JavaScript: The Good Parts
Why Hacker News recommends it
A classic recommended to people learning JavaScript, even though some find it dogmatic and dated.
What it is
Douglas Crockford's 2009 Google tech talk on the good and bad parts of JavaScript, based on his book. He argues for using a reliable subset of the language and avoiding its flawed features.
Recommended by 11 HN commenters across 10 different months, 2009 to 2020.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec kreek · 2010-10 · on “The best JavaScript guide ever”
The best way I've found to learn JavaScript is through anything by Douglas Crawford. 'JavaScript the Good Parts' is especially good. [LINK] [this video]
Strong rec funkah · 2012-01 · on “Javascript Best Practices”
Crockford's "JavaScript: The Good Parts" is the gold standard for best practices. Pretty much anyone who works in JS will recommend it. Here's a video which is a condensed version of what's in the book: [this video]
Strong rec dahart · 2013-10 · on “For modern development, Javascript is just something you need to learn”
I will admit to having been an anti-JavaScript elitist (without really knowing JS.) This video changed my mind: [this video] (google tech talk, "JavaScript: the good parts") Two facts mentioned in the video that I didn't previously know and make me feel better about JavaScript: 1- JavaScript is lisp in disguise 2- The name JavaScript is an inside joke referencing the language's differences from Java, not its similarities. That was enough to make me change my mind, and I'm currently enjoying learning JavaScript unashamedly. Browser differences and lack of standards are a PITA, but OTOH, they all have awesome debuggers - HTML+JavaScript may be the only UI toolkit + dev environment that comes packag
Recommends JBiserkov · 2009-07 · on “Javascript is now strategic for Microsoft”
When comparing Office 2007 (and 2010) with Office 97 one can clearly see these are not "the same old apps". Especially when combined with the Office Servers. JavaScript isn't such a bad language. It's essentially Scheme in C cloths. It has first-class functions, lexical closures, prototype-inheritance and more. Just avoid the bad parts. See this Google Talk by Douglas Crockford [this video]
Recommends mrduncan · 2009-11 · on “Doug Crockford Talk on JavaScript”
I didn't see any links to videos - here is one from his Google tech talk in February: [this video] . He also has a number of videos on YUI Theater ( [LINK] ). I also recommend checking out the javascript page on his website, plenty of javascript related material to keep you busy for hours: [LINK]
Recommends patorjk · 2010-10 · on “Ask HN: How to learn Javascript and HTML for devs coming from C++/Java/Python?”
I found the book "JavaScript: The Good Parts" by Douglas Crockford to be very helpful in understanding the language. It's short and covers the main things you'll need to know. It's a good starting place. In fact, he gave a tech talk on the main topics of his book which you can find here: [this video]
Recommends bmaeser · 2013-04 · on “Ask HN: What's the best technical talk you've heard?”
3 awesome videos on very specific topics: Dr James Grime / Numberphile - Encryption and HUGE numbers [LINK] Les Hazlewood - Designing a Beautiful REST+JSON API [LINK] classic: Douglas Crockford - JavaScript: The Good Parts [this video]
Recommends tangue · 2014-01 · on “Wonderful Javascript Talks?”
Classics John Resig : The Dom is a mess [LINK] Javascript, The Good Parts [this video] Speed up your Javascript [LINK] Brendan Eich : Fluent 2013: Brendan Eich, "JavaScript at 18: Legal to Gamble" [LINK] Paul Irish : 10 things I learned from the Jquery source [LINK] Less known but very interesting Building High-Performing JavaScript for Modern Engines [LINK]