I would not forgive myself if I did not write a review for this book. This is one of the best books I have ever read in my entire life. It does not only help me grasp and love Javascript, but also greatly improved my understanding the way of how to do better programming. As a programmer, if you have not read this book, you missed a very good part. So, if you want to learn Javascript, this is definitely the right book to read.

Like the author said, This book is small, but it is dense. It is very hard to understand some pages in the first read. I read every pages at least 3 times, some pages more than 10 times to get the idea fully. But the effort definitely got rewarded.

I am an experienced C# developer (10+ yrs).

This is my first Javascript book. I thought it'd be a piece of cake but this book helped me realize how different of a beast javascript is from oop/d that I am so used to. And for helping me realize that alone, I think this book is great.

The book is very concise and in my opinion conveys too much information without adequate amount of examples.

If you have experiences working with javascript and ran into issues which you couldn't understand why, you will love this book. If not, I think for us mortals, it will be a difficult book to absorb all the information at once.

. Perhaps

I was a bit pessimistic about this book. I really didn't want another beginners how to programming book, after all I have been programming in other languages for a few years. This book surprised me though, I really learned a lot about how JavaScript works, and the misconceptions people normally have when they are coming from other classical object oriented languages. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is wanting to learn JavaScript or even those who are just exploring JavaScript frameworks for the first time.

One of the best JavaScript books for any level to cover all the important aspects (and faults of JavaScript).

Book is great for beginners as it covers the basics and fundamentals of programming, but is good for people who are already experienced programmers who have never programmed in JavaScript.

Pretty concise and straight to the point. A must read for any JS developer.

Many developers praise this book, but in my opinion it did not live up to what the author claimed. It's very negative documentation of JavaScript, by someone who is making a point of telling you he's an expert. There are many, many occurrences of paragraphs, pages, or maybe even most of a chapter, where it really should be called JavaScript: The Hot&Steaming Pile. He may be an expert in JavaScript but sometimes the arrogance in the book is hard to just accept and move on past. And the negativity in spite of the title... also difficult. I didn't buy this book to learn all the things I shouldn't learn. I bought it to learn the *good* parts. And in fairness, the good parts are covered, eventually. Although, they seemed to me to come with a bit too much opinion on subjective aspects. Perhaps that is why this review also includes too much opinion on subjective aspects. ;) In spite of this, it is one of the standard books all JavaScript developers should probably read.

It's just that I think it needs an editor to go through and slash and burn some of The Bad Parts sections. Some discussion of that is needed, but I suspect the author used his expert status to intimidate his editor into making poor choices on what to cut.

I find programming texts tough to get through, so I appreciated how short the book is. It certainly isn't comprehensive, but that isn't its purpose. A great read for anyone new to JavaScript, or someone who wants a refresher on some best practices and pitfalls.

Basic and to the point

Ein rundum gelungenes Werk von Javascript-Guru, das trotz seiner schlanken Gestalt für viele Stunden Lesevergnügen sorgte.

In den wenigen Seiten ist soviel Wissen destilliert und in minimalistische Code-Beispiele gegossen, dass man jedes Kapitel gerne nochmals liest, um auch ja alles "mitzunehmen".

Javascript: The Good parts beginnt mit der Geschichte von Javascript und seinem Aufstieg von einer Verlegenheitslösung zur vielleicht wichtigsten Skriptsprache der Welt. Doch dann ist die Schonfrist vorbei: schonungslos zerpflückt Crockford die ohnehin spärliche Javascript-"Standardbibliothek" bzw. Syntax und erklärt anschaulich, warum ==, typeof und Co besser nicht mehr verwendet werden sollten. Auch die missglückte prototype/class-Inheritance von Javascript bekommt ihr Fett ab.

Aus den wenigen Resten, den good parts, zaubert Crockford aber erstaunliches: er erläutert, wie sich Klassen, Vererbung, Module oder funktionale Programmierung mit einfachsten Mitteln in Javascript emulieren lassen. Sehr gut finde ich, dass er den Bereich der DOM-Manipulation komplett außen vor läßt. Als hochperformante Programmiersprache hat sich Javascript längst von den typischen Rollover-Skriptchen emanzipiert, die in anderen Werken noch den Blick aufs Wesentliche verstellen.

Insgesamt eine sehr empfehlenswerte Lektüre für den fortgeschrittenen Javascript-Entwickler.

In this small and dense book you will find JavaScript guru Douglas Crockford's presentation of the beautiful subset of a language that lies within JavaScript as a whole. You can use this subset to write serious programs. Occasionally you might have to use some of what Crockford calls "the bad parts", but at least you'll know the dangers, and how to mitigate them.

Perhaps more importantly, Crockford is very, very aware of how JavaScript differs from classical OO languages, and how these differences can and do trip up classically trained programmers, coming from (say) C++, C# or Java backgrounds. Crockford goes out of his way to point out the differences and the new way of thinking that is required for JavaScript.

This book is not necessarily going to be an easy read, even for professionals. Crockford says so himself in the preface. It's dense and terse. By necessity it introduces terms that might be confusing at first, and which are only explained later. You have to read the whole book, patiently waiting for certain concepts to be explained, and for things to fall into place. On a re-read it all begins to make real sense. I do recommend that this book is read at least twice, preferrably three times. At least it's short!

There is not much to do with the web in this book. There's no DOM manipulation examples, and no Ajax calls. You will find no discussion of modern JavaScript libraries. Crockford just focusses on his area of expertise: the JavaScript language. He highlights and promotes the good parts, and in appendices talks about the "Awful" and merely "Bad" parts.

This is an important book. Crockford writes with the authority, seriousness and simplicity of K&R. To be a modern web developer you really need to know what you're doing with respect to JavaScript. Look to other books to discuss JavaScript libraries, the DOM, animation effects and Ajax. Look to this book for the starting point to all that: the JavaScript language itself, weird and wonderful, familiar yet strange, bad parts and (fortunately) good parts.

Es un libro donde cada capitulo tiene algo que puedes aplicar en tu trabajo de todos los días. Esta lleno de buenos consejos o cosas que muchas veces se pasan por alto. Me encanto.

Il libro è scritto veramente molto bene, i consigli forniti possono essere molto utili sia per uno sviluppatore principiante che per esperti. L'inglese utilizzato è abbastanza semplice e risulta di facile comprensione anche per chi non conosce la lingua in modo approfondito. Il metodo espositivo è molto concentrato, non ci sono tanti giri di parole o discorsi lunghi per aumentare il numero di pagine del libro, si tratta di un concentrato di informazioni molto utile anche da tenere a fianco del pc nel lavoro di tutti i giorni. Consigliato!

Many examples and real life proven, useful tips. I could relate to the possible pitfalls of Javascript.