JavaScript: The Good Parts
Douglas Crockford
28 people recommended it in 15 threads, 2010–2023.
11 commenters pushed back on it — worth reading the threads.
What people on Hacker News said
I so enjoyed the pragmatism of Crockford's "Javascript: the good parts" that I gave it away for a while too.
For instance, reading The Pragmatic Programmer and JavaScript: The Good Parts early-on changed my professional life irrevocably, both in terms of programming and career.
Absolutely, it is really the 101 of JavaScript and helps you avoid a lot of the pitfalls that gave the language a bad name for so many years.
It's very short and gets right to the point. The author focuses on the parts of the language people tend to use every day and highlights some gotchas and common mistakes that you might not expect (like == vs ===) if you're coming in from other languages.
Made me see JS in a much more elegant way.
Where it comes up
- Need best Javascript books suggestion 2010 · 7 recommendations
- Ask HN: Best current book to learn JavaScript? 2017 · 4 recommendations
- Ask HN: Best books to learn web development? 2023 · 2 recommendations
- Reddit's favorite programming books, from 3.5B comments 2017 · 2 recommendations
- Ask HN: Best books you read in 2012 2012 · 2 recommendations
- What is the single most influential book every programmer should read? 2011 · 2 recommendations
- Books I recommend to my software engineering students 2020 · 1 recommendation
- Alan Kay's answer to ‘what are some forgotten books programmers should read?’ 2019 · 1 recommendation
- The most mentioned books on Stack Overflow 2017 · 1 recommendation
- Top Books on Amazon Based on Links in Hacker News Comments 2016 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What are the latest and greatest books on your favorite language? 2015 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What book are you reading? 2014 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What's the best programming book you've read recently? 2014 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What book changed your life in 2013? 2013 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What book are you reading? 2013 · 1 recommendation