It’s aliiiiiiiiiive! The first copies of Simply JavaScript—SitePoint’s latest book, co-written by Cameron Adams and me—have arrived! And if you’ll forgive my obvious bias, it looks awesome.
I’m so proud of what Cameron and I have achieved with this book. We knew from the beginning that it wasn’t worthwhile writing another beginner’s JavaScript book unless we could produce something really special, and we definitely have.
Simply JavaScript teaches the technology with unprecedented clarity, featuring loads of color illustrations and advice on how to use JavaScript the right way in the real world.
It’s also a surprisingly entertaining read, although I’ll admit our sense of humor is a little odd at times. On one occasion, we had to fight to keep a joke in when the proofreader had crossed it out with the note “not funny” in the margin. All the same, I daresay it’s the funniest book SitePoint has published to date, which is saying a lot!
The first chapter of the book, The Three Layers of the Web, is currently the feature article on sitepoint.com. The first three chapters of the book are available to download in PDF format for free.
Happy reading! I look forward to hearing what you think in SitePoint’s new book feedback forum.
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Kevin and Cameron,
Just got my PDF Version this past weekend and am awaiting the arrival of my printed copy any day now. So far so good, and by the way, 2 points for the Dr. Who joke in the intro… and 3 points the Star Trek examples =)
From what I’ve read so far I like the approach the book is taking and the tone isn’t as stodgy (read formal) as some books I’ve read. As of right now, on a scale of 1 to 5 where 5 is excellent I’d give the book a solid 4, but I’ll reserve judgement until after I’ve finished it.
June 27th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
Question for ya, Kevin. I consider myself to be decent JS programmer (been working with it lightly for years, have enough of an understanding of it that with Google and a good reference guide in hand I can usually piece things together), but I’m one of those people who hates working in JS because it’s such an awkward language when compared to something like PHP (in which I am quite fluent). Will this book help me become quite fluent in JS, do you think, or is it too basic to be of great use to someone who is familiar with the language already?
June 28th, 2007 at 1:35 am
Adam, JS is not an awkward language, it’s the world’s most misunderstood programming language. I recommend you to look at Douglas Crockford’s training session videos at Yahoo Video
June 28th, 2007 at 4:26 am
Thanks for the tip; I’ll be sure to check those videos out!
June 28th, 2007 at 7:03 am
Cameron and I thought long and hard about how we would present the JavaScript language in this book. Many other beginner’s JavaScript books present it as a hodge-podge of unrelated features, which leads to that impression of it being “such an awkward language”.
As longtime JavaScript developers, Cameron and I have discovered that JavaScript can be a really beautiful and elegant language if you structure your code properly, so we set out to present the language in a cohesive, structured way that would get beginners writing the kind of code we love to read.
In short, yes, I believe Simply JavaScript will not only give you the fluency with the language that you’re craving, but it will also (we hope) give you new appreciation for how nice a language JavaScript can be.
June 28th, 2007 at 10:55 am
Great job Kev! I ordered already my copy… ;-)
June 30th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Just received my copy yesterday, halfway finished with it. It is tough to put down. The book, so far, is very well written and the code samples are awesome. You guys did a great job with the book – congrats on getting it out.
July 5th, 2007 at 1:46 pm