I get one Javascript book for free. My experience is as follows.
HTML/CSS - assume I know whatever code htey throw at me.
Javascript - I “know” Javascript but I’ve never really built any games or anything besides one board game I made (semi basic for the most part.)
To use JS on websites I rely on taking scripts elsewhere and I have enough knowledge to modify it for my own HTML and my own situation. I can’t make scripts on my own.
I have 0 idea what JSON is andwould like to have a book that gets me up to where I will be proficient. I don’t want a jquery book. I was looking at these two.
Given what I want to learn (medium/advanced stuff (I know variables and functions and that stuff I guess?)) what would you recommend? PS - this must be in hard copy (so I won’t be buying one of these, or a 3rd option) from sitepoints store since they don’t offer that. Any advice?
I think Learn Javascript: Novice to Ninja will give you a better overview of what you need. It was released recently by Sitepoint so content should be more up-to-date than the Jump Start.
I don’t know if all Jump Start books are related, but I read the Jump Start PHP and honestly it wasn’t much for me even so I have never done PHP before reading the book. If you already know some Javascript, the Jump Start series is not for you - it really covers the basics only. Compare the length of these two books about JS and you will probably figure it too.
I’m not completely sure, but I don’t think there is a hard copy version, but since SitePoint is the publisher, it’s up to them to tell. Just out of curiosity, why does it have to be in hard copy?
I can’t focus on e-books. I always get distracted. I can take hard copy books places that I can’t with e-books to read. If I have an e-book then I know I’ll never read it since I’ll always want to do something else.
Considering my knowledge level, what do you recommend then?
Oh, I misread. You are talking about hard copy and not hard cover. teehee
Well, that SitePoint has. The print version is already selected when you access those book pages. Also check on Amazon, if you are a Prime customer you can get a pretty good discount in Javascript Novice to Ninja.
Yeah SItepoint used to publish their books hard-copy but stopped (so there are copies roaminig around.)
My brother didn’t get me a Christmas gift this year (he thought we were skipping it) so I told him to get me Simply Javascript. Seems like the better option.
That might actually do more harm than good. You’re talking about probably the fastest moving section of software development that can literally change overnight (and has)… and that’s an 7.5yr old book. You’re talking 2 versions of JS behind current, with a new one that will be released in a few months.
I mean to put it in perspective, that was written when IE6 was the worlds most used browser and IE8 wasn’t even released.
lol yeah time flies and it moves even faster in JS.
As far as books, idk. Eloquent JS is one mentioned here and I’ve thumbed through that quite a bit because it’s free. I think you could learn basics from it, but I didn’t go into it knowing basics so I skipped most of that.
Some of the best resources aren’t necessarily books but online articles and references. If you need a hard copy, then you can find a nice printer and print the whole thing. I did that back in the day when I read the html and css specs. I printed the whole spec so I could read it hardcopy.
Kevin’s Learnable course was effectively an update of that book, and his course is still quite relevant and up to date, IMHO. There are tons of great JS books out there, so it’s hard to choose just one. I really like Jeremy Keith’s DOM Scripting book. It’s from 2005, but a revised version came out a few years ago.
Sorry for taking so long to respond. I was in Chicago for the weekend. BRRRRRR!!
I think someone else mentioned JavaScript: Novice to Ninja. I haven’t read it, but I think it could be a good read. I was actually thinking of JavaScript Cookbook.
