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Agreed. Books that focus on teaching syntax and common use cases really fall flat for me. The best programming books teach you how to think in the syntax of the

Agreed. Books that focus on teaching syntax and common use cases really fall flat for me. The best programming books teach you how to think in the syntax of the language. Eloquent Javascript [1] does a good job of that and is also free. The best programming book at teaching a practical contemporary language in depth while teaching you to think with it is Metaprogramming Ruby. That's a great read for anyone considering writing a book to teach a programming language. And the best book I've ever read on thinking about programming comprehensively is SICP. Which again, I would recommend reading at least half of if you are going to write a book teaching a language. 1. http://eloquentjavascript.net/ http://eloquentjavascript.net/

blumkvist 13y ago
Hey, I stumbled across a post of the author of eloquentjavascript that he's crowdfunding second edition of the book. My question is - how current is the first edition? Is it suitable to teach me JS, considering it's quite old? I'm not a good programmer. I know a bit of python, mainly for statistical tasks and some automation/scraping.
- ritchiea 13y ago
  It's a great intro to Javascript. It's not going to teach you the most current webdev libraries but if you start with a strong foundation in Javascript (which you will get from Eloquent Javascript) you should be fine applying your knowledge to using popular libraries.
  - blumkvist 13y ago
    Thank you! Thanks to marijn too!
- marijn 13y ago
  The second edition is partially online already at http://eloquentjavascript.net/2nd_edition/preview/ http://eloquentjavascript.net/2nd_edition/preview/
rauschma 13y ago
Even though it is about Scheme, the insights in SICP are invaluable for JavaScript programmers (the way I explain and visualize closures and environments are inspired by it). It’s one of the best programming books I’ve ever read. Give my book a chance, it is complementary to both SICP and Eloquent JavaScript.
- ritchiea 13y ago
  Sorry I don't mean to be overly dismissive. I'm taking a look right now. I do like that you include history & background. Also I like the addition of a style guide and a separate section on tools like modules & package managers.
straws 13y ago
You might like Javascript Allonge, a lot https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge/read https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge/read

blumkvist 13y ago

Hey, I stumbled across a post of the author of eloquentjavascript that he's crowdfunding second edition of the book. My question is - how current is the first edition? Is it suitable to teach me JS, considering it's quite old? I'm not a good programmer. I know a bit of python, mainly for statistical tasks and some automation/scraping.

ritchiea 13y ago
It's a great intro to Javascript. It's not going to teach you the most current webdev libraries but if you start with a strong foundation in Javascript (which you will get from Eloquent Javascript) you should be fine applying your knowledge to using popular libraries.
- blumkvist 13y ago
  Thank you! Thanks to marijn too!
marijn 13y ago
The second edition is partially online already at http://eloquentjavascript.net/2nd_edition/preview/ http://eloquentjavascript.net/2nd_edition/preview/

rauschma 13y ago

Even though it is about Scheme, the insights in SICP are invaluable for JavaScript programmers (the way I explain and visualize closures and environments are inspired by it). It’s one of the best programming books I’ve ever read. Give my book a chance, it is complementary to both SICP and Eloquent JavaScript.

ritchiea 13y ago
Sorry I don't mean to be overly dismissive. I'm taking a look right now. I do like that you include history & background. Also I like the addition of a style guide and a separate section on tools like modules & package managers.

straws 13y ago

You might like Javascript Allonge, a lot https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge/read https://leanpub.com/javascript-allonge/read