Head First JavaScript Programming: A Brain-Friendly Guide 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

For the last two years, I have been struggling with learning to code. This was due to a mix of having a busy schedule that hasn't always been conducive to learning code in my spare time, along with having cobbled together a number of tutorials online and never coming out of any of them feeling like I truly understood the concepts.I had ignored this book for a while now despite seeing it recommended now and again. It seemed juvenile in its approach. Instead I attempted to jump straight into more advanced books, always having to stop reading them after a few chapters because concepts weren't sinking in. Finally, after putting down code for half a year and realizing I'd forgotten nearly everything, I decided to pick up this book.I honestly wish I had purchased this two years ago. This book does a wonderful job at explaining concepts as simple as how to assign a variable and as advanced as closures and object prototypes. The conversational approach to this book means that when you're first starting out, you don't have to waste time attempting to interpret an extremely technical explanation of concepts, as I found with this book I understood almost straight away in most cases.The book's difficulty level does ramp up around the time the Battleship game is built in chapter 8. (By the way, this chapter does a great job of introducing MVCs without actually having you use one that's pre-built.) Therefore I would even recommend this book to intermediate learners if they have had trouble truly understanding advanced object construction, closures, how to use prototypes - essentially everything chapter 8 onward.The exercises in this book also give good practice to solidify what you're learning.What this book doesn't cover, or only lightly touches upon:(1) Writing complex algorithms. The book's focus is on getting a good understanding of concepts, not on working through challenges that require much algorithmic thinking. (Unless you want to build Battleship on your own in chapter 8.) A supplemental resource would be necessary for this.(2) Any JavaScript library or framework, including jQuery. There are 2 pages that touch upon jQuery at the very end of the book. This is a good thing. Too many resources online have you learning jQuery without understanding vanilla JavaScript.(3) Making API calls.(4) Promises(5) Anything else that is seen in chapter 14 ("Top 10 Topics We Didn't Cover").Overall I strongly recommend this book. Like any resource, it should not be the only thing you use to teach yourself to code. However, it is a great starting resource for beginners as well as a supplemental resource for anyone who has the basics down but needs to clarify some of the more complex concepts later in the book.

Is it strange to say that a Javascript book has a great ending? Well, this one did. I'm not one of the people who was asked to do a review. I just bought a hardcopy and actually read every word on every page for my own use - just a regular web developer looking to deepen my understanding.My skill level:I've been studying Javascript for a couple of years and have used it a lot at my new job in the last 6 months. Sometimes I inherit projects that have pre-existing Javascript that is sometimes pretty complex. We also use some frameworks and libraries like jQuery, Express, nodeJS, and AngularJS. So, I got this book to understand all those things better.About the Book:The book itself is steady and clear with a variety of projects and written in a friendly tone. It starts from zero, so if you know nothing, you're in the right place. If, like me, you've been working in it and have wondered what some of the parts do at a fundamental level but haven't had a chance to get to the bottom of it, this book will probably cover it. Even though it covers the basic stuff, it also gets into advanced topics. In fact, the last three chapters are worth the cost of the book alone. The chapter on prototypal inheritance upped my game in one evening. No kidding.My Experience with the Book:It's over 600 pages but flows pretty quickly considering the topic. If like me, you've been working with Javascript, you might find the first 400 pages or so to be a refresher and zoom through. After about pg. 400, I started running into more bits of info and concepts that really clarified some things. That's where I really started getting grateful that they'd done all this hard work. As I went through this book, I was also going through the 12 hour series "Crockford on Javascript" at the same time. He gets pretty in depth in some of it and on a spooky number of occasions I'd just learned a concept the night before in this book that Crockford would then discuss. Much to my delight I understood everything he went into where I know I would have missed things had I not had this book in my back pocket.My Full Assessment:Just get the book. It's great - every page. Work your way through it and then watch the 'Crockford on Javascript' series (free on YouTube) and you'll prove to yourself just how cool you are. Then go get that dev job. They don't use dollar signs in programming languages for nothing. :)

In the end, I learned to love this book. It didn't start out that way though. I had worked extensively with JavaScript in the 90's when the biggest challenge was getting DHTML to work on both Navigator and Explorer. In those days I used JavaScript much like any other classical language. Functions were functions, not objects. However, I spent most of the 00's doing back-end development, only returning to interface development in 2014. To my horror, I realized that I had become a dinosaur -- really Kafkaesque. The way JavaScript was being used in the modern browser bore no resemblance to the language I once knew. It was baffling. What had these kids done to my language!?Not ready for the professional bone yard, I went about retraining myself and took a class at a local community college where this was the required text. My first response to the book wasn't positive -- in fact it was resentful. I hated the way it seemed to pander to millennials -- this idea that the reader needs to be continuously entertained if you are to EARN and keep his/her attention. It seemed like a For-Dummies joke-tech-lit book turned up to 11. Truth is though, I was bitter, resentful, and perhaps even a bit curmudgeonly. As I worked through the book though, I became a convert. Technically the book is very sound, taking the reader a long way in a little time. The examples and exercises are quite good, and, once I relaxed a bit, I found that I enjoyed the playful tone of the book as well. In does make retaining the information easier. The comparison to a Dummies book was unfair.In short, this is a great place to start for anyone new to JavaScript or re-building their web development skills.

I do not indulge in writing reviews here on Amazon or anywhere, but I am compelled to come here and share my experiences.This book is so d*** good, it has actually helped me understand another programming language (C#) better. Although I do have a copy of Head First C#, but the style, manner of delivery, patience and humour in this book (Head First Javascript) make it an awesome read. It is by far the best value for money book I have bought in a LONG time (and trust me, I buy loads of books) - including or especially programming books. I have been reading this book like a Robert Ludlum thriller...quickly digesting and turning the pages in a hurry to see what I would learn next. The way some programming concepts were explained by the authors (in the context of Javascript of course) has made me smile and pause so many times in wonderment, as to why other programming books could not be written this way.I know it has been the style and philosophy of the Head First movement to combine hand-scribbled annotations with cartoons, 1940's images and jokes, but never has it all come together so well as in this book. As I write this review, I have just passed the half-way mark in the book, but Javascript is already demystified and simplified for me. In fact, I feel so confident now that I am tempted to not finish the book (LOL). Such is the amount of confidence and understanding of Javascript that I have obtained already. If I could give 6 stars to any book, this would be it.Despite starting my programming/coding journey from C#, I have come to appreciate why many experienced programmers recommend that newbies (or noobs) start learning from Javascript. The language may not be a proper OOP (like C++, Java or C#) but this book has made me see why an aspiring programmer should invest time learning Javascript first. It would be easier to grow a thick skin and clear head for other languages. And although I am picking up some lax syntaxing habits from Javascript that could embarrass me later in C# (which is a strongly typed, no nonsense language), I am happy that I last month I decided to paus my coding journey in order to grasp Javascript first. In short, this book (being one of three that bought on Javascript) is way more valuable than what I paid for it.Anyway, I have always suspected that some authors of programming books while being good programmers are often awful teachers or just people who would rather make programming seem like rocket science or something for an exclusive bunch of people. Kudos to these authors: You ROCK. I will probably buy anything else that you publish henceforth, with the expectation that you'd keep up the good work.

So I was hoping that I would eventually like this book but it is written in a structure that I personally find difficult to understand. For example, they will state something which has not been discussed in a manner of which you believe that it has already been discussed and it can throw you off. I then spent time researching that specific thing only to find that they will be discussing it later on. As well as this, this book try's way too hard to be engaging. Reading it sometimes makes me feel like I am in a lecture hall with an eccentric professor who try's so hard to be 'hip' that it is off putting.It might be my learning style (although I have read several JS books now and I am getting confident) but I find this book very hard to engage with. I'd also like to state that the activities (such as building a battleships application) are preached rather than taught. I would prefer it if they went line by line and discussed why every aspect is created and why we create properties etc. Instead, they decided to go with writing full blocks of code with mad arrows pointing towards different aspects with explanations.Despite this, the book does well to explain various areas of the coding language very well. It is just the structure of how to put theory into practice which throws me off completely but that might just be me and my particular methods of learning.

A very easy to read book - I rattled through from front to back in two weeks and think I've managed to retain much of the information from the one pass. I found the conversational style, whilst apparently not to everyone's taste, to be very conducive to taking on board the information in the book. I bought this as a "getting to grips with Javascript" for work (hence being able to get through it without skipping anything in two weeks) and I've felt comfortable to at least prototype in Javascript for active development tasks.Highly recommended as an introduction to Javascript.

It is really good. Clear, a bit verbose but I guess it was intentional - cuz it does help me retain the information better. The exercises were a bit weird. I guess they could improve them by introducing some small JavaScript projects that we can undertake or just exercises that can actually allow us to practise our programming skills. But overall, great book, good price.

Fantastic introduction to Javascript but to be honest I am not a fan of the digital format of this book, I think the physical version would be better in terms of flipping through the pages to get where you want. Not sure if all the quizzes within the book are absolutely necessary for learning but other than the the authors have made a sterling job of teaching something that I found challenging.