A unique genre, all it's own: literary programming books.
Here we have a survey of 25 authors, along with a JavaScript programming problem written usiA unique genre, all it's own: literary programming books.
Here we have a survey of 25 authors, along with a JavaScript programming problem written using code in the style of that author. Croll provides a short biography of each author, a code snippet, and then some explanation of why the snippet was written the way it was.
Lots of fun and JavaScript in-jokes, but also a thoughtful exploration of the flexibility of JavaScript and some of it's more esoteric elements. Also, might even teach you a few things....more
Since there are so few books on Twitter's Flight framework (just this one, at last count), there aren't many choices. Luckily, this book is better thaSince there are so few books on Twitter's Flight framework (just this one, at last count), there aren't many choices. Luckily, this book is better than its flawed coding samples and lack of editing would make it seem. It covers all of the critical parts of a Flight component and app, and dives into why certain decisions were made in the language. It even discusses performance and best practices, though those were the weakest areas.
Obviously, at under 100 pages of actual text, there was a lot more that could have been included, though Flight itself is small enough that I can't say it detracted from the book's purpose as a whole. In general, resources around Flight are hard to find, so having even this much information in a single book is a positive.
Generally, if you can look past the editing issues, this isn't a bad intro to a promising framework....more
Excellent resource for cutting-edge JavaScript. Lots of up-to-date information on important patterns and libraries we could (and should!) be using. FoExcellent resource for cutting-edge JavaScript. Lots of up-to-date information on important patterns and libraries we could (and should!) be using. Focuses on various asynchronous patterns, including events, promises, and web workers. Absolutely recommended as the next "must-read" JavaScript book for those doing advanced work....more
A disappointment, but mostly due to its age. When a book features performance testing of Google Chrome versions 1 and 2, you know something's off. FinA disappointment, but mostly due to its age. When a book features performance testing of Google Chrome versions 1 and 2, you know something's off. Finally forced myself to finish reading it, but found little of value in the back half of the book. The problem is that almost everything in the book is a well-established best practice now, and if you're even moderately up-to-date on writing good JavaScript, the book is almost all repetition.
That said, the big payoff was Chapter 3. Here is where the DOM interaction comes into play, and the ideas of repainting and reflowing the page were examined. There are also some interesting parts in Ch 5 (regexes) and 6 (timers) if you're not already familiar with the performance aspects of those features.
I'd recommend intermediate and some advanced JS folks to skim certain chapters; just watch out for the speed tests -- use jsperf.com instead!...more
This was the book I learned HTML from! It was very clear, great descriptions of browser support and caveats, plus all of the brand new HTML 4 stuff ( This was the book I learned HTML from! It was very clear, great descriptions of browser support and caveats, plus all of the brand new HTML 4 stuff ( tags were my favorite!) There was lots of sample code, a lot of it about Kumquats... which I didn't believe was a real fruit until I finally saw one in real life, almost ten years later....more
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