Book Review: JavaScript for Programmers

I stopped reading this review after finding out that it covered a "Deitel and Deitel" book. They're serial authors, and I mean that in the worst way. The original Deitel was an IBM'er from long ago, and he wrote books about MVS and "structured programming" and goofy old mainframe topics.

Now, he, his son and maybe even his grandson, just write books on whatever topic they think will make them money. Buy any of their books and you will get the worst kind of hackneyed corporate rubbish you can imagine. A book like this is an analog of proprietary software, performed only for money.

Spend your money on Douglas Crockford's "JavaScript the Good Parts" http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596517742/wrrrldwide... instead. Crockford is not some corporate mindset, 9-to-5'er: he actually likes and uses JavaScript, and he exercises a sense of aesthetics when choosing "good parts" and "bad parts". He wrote his book from experience. Crockford's book is an analog of open source software.

Edited: I changed "moral equivalent" to "analog" based on Azerthoth's criticism below. Thanks, Azerthoth, I will never look at the phrase "moral equivalent" the same way again.

Interesting, although I truly wish that people would stop using the word moral in conjunction with much of anything. Whose morals, from what back ground? Tossing that word out there in any argument is the equivalent of a verbal/literary land mine under the feet of everyone nearby.

No I don't believe that you can define a contextual basis for it either in common speech. The word is too vague, meaningless, and used mostly in an inflammatory way, often incorrectly.

My new thing is Javascript (this week, anyway) ... I'm using little bits of it here and there -- I hacked together a couple of scripts already to make my work easier to do -- and I'm anxious to learn more. I'm starting with the "Missing Manual" book on Javascript ...

phsolide, no probs, I just re-read my comment and I seem to have come off a bit over the top. It was offered up as friendly commentary but it doesnt come across to me that way. I guess thats what I get for posting on my way out the door to go do something else.

@Steven: Whatever you do, I highly recommend you read/try a couple of jQuery tutorials as well. It's fantastic and makes Javascript fun and easy again!

Sander, thanks for the tip. I've heard a bit about JQuery, and it's good to have your endorsement of it.

Slashdot has switched away from YahooUI to jQuery. It loads and renders more quickly as a result.

jQuery Roqs