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Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming
"A concise and balanced mix of principles and pragmatics. I loved the tutorial-style game-like program development. This book rekindled my earliest joys of programming. Plus, JavaScript!" —Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript
JavaScript is the language of the Web, and it's at the heart of every modern website from the lowliest personal blog to the mighty Google Apps. Though it's simple for beginners to pick up and play with, JavaScript is not a toy—it's a flexible and complex language, capable of much more than the showy tricks most programmers use it for.
Eloquent JavaScript goes beyond the cut-and-paste scripts of the recipe books and teaches you to write code that's elegant and effective. You'll start with the basics of programming, and learn to use variables, control structures, functions, and data structures. Then you'll dive into the real JavaScript artistry: higher-order functions, closures, and object-oriented programming.
Along the way you'll learn to:
Master basic programming techniques and best practices Harness the power of functional and object-oriented programming Use regular expressions to quickly parse and manipulate strings Gracefully deal with errors and browser incompatibilities Handle browser events and alter the DOM structure Most importantly, Eloquent JavaScript will teach you to express yourself in code with precision and beauty. After all, great programming is an art, not a science—so why settle for a killer app when you can create a masterpiece?
JavaScript is the language of the Web, and it's at the heart of every modern website from the lowliest personal blog to the mighty Google Apps. Though it's simple for beginners to pick up and play with, JavaScript is not a toy—it's a flexible and complex language, capable of much more than the showy tricks most programmers use it for.
Eloquent JavaScript goes beyond the cut-and-paste scripts of the recipe books and teaches you to write code that's elegant and effective. You'll start with the basics of programming, and learn to use variables, control structures, functions, and data structures. Then you'll dive into the real JavaScript artistry: higher-order functions, closures, and object-oriented programming.
Along the way you'll learn to:
Master basic programming techniques and best practices Harness the power of functional and object-oriented programming Use regular expressions to quickly parse and manipulate strings Gracefully deal with errors and browser incompatibilities Handle browser events and alter the DOM structure Most importantly, Eloquent JavaScript will teach you to express yourself in code with precision and beauty. After all, great programming is an art, not a science—so why settle for a killer app when you can create a masterpiece?
224 pages, Paperback
First published November 15, 2010
1,895 people are currently reading
5,680 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 275 reviews
July 28, 2013
I'm sure those fancy JS wranglers out there will get a lot out of this book, but if you're a coding newbie, look elsewhere for your intro, far far elsewhere. I made the mistake of thinking I'd use this book to help supplement my learning of JS. And what a mistake. It gave no practical help whatsoever.
The dude's a fine writer, I'll give him that, and obviously a gifted coder, but his book wasn't written for the novice. This is not his intention with this book and if you're approaching it that way, you've got some pain in store for ya.
This book is for people who know JS and want to improve their code by simplifying it. That and nothing else.
The dude's a fine writer, I'll give him that, and obviously a gifted coder, but his book wasn't written for the novice. This is not his intention with this book and if you're approaching it that way, you've got some pain in store for ya.
This book is for people who know JS and want to improve their code by simplifying it. That and nothing else.
January 20, 2015
I have mixed feelings on this book. While it's obvious that Marijn is an accomplished programmer and he does have a very accessible writing style ( I never felt like he talked over my head ), I think he made a mistake by calling it an 'introduction' to programming.
I am not a programmer by trade, but I have several years of solid experience coding in PHP, actionscript, and javascript (well, some javascript - but mostly jquery). Tired of throwing jQuery at everything I wanted to use javascript for, I decided it best that I start from scratch with the original language instead of relying on frameworks for everything.
I got through the first 3 and a half chapters no problem. Then suddenly at the end of chapter 4, I felt like my head exploded. I don't blame Marijin, but suddenly the examples became very abstract (to my brain) and there was little explanation to help me out. The rest of the book was hit or miss with me - I understood some sections easier than others but I feel like I still haven't grasped some fundamentals, so I'll have to continue my learning elsewhere.
The good news....this book is available in its entirety online, for free. Can't beat that!!
I am not a programmer by trade, but I have several years of solid experience coding in PHP, actionscript, and javascript (well, some javascript - but mostly jquery). Tired of throwing jQuery at everything I wanted to use javascript for, I decided it best that I start from scratch with the original language instead of relying on frameworks for everything.
I got through the first 3 and a half chapters no problem. Then suddenly at the end of chapter 4, I felt like my head exploded. I don't blame Marijin, but suddenly the examples became very abstract (to my brain) and there was little explanation to help me out. The rest of the book was hit or miss with me - I understood some sections easier than others but I feel like I still haven't grasped some fundamentals, so I'll have to continue my learning elsewhere.
The good news....this book is available in its entirety online, for free. Can't beat that!!
July 23, 2016
This might be a great book. I'll return to it when I have well beyond an "Introductory" understanding of JS programming. Though with such a misleading title and chapter structure, I don't have much faith the concepts I couldn't understand will turn out to be communicated well upon a second reading after I have learned JavaScript.
I'm annoyed enough to leave a bad review because it really does start out as if Haverbeke intends to help introduce us gently into this world.
Here's how it goes: Chapter 1- The Very Basics( ahh this is comprehensible, guess this is a good introduction for me)
Chapter 2- Ok a little more Overview and then getting specific( Hmm wow, that seems like a lot of concepts for just 1 chapter , and wait did we just cover conditional execution in 10 paragraphs? Ok I guess I understand that completely now...ONLINE EXERCISES- Hmm these exercises are not necessarily intuited from what I just read, but that's ok, it's challenging I can dig it.)
Chapter 3- The chapter on Functions. I read it so I must understand functions now (Is this paragraph referring to the example of code above it, below it, or from 5 examples ago?ONLINE EXERCISES- Wait a second am I on the exercises for chapter 4?)
Chapter 4- Things start to get weird.(Ok , I know for a fact THAT has not been mentioned anywhere yet, and my whole understanding of the rest of this depends on me figuring THAT out. Challenge is good for the brain.ONLINE EXERCISES- the fuk is this?)
Chapter 5- I'm beginning to believe there is only pain and suffering ahead. ONLINE EXERCISES- I start to consider using the powers of the dark side to continue.
Chapter 6- Yes, just pain and suffering.
Edit* WARNING TO TRUE BEGINNERS- Don't let this book demoralize you!! I'd recommend for an actual introduction to JS and programming visiting (I'm sure there are many other straightforward tutorials) . I now realize trying to make it through the Eloquent JavaScript text without knowing the fundamentals I found at the aforementioned site was a little like trying to learn to read before learning the alphabet. Sure it's possible, but without understanding something of the scope of what is possible in the JS world it gets very confusing.
The book very casually slips in operators and concepts previously unmentioned even though the structure of the first few chapters lead you to believe you have a pretty exhaustive idea of the basic necessities. This will completely break your understanding of a given chunk of code even if you get everything else making it impossible to move on.
Imagine trying to read out loud a paragraph about pizza zealots in Zimbabwe without ever having seen, heard, or spoken a 'z'. Sure the 'z' isn't usually a huge part of the language, but when you come across it for the first time it forces a complete stop. Much like what will happen to the machine that encounters an error in code(Which is why I'm a little baffled why the author/publisher couldn't make the leap in thought to target their audience more appropriately.) Of course the alphabet only has 26 basic concepts to master while the JS language has... a lot more. And yea, you can hit the wall then go do your own research every other paragraph, but is that what you want from an "Introduction."?
My advice to the publisher: Change the title and just get rid of the first 2 or 3 chapters that mislead one to believe they have a working understanding of what will come. The book, I'm assuming, is supposed to be truly about chapters 4 and on. The first 3 chapters are irrelevant to nearly anyone who will be able to grasp the rest of the book, while chapters 4+ are irrelevant to nearly anyone who needed to read the first 3 chapters.
I'm annoyed enough to leave a bad review because it really does start out as if Haverbeke intends to help introduce us gently into this world.
Here's how it goes: Chapter 1- The Very Basics( ahh this is comprehensible, guess this is a good introduction for me)
Chapter 2- Ok a little more Overview and then getting specific( Hmm wow, that seems like a lot of concepts for just 1 chapter , and wait did we just cover conditional execution in 10 paragraphs? Ok I guess I understand that completely now...ONLINE EXERCISES- Hmm these exercises are not necessarily intuited from what I just read, but that's ok, it's challenging I can dig it.)
Chapter 3- The chapter on Functions. I read it so I must understand functions now (Is this paragraph referring to the example of code above it, below it, or from 5 examples ago?ONLINE EXERCISES- Wait a second am I on the exercises for chapter 4?)
Chapter 4- Things start to get weird.(Ok , I know for a fact THAT has not been mentioned anywhere yet, and my whole understanding of the rest of this depends on me figuring THAT out. Challenge is good for the brain.ONLINE EXERCISES- the fuk is this?)
Chapter 5- I'm beginning to believe there is only pain and suffering ahead. ONLINE EXERCISES- I start to consider using the powers of the dark side to continue.
Chapter 6- Yes, just pain and suffering.
Edit* WARNING TO TRUE BEGINNERS- Don't let this book demoralize you!! I'd recommend for an actual introduction to JS and programming visiting (I'm sure there are many other straightforward tutorials) . I now realize trying to make it through the Eloquent JavaScript text without knowing the fundamentals I found at the aforementioned site was a little like trying to learn to read before learning the alphabet. Sure it's possible, but without understanding something of the scope of what is possible in the JS world it gets very confusing.
The book very casually slips in operators and concepts previously unmentioned even though the structure of the first few chapters lead you to believe you have a pretty exhaustive idea of the basic necessities. This will completely break your understanding of a given chunk of code even if you get everything else making it impossible to move on.
Imagine trying to read out loud a paragraph about pizza zealots in Zimbabwe without ever having seen, heard, or spoken a 'z'. Sure the 'z' isn't usually a huge part of the language, but when you come across it for the first time it forces a complete stop. Much like what will happen to the machine that encounters an error in code(Which is why I'm a little baffled why the author/publisher couldn't make the leap in thought to target their audience more appropriately.) Of course the alphabet only has 26 basic concepts to master while the JS language has... a lot more. And yea, you can hit the wall then go do your own research every other paragraph, but is that what you want from an "Introduction."?
My advice to the publisher: Change the title and just get rid of the first 2 or 3 chapters that mislead one to believe they have a working understanding of what will come. The book, I'm assuming, is supposed to be truly about chapters 4 and on. The first 3 chapters are irrelevant to nearly anyone who will be able to grasp the rest of the book, while chapters 4+ are irrelevant to nearly anyone who needed to read the first 3 chapters.
October 21, 2014
First: I’m a complete JavaScript beginner. Truth to be told, I’m kind of beginner in programming generally. I fiddled around with PHP and SQL (and a tiny little bit Ruby) and I’m able to create (modest but) functioning programs, but it’s more like fishing in muddy waters via try-and-error than a real understanding about programming ;) I’m now trying - by and by - to gain a real understanding in programming and chose JavaScript� actually, for no particular reason.
The Book
I love it!! It’s an easy read and the writer did such a great job in explaining technical information, making the complex simple and give you a fair understanding in the process of programming. It’s like: Here, by the way, this is a scope and this is why it's important to know about it. And now I’ll explain you in a simple sentence something about variables: “You should imagine variables as tentacles, rather than boxes. They do not contain values; they grasp them—two variables can refer to the same value.� And, BAM, things that a (software engineer) friend tried explaining to me in length with samples and drawings and a thousand of words are suddenly clear! The code examples are clear and comprehensible, descriptions are simple yet effective. Hell, it’s even humorous sometimes! :D
Eloquent JavaScript didn’t teach me a bunch of commands and build in functions and it didn’t showered me with details of the language itself - it gave me a deeper understanding of computer programming, concepts and data representation & a good foundation for the further learning process in JavaScript :D
I know, some readers criticize that they are missing the “from theory to praxis� guide, but if I have learned anything through all my unsystematically (yet, in the end more or less successfully) attempts with PHP, it is this: You have to apply your knowledge, you need to make errors and fix them and make it better next time. You need to fail, you need to curse and you need to dance, singing, if you feel like you’ve done something great. To learn how to code you must code. At least, this is how it work’s for me. Particularly the singing part ;)
Note
On the you can find a HTML Version of the book, a code sandbox with exercises to each chapter where you can run the used examples. And there is even a with the sources used to build the book website.
(This review refers to "Eloquent JavaScript - Second Edition".)
The Book
I love it!! It’s an easy read and the writer did such a great job in explaining technical information, making the complex simple and give you a fair understanding in the process of programming. It’s like: Here, by the way, this is a scope and this is why it's important to know about it. And now I’ll explain you in a simple sentence something about variables: “You should imagine variables as tentacles, rather than boxes. They do not contain values; they grasp them—two variables can refer to the same value.� And, BAM, things that a (software engineer) friend tried explaining to me in length with samples and drawings and a thousand of words are suddenly clear! The code examples are clear and comprehensible, descriptions are simple yet effective. Hell, it’s even humorous sometimes! :D
Eloquent JavaScript didn’t teach me a bunch of commands and build in functions and it didn’t showered me with details of the language itself - it gave me a deeper understanding of computer programming, concepts and data representation & a good foundation for the further learning process in JavaScript :D
I know, some readers criticize that they are missing the “from theory to praxis� guide, but if I have learned anything through all my unsystematically (yet, in the end more or less successfully) attempts with PHP, it is this: You have to apply your knowledge, you need to make errors and fix them and make it better next time. You need to fail, you need to curse and you need to dance, singing, if you feel like you’ve done something great. To learn how to code you must code. At least, this is how it work’s for me. Particularly the singing part ;)
Note
On the you can find a HTML Version of the book, a code sandbox with exercises to each chapter where you can run the used examples. And there is even a with the sources used to build the book website.
(This review refers to "Eloquent JavaScript - Second Edition".)
November 30, 2010
First things first, I did not read the print version of this book - which is due in January 2011 - but the freely available online version (). From what I can tell the print version will miss the chapter on searching, which is quite a shame, because it's rather interesting. On the upside I'd assume that the last few chapters (web programming, DOM, AJAX etc.) have seen quit a bit of an overhaul, they are slightly dated in the online version.
Regarding the actual text, "Eloquent Javascript" is an awesome introduction to an often misunderstood and abused language. It really tries to live up to its name and tackles issues like functional programming, object orientation, modularity and reusability and more. The author's style is light and tot he point and the examples are excellent, e.g. writing a bunch of nice higher-order functions in the chapter on FP or implementing a small Sokoban game.
I'd say this in combination with Crockford's book is a great combination for anyone who really wants to learn and understand JavaScript the language, not just plug together random frameworks.
Regarding the actual text, "Eloquent Javascript" is an awesome introduction to an often misunderstood and abused language. It really tries to live up to its name and tackles issues like functional programming, object orientation, modularity and reusability and more. The author's style is light and tot he point and the examples are excellent, e.g. writing a bunch of nice higher-order functions in the chapter on FP or implementing a small Sokoban game.
I'd say this in combination with Crockford's book is a great combination for anyone who really wants to learn and understand JavaScript the language, not just plug together random frameworks.
February 25, 2021
There are certain basic qualities I look for in a book on a programming language, and if they aren't present, then I don't care if it's amusing. Those qualities include a sound, consistent approach, clarity, commented examples that are easy to follow and illustrative of the features they demonstrate, and certain basics of writing, such as "Don't introduce multiple new ideas in a single example."
Of the many books and resources I've seen on JavaScript and Node to date, Haverbeke's book is by far the most deficient in these fundamentals. I can only sigh in exasperation, trying to figure out what he's talking about with his were-squirrel correlation tracking routine, and I can only throw up my hands in disgust, puzzling through his presentation of promises, where he uses a convoluted and extended example of crows using computers in their nests. Hilarious as that image might be (Imagine! Birds programming asynchronously!), the result is that for every such line he writes, I have to figure out for myself how his nonsense examples relate to anything anyone would actually do, and I have to parse each line to figure out if it's part of the joke or contains actual information.
What if instead of analyzing a crow communication network, Haberbeke had talked about interacting with a relational database, and referenced commonly-used libraries and frameworks? Or would that have been to boring?
It's nice to be amusing, but it's necessary to be clear and helpful. This is not the first well-regarded programming book that I've found to be incompetently written, but it's one of the worst.
Update: I would like to note how very many reviews of this book I have seen by people who said something like "Yes, I didn't myself actually understand a lot of it and was often confused, but I can see that it is very well-written."
I think this points to a pervasive problem with how programming books are received - especially books that have acquired an aura of good reputation. Readers who don't understand them assume the fault must lie in themselves - they are simply not equal to the technical challenges.
That may sometimes be true, but I think we should perhaps all ask more from authors of programming books. The strong majority of those that I have read are very badly written, and to any reader, I would say if you make a real effort to engage with a book and still come away confused, and you have a general understanding of programming and languages, most of the time the problem is with the book, not with you.
Of the many books and resources I've seen on JavaScript and Node to date, Haverbeke's book is by far the most deficient in these fundamentals. I can only sigh in exasperation, trying to figure out what he's talking about with his were-squirrel correlation tracking routine, and I can only throw up my hands in disgust, puzzling through his presentation of promises, where he uses a convoluted and extended example of crows using computers in their nests. Hilarious as that image might be (Imagine! Birds programming asynchronously!), the result is that for every such line he writes, I have to figure out for myself how his nonsense examples relate to anything anyone would actually do, and I have to parse each line to figure out if it's part of the joke or contains actual information.
What if instead of analyzing a crow communication network, Haberbeke had talked about interacting with a relational database, and referenced commonly-used libraries and frameworks? Or would that have been to boring?
It's nice to be amusing, but it's necessary to be clear and helpful. This is not the first well-regarded programming book that I've found to be incompetently written, but it's one of the worst.
Update: I would like to note how very many reviews of this book I have seen by people who said something like "Yes, I didn't myself actually understand a lot of it and was often confused, but I can see that it is very well-written."
I think this points to a pervasive problem with how programming books are received - especially books that have acquired an aura of good reputation. Readers who don't understand them assume the fault must lie in themselves - they are simply not equal to the technical challenges.
That may sometimes be true, but I think we should perhaps all ask more from authors of programming books. The strong majority of those that I have read are very badly written, and to any reader, I would say if you make a real effort to engage with a book and still come away confused, and you have a general understanding of programming and languages, most of the time the problem is with the book, not with you.
March 28, 2015
God is in the details, and the details of how the user experiences this text bring this book from a great beginner's guide to the formally best ebook I've read. With mouse-over definitions, interactive code examples, and relatable prose, Eloquent JavaScript isn't just a model for what all programming books should be; it's (formally) a model for what all ebooks should be.
That said, though the book is designed for beginners, I can't speak to how well it imparts the basic principles of programming to those who don't already know what, say, recursion is supposed to do. It seemed like the prose might be too shallow for that kind of thing, but it did offer great metaphors for those principles, so it might be fine. As someone coming to JavaScript with a light background in other languages, it was exactly what I needed.
That said, though the book is designed for beginners, I can't speak to how well it imparts the basic principles of programming to those who don't already know what, say, recursion is supposed to do. It seemed like the prose might be too shallow for that kind of thing, but it did offer great metaphors for those principles, so it might be fine. As someone coming to JavaScript with a light background in other languages, it was exactly what I needed.
April 8, 2015
UPDATE
I re-read this book after a while, after digging in with more Javascript, and I have to change my opinion on : This book is essential to understanding how to write Javascript applications. Not just the sort of everyday JS you might write in small snippets to support a site that is mostly driven from the backend, but the sort of modern, single-page application that today's JS libraries support. Even further, when you carry JS itself into the backend, via node/io.js, what Marjin talks about in this book becomes not just essential, though still that, but rather mandatory for code that is understandable, maintainable, and extensible.
If you're working on JS applications, buy this book. In addition, get the books by in his "You Don't Know JS" series.
Old Review
This may not be the Javascript book you are looking for. If you plan on writing a JavaScript library at some point, it may be useful?But I found it rather too mundane. Learning the JavaScript "object" model can definitely be useful, and the author's approach to functional programming concepts might be okay, it still gave me nothing of much use in the end.
Taking the full title, it does provide some fairly decent foundational information on how to program, but it fully misses the boat when it comes to telling people how to actually solve problems in software, as do most all texts in this realm.
For an introduction to programming, it already assumes the reader has a grasp on data structures, algorithms, and how to determine which ones to use. It does nothing to help the new programmer in solving problems, breaking them down, etc., assuming the new programmer already knows how to do that.
As for eloquence, I also think that is a misnomer of huge proportion. While I concur that functional programming provides a rather great amount of eloquence to software development, the author misses many an opportunity to provide more fundamental understanding of it.
I re-read this book after a while, after digging in with more Javascript, and I have to change my opinion on : This book is essential to understanding how to write Javascript applications. Not just the sort of everyday JS you might write in small snippets to support a site that is mostly driven from the backend, but the sort of modern, single-page application that today's JS libraries support. Even further, when you carry JS itself into the backend, via node/io.js, what Marjin talks about in this book becomes not just essential, though still that, but rather mandatory for code that is understandable, maintainable, and extensible.
If you're working on JS applications, buy this book. In addition, get the books by in his "You Don't Know JS" series.
Old Review
Taking the full title, it does provide some fairly decent foundational information on how to program, but it fully misses the boat when it comes to telling people how to actually solve problems in software, as do most all texts in this realm.
For an introduction to programming, it already assumes the reader has a grasp on data structures, algorithms, and how to determine which ones to use. It does nothing to help the new programmer in solving problems, breaking them down, etc., assuming the new programmer already knows how to do that.
As for eloquence, I also think that is a misnomer of huge proportion. While I concur that functional programming provides a rather great amount of eloquence to software development, the author misses many an opportunity to provide more fundamental understanding of it.
September 21, 2014
This book is definitely not for beginners in JavaScript. The author does not provide a beginner's working knowledge of the subject matter and does not provide enough exercises at the end of each chapter in order for the reader to solidify his or her understanding of the material. The few problems that are provided are presented with large gaps between the content in the reading and the problems. By this I mean, that by the time you finish chapter two, you're ready to throw the book out the window.
Granted, he obviously knows JavaScript, he just appears to not really be qualified to "teach" beginners. This book would probably better serve an audience people who already have a foundation of JavaScript.
What's surprising is that this book has so many positive reviews and is referred by many JS sites online. But on taking a closer look, it appears that the authors of the websites that are raving about Eloquent JavaScript already have a strong understanding of JavaScript and are not beginners.
I highly suggest beginners checking out the book 'JavaScript & JQuery Interactive Front-End Web Development' by Jon Duckett. It has a ton of positive reviews.
Granted, he obviously knows JavaScript, he just appears to not really be qualified to "teach" beginners. This book would probably better serve an audience people who already have a foundation of JavaScript.
What's surprising is that this book has so many positive reviews and is referred by many JS sites online. But on taking a closer look, it appears that the authors of the websites that are raving about Eloquent JavaScript already have a strong understanding of JavaScript and are not beginners.
I highly suggest beginners checking out the book 'JavaScript & JQuery Interactive Front-End Web Development' by Jon Duckett. It has a ton of positive reviews.
September 9, 2020
It's not clear to me what the target group for this book is. It's called an introduction, but I (ex-developer of 10+ years) feel that at least a few years of experience is necessary to fully grasp the concepts explained in this book. And for those the first few chapters are way too basic.
Push through and it get's to a decent level, after which it then soon loses coherence and touches on wildly various topics without much connection. An interesting and extensive example about a mail-delivery robot, that seems to touch more on shortest-path algorithms than Javascript, however. And another chapter with an extensive story about crows and their nests to explain asynchronous programming. Say what?
They say you can't complain about something that's given to you for free (I read the free ePub available on ) and I won't -- I applaud any author that puts this much effort in and then provides their work for free, but there are better books out there to learn Javascript.
Push through and it get's to a decent level, after which it then soon loses coherence and touches on wildly various topics without much connection. An interesting and extensive example about a mail-delivery robot, that seems to touch more on shortest-path algorithms than Javascript, however. And another chapter with an extensive story about crows and their nests to explain asynchronous programming. Say what?
They say you can't complain about something that's given to you for free (I read the free ePub available on ) and I won't -- I applaud any author that puts this much effort in and then provides their work for free, but there are better books out there to learn Javascript.
December 16, 2023
Used this book to teach programming to my brother and after the first few chapters I was hooked - super fun and engaging. Also unexpectedly creative for a programming book.
Later on though the book contains a lot of frustratingly complicated explanations of simple things and for sure is not targetted towards begginners. However, I did actually have fun deciphering the meaning of author's thoughts and code examples.
All in all, it's a free book, it contains lovely squirrel metaphors, has fun coding examples and thus my rating.
Later on though the book contains a lot of frustratingly complicated explanations of simple things and for sure is not targetted towards begginners. However, I did actually have fun deciphering the meaning of author's thoughts and code examples.
All in all, it's a free book, it contains lovely squirrel metaphors, has fun coding examples and thus my rating.
August 29, 2017
I agree with other reviewers that this is probably not the optimal book for a real beginner. It is, however, great if you’ve been fiddling around with bits and pieces of Javascript here and there and want to solidify your conceptual understanding of the language. The author is very good at explaining not only the “how� of using JS, but also the “why� behind its many quirks. If you don’t care for that look elsewhere, but for me it was very informative.
August 8, 2011
I have read very few programming books, so i guess this isnt saying much but of all of them, i've loved the style of this the best so far.
No matrix like "I know kung-fu" moments, but i think thats more because i havent put enough effort in to understanding, but its well thought out book thats well involved and definitely arms you appropriately.
Definitely gets my recommendation
No matrix like "I know kung-fu" moments, but i think thats more because i havent put enough effort in to understanding, but its well thought out book thats well involved and definitely arms you appropriately.
Definitely gets my recommendation
May 29, 2023
The book is not bad, but since it is labeled as Introduction and no prior knowledge required, I will review it as such. Firstly, I don't think this is an introductory book - truly it starts with the basics, which is great, but it concerns itself with some topics that I believe are not very beginner friendly. Not that you should stray away from them - quite the contrary! But the exercises for some of them are insufficient - approximately 3-4 exercises per chapter, which feels rushed. I believe the book could really benefit from more (and better) examples. For instance, one chapter I read there was this boolean matrix or array used in statistics and the author used the formula and the maths to explain a concept unrelated to statistics - he just chose this for his example. To me it was interesting and I learnt something new, however I found it enjoyable mostly because I was already familiar with the concept. Generally, when you are teaching new skills, you want to eliminate foreign factors that cloud the person's understanding of the new concepts as much as possible. Introducing complexities such as statistics formula, when this could be completely avoided and substituted with a more natural example, is in my opinion a cruel joke to real beginners. Some of the examples are humorous yes, but in the asynchronous programming chapter the author uses the premise that crows are in a symbiotic relationship with termite-like insects, using them to construct advanced computers with reflective objects and exchanging information between the nests, and then continued to build on the chapter using this as the base for his example construction. It is so forced that it caused me pain just to read it. Then, a big chunk of the chapter revolves around that. So instead of thinking in terms of actual practicality and situations that could occur in an actual job, I had to think about crows sending those requests from nest to nest, etc. Some probably found it funny, I found it to be an extremely annoying and unpleasant metaphor for HTTP requests. Maybe I am being too harsh, but trying to find any sense in the example should not have to take me more time than the actual programming concept being taught. Lastly, in my estimation, the author gets fixated on some complex topics that a beginner most likely has no use for, while neglecting other more fundamental ones. I don't have experience in professional programming or huge projects, so he definitely knows what is required betten than me, but when a beginner doesn't see the uses and applications of what he's learning, he would probably neglect it, which is why I believe that these topics should either get more practice problems and examples, or just get scrapped altogether and get a separate section such as "More on.../For the curious once/Advanced/Side notes" etc.
February 21, 2021
Its baffling how this gets so many high reviews. The author clearly knows Javascript but makes a terrible teacher. He seems so determined to use overly complex examples that you get lost in the abstraction. Apart from anything else I should not have to figure out a nearly 250 line mashed up example to explore how to use an async function. This book is certainly not for beginners, intermediates may get something out of it but do you really want to wade through pages of nonsensical examples littered with unnecessary complication to explore a basic concept or a concept you are unfamiliar with?
At times it seems like the author just completely forgets what he wrote about in the chapter, after cramming 20 concepts into an ever growing diabolical nightmare of a a program you are suddenly expected to use this code that you have only ever seen in pieces with no comments, no proper api or documentation, horrendously ambiguous parameter and function names, poor scoping and no actual example of it working. On top of that, the tasks cover 5% of the concepts covered so you are left feeling like you haven't gotten to exercise anything you might have gleaned from the madness.
Having said all that, this book does have its moments and some useful concepts are conveyed and explained appropriately, its just such a shame that you have to read 20 pages of mad ramblings about crows hiding knives to find the nuggets of information.
At times it seems like the author just completely forgets what he wrote about in the chapter, after cramming 20 concepts into an ever growing diabolical nightmare of a a program you are suddenly expected to use this code that you have only ever seen in pieces with no comments, no proper api or documentation, horrendously ambiguous parameter and function names, poor scoping and no actual example of it working. On top of that, the tasks cover 5% of the concepts covered so you are left feeling like you haven't gotten to exercise anything you might have gleaned from the madness.
Having said all that, this book does have its moments and some useful concepts are conveyed and explained appropriately, its just such a shame that you have to read 20 pages of mad ramblings about crows hiding knives to find the nuggets of information.
April 20, 2018
The author is a good writer but not a good teacher.
The content is presented well but not organized well enough for a technical book. The initial chapters were fine but as the book went on, I felt lost.
I think the lack of numbering (of sections) and a flat sectioning (no sub-sections) also adds to the this feeling of getting lost. The examples presented are overtly complex at times and core language features are not covered rigorously (as advertised). There is a lot of space wasted by chit-chat at the start of some chapters as compared to length of the chapter.
I am also not sure who is the ideal audience for this book. Clearly unsuitable for novices but would an intermediate to advanced student get anything out (considering chapters devoted to introductions to HTML, DOM and Internet)?
But obviously the book is free. That is a plus.
The content is presented well but not organized well enough for a technical book. The initial chapters were fine but as the book went on, I felt lost.
I think the lack of numbering (of sections) and a flat sectioning (no sub-sections) also adds to the this feeling of getting lost. The examples presented are overtly complex at times and core language features are not covered rigorously (as advertised). There is a lot of space wasted by chit-chat at the start of some chapters as compared to length of the chapter.
I am also not sure who is the ideal audience for this book. Clearly unsuitable for novices but would an intermediate to advanced student get anything out (considering chapters devoted to introductions to HTML, DOM and Internet)?
But obviously the book is free. That is a plus.
November 14, 2017
This is no ordinary javascript book. This book if read right (Do all the exercises) will give you great insight into functional thinking, which will help you with any functional programming language. A must read for every computer scientist.
Want to read
April 1, 2017My my my....this has to be up there in my favorite programming books shelf. A great book that not only teaches JavaScript, but also teaches programming concepts.
October 30, 2020
There is a lot of light and shadow in Marijn Haverbeke's book Eloquent JavaScript (3rd ed.). It is an interesting and original book whose high ambitions are thwarted by a flawed pedagogical exposition. (One should note that many of the raving reviews for this book are for the first edition, which is a completely different book, and others are by already experienced programmers who are not the target audience of this book and are clearly less affected by the poor pedagogy.)
So let me explain. The angle and the choice of topics of this books are great. It begins with the basic language elements and then works its way up to topics such as object orientation, asynchronous programming and error handling. On the way, the book teaches not just language features, but also some good programming practices and algorithms, although the principles are rather tought by isolated examples than by explaining them explicitely. The second half of the book is less concerned with programming techniques but with different web programming frameworks, such as the DOM model for browsers and nodejs. The exercises at the end of the chapters are quite challenging, and one can learn a lot by doing them (in fact, there is no point reading the book if you don't do the exercises; I suggest to do them on the phantastic companion website for the book). These exercises are really original and betray the author's whimsical sense of humor, for example there is an exercise to program a 1990s style mouse cursor trail, or a Super Mario style platform game for the browser. Many of them are quite difficult, rather on the level of a university course on coding than the usual drill exercises of practicioner textbooks. Unfortunately, the book often does not prepare you properly for them: Sometimes the problems require properties not introduced before, or a level of understanding of the concepts that is simply not provided by the preceding text (google and the w3schools are your friends here).
As I said before, the book's problem is it's poor pedagogy. Easy concepts are explained well and in uneccessary detail, whereas difficult concepts are often treated cursorily. The downhill slope begins with the chapter on object oriented programming, which might be the worst introduction to OOP I have seen so far. Perhaps this can be excused with being in tune with JavaScript's own very messy realization of OOP. Later, there is a chapter on asynchronous programming, which in itself is a plus for this book, and it is written around a quirky toy application ("Raven communication"). But alas, Haverbeke makes little effort to explain new concepts when they are introduced. This is what I believe to be the main issue: New concepts are introduced by one or two code snippets, with an accompanying explanation what the desired outcome is. But you get no explanation of the functionality of the methods in general, which makes it hard to generalize from a particular example and you have to figure it out for yourself in the exercises. Often the opportunity to illustrate things by the use of a diagram is missed. The book's exercises expect an understanding of underlying theory that is simply not provided by the text. This overall lack of explanation is an unnecessary and ongoing point of frustration. Another, though lesser point are the often confusing naming of variables and Haverbeke's love of functional programming, which in many places makes the code unecessarily hard to read or even leads to awkward design (I admit that this might just be a matter of taste).
In the end, I was torn between giving three or four stars for this book, given the great and unique concept counterbalanced by the frustration from poor explanations. The frustration weighed heavier. I hope that in the fourth edition, Haverbeke will treat the book to another 50 or so pages invested to developing theory more carefully and making sure the book is self-contained. Then I will gladly rate it five stars.
So let me explain. The angle and the choice of topics of this books are great. It begins with the basic language elements and then works its way up to topics such as object orientation, asynchronous programming and error handling. On the way, the book teaches not just language features, but also some good programming practices and algorithms, although the principles are rather tought by isolated examples than by explaining them explicitely. The second half of the book is less concerned with programming techniques but with different web programming frameworks, such as the DOM model for browsers and nodejs. The exercises at the end of the chapters are quite challenging, and one can learn a lot by doing them (in fact, there is no point reading the book if you don't do the exercises; I suggest to do them on the phantastic companion website for the book). These exercises are really original and betray the author's whimsical sense of humor, for example there is an exercise to program a 1990s style mouse cursor trail, or a Super Mario style platform game for the browser. Many of them are quite difficult, rather on the level of a university course on coding than the usual drill exercises of practicioner textbooks. Unfortunately, the book often does not prepare you properly for them: Sometimes the problems require properties not introduced before, or a level of understanding of the concepts that is simply not provided by the preceding text (google and the w3schools are your friends here).
As I said before, the book's problem is it's poor pedagogy. Easy concepts are explained well and in uneccessary detail, whereas difficult concepts are often treated cursorily. The downhill slope begins with the chapter on object oriented programming, which might be the worst introduction to OOP I have seen so far. Perhaps this can be excused with being in tune with JavaScript's own very messy realization of OOP. Later, there is a chapter on asynchronous programming, which in itself is a plus for this book, and it is written around a quirky toy application ("Raven communication"). But alas, Haverbeke makes little effort to explain new concepts when they are introduced. This is what I believe to be the main issue: New concepts are introduced by one or two code snippets, with an accompanying explanation what the desired outcome is. But you get no explanation of the functionality of the methods in general, which makes it hard to generalize from a particular example and you have to figure it out for yourself in the exercises. Often the opportunity to illustrate things by the use of a diagram is missed. The book's exercises expect an understanding of underlying theory that is simply not provided by the text. This overall lack of explanation is an unnecessary and ongoing point of frustration. Another, though lesser point are the often confusing naming of variables and Haverbeke's love of functional programming, which in many places makes the code unecessarily hard to read or even leads to awkward design (I admit that this might just be a matter of taste).
In the end, I was torn between giving three or four stars for this book, given the great and unique concept counterbalanced by the frustration from poor explanations. The frustration weighed heavier. I hope that in the fourth edition, Haverbeke will treat the book to another 50 or so pages invested to developing theory more carefully and making sure the book is self-contained. Then I will gladly rate it five stars.
July 26, 2021
2.5 stars.
The book is written in an unorthodox manner. As someone who works with JS most days and was just looking to keep myself up to date, it spends too long on some topics I'd consider secondary and too little time on some I'd consider fundamental.
Some examples are bizarre and obtuse. The chapter on async JS was particularly painful solely due to the impenatrably abstract example given. I can only assume a simulation of a village of super smart communicating crows is a misguided attempt at humour.
However it does cover the basics in a nice way. The exercises are useful, hints are provided at the end of the book as well as full solutions online. Some chapters were written very well - I can see myself referring back to the chapters on regular expressions & canvas in the future. I have found information on canvas in particular hard to come by in other books of this nature.
Also the ebook is freely distributed on the book's website, so that's a big plus.
Overall hit and miss. Probably not at the top of my list of JS books but worth a speed read.
The book is written in an unorthodox manner. As someone who works with JS most days and was just looking to keep myself up to date, it spends too long on some topics I'd consider secondary and too little time on some I'd consider fundamental.
Some examples are bizarre and obtuse. The chapter on async JS was particularly painful solely due to the impenatrably abstract example given. I can only assume a simulation of a village of super smart communicating crows is a misguided attempt at humour.
However it does cover the basics in a nice way. The exercises are useful, hints are provided at the end of the book as well as full solutions online. Some chapters were written very well - I can see myself referring back to the chapters on regular expressions & canvas in the future. I have found information on canvas in particular hard to come by in other books of this nature.
Also the ebook is freely distributed on the book's website, so that's a big plus.
Overall hit and miss. Probably not at the top of my list of JS books but worth a speed read.
March 16, 2015
A great introduction to JavaScript as a language, and a good introduction to computer science/software engineering more generally. Haverbeke makes no assumptions about what you know coming into the book, which is helpful inasmuch as it makes it accessible; but he also isn't patronizing like some "intro" books can be, meaning that if you are already familiar with some of this stuff, you're likely to learn something new. (Or at least find some pleasant challenges in some of the though exercises that he puts forth.) The material gets pretty challenging toward the end (like you'd hope) but (1) Haverbeke trusts you to do the work to learn enough to get through it and (2) he does throw you a bone on some of the problems with a little appendix to help you work through some of those challenges.
FULL DISCLOSURE: a did receive a free copy of this book as a "thank you" gift for some other work I did on behalf of this publisher.
FULL DISCLOSURE: a did receive a free copy of this book as a "thank you" gift for some other work I did on behalf of this publisher.
June 6, 2015
Great for review but not terribly great if it's your first pass at certain concepts. For the ideas I already feel comfortable with my thoughts were "hmm, yes technically that's right but it's a very confusing way to put it" and for the new ones the author seemed to be asking for logical leaps equivalent to "okay so you know about roller blades? Now we're going to build a bike" And *sure* that might seem like a good logical leap if you've been making both for years but for the new people like me it's asking a lot. I used the online version of this book with the in-browser sandbox. There must be some editing errors in that as well. Somewhere around Chapter 4-6 there are examples that refer to parts of code that must have been edited out of a previous draft. On the occasions that I looked at the book-provided solutions many of them contained techniques that weren't covered in any of the preceding chapters. Maybe I'll come back to this one but probably not.
June 20, 2022
It was a little bit above my level, making it the best level for the most learning.
It touches all useful stuff about Javascript, maybe except design patterns which is a more advanced topic.
Pace and explanations were mostly easy to understand, except the projects. I don't know how it could be improved but in my experience I found them the hardest to read and understand. However, doing exercises was most useful with those chapters, so maybe this jump in the difficulty was part of design.
I am happy that this book exists, and it is free. Will probably grab a copy just to help the author someday.
It touches all useful stuff about Javascript, maybe except design patterns which is a more advanced topic.
Pace and explanations were mostly easy to understand, except the projects. I don't know how it could be improved but in my experience I found them the hardest to read and understand. However, doing exercises was most useful with those chapters, so maybe this jump in the difficulty was part of design.
I am happy that this book exists, and it is free. Will probably grab a copy just to help the author someday.
May 1, 2015
This book is the best javascript fundamentals book I have ever read, It's for beginner/intermediate level
July 12, 2015
Very good book for beginners. Needs updating with the most recent syntax.
November 8, 2015
I didn't make any sense out of it what so ever... even when I managed to stay awake while reading it. I got more out of Code Academy and W3Schools. This book did nothing but confuse me.
January 2, 2019
I found this book very useful both for seniors and absolute beginners. I return to it in regular intervals. Truly fantastic book!!
August 19, 2019
One of the best programming books I have read. It is great for people who know programming and a bit of JavaScript, to deepen their knowledge.
September 11, 2019
That was very good beginner-level programming book. Teaches not only about JavaScript but also about programming best practices, architecting your codebase and other important stuff.
March 19, 2017
My review of the book is probably heavily biased, because I'm not really part of the target audience of this book.
It is intended to be a first course in programming, and in my opinion, it serves that purpose well. If you are totally unfamiliar or just barely familiar with programming, this book will be a good introduction to the topic. It focuses on good programming practices and actually building things, without troubling the reader with dry theory.
But if you are someone who has been writing programs in other languages for quite a while and want to learn JavaScript the proper way, you will find the book a bit too verbose and sparse in what you actually need - the stuff that is different (often radically so) in JavaScript compared to other common languages. Anyway, this is a moderately enjoyable read.
It is intended to be a first course in programming, and in my opinion, it serves that purpose well. If you are totally unfamiliar or just barely familiar with programming, this book will be a good introduction to the topic. It focuses on good programming practices and actually building things, without troubling the reader with dry theory.
But if you are someone who has been writing programs in other languages for quite a while and want to learn JavaScript the proper way, you will find the book a bit too verbose and sparse in what you actually need - the stuff that is different (often radically so) in JavaScript compared to other common languages. Anyway, this is a moderately enjoyable read.
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