

1 more reply

albertvila7y ago

Last week I found an interesting JS book on Amazon: Simplifying JavaScript: Writing Modern JavaScript with ES5, ES6, and Beyond

Link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1680502883/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_t1_...

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