Learning JavaScript (Learning)

I once took a history course in which the professor was terrible with dates: "Event X" took place in 1917 in lecture, 1918 in the review session, and 1919 on the test. As you might imagine, there was nearly a mutiny when the tests were handed back. Frustrating? You bet.

This kind of instructional purgatory is similarly offered by Learning Javascript. Imagine reading a passage of code lingo and thinking, "Ok, I get this", only to find oneself completely baffled by the corresponding code example. Why is that '.' THERE? Where is that function declared? Where did that variable come from?...Cue 10-15 minutes of re-reading the instruction passage and re-analyzing the example code. Throw up hands in frustration. Do a google search, find the publisher's website, and discover, 'LO AND BEHOLD, pages upon pages of errata.

Ok that's frustrating, but once you find the errata and learn to ignore the obvious typos and misnamed functions -- it's passable. And so, fairly smooth (albeit monotonous) sailing until the chapter on Events Handling. Suddenly, the reader is thrown into the abyss. The chapter is prologued with the warning, paraphrased: "You should skip this because it will confuse you". Nevertheless, I read on and was -- as predicted -- pretty confused. Maybe I should have skipped it.

That chapter on Event Handling, however, was not an island; there were concepts in subsequent chapters that were rather dependent on the material covered. I think it was probably an afterthought to stick in the "confusion" warning, perhaps after the editor tried to get through the chapter with limited success. To invoke another recent read - Made to Stick - I think Learning Javascript suffers from "The Curse of Knowledge". The author clearly knows a lot about javascript, but he struggles to communicate his knowledge in a way that non-knowers will easily comprehend.

Nevertheless, I made it through and feel like I have a pretty good handle on the core concepts, it just took a little more outside research and re-reading than I would have preferred. The big payoff is the end of the text, in chapters 13 and 14, where Powers dives into the world of javascript libraries and APIs. For those developing web apps, this is interesting and readily applicable stuff.

I once took a history course in which the professor was terrible with dates: "Event X" took place in 1917 in lecture, 1918 in the review session, and 1919 on the test. As you might imagine, there was nearly a mutiny when the tests were handed back. Frustrating? You bet.

This kind of instructional purgatory is similarly offered by Learning Javascript. Imagine reading a passage of code lingo and thinking, "Ok, I get this", only to find oneself completely baffled by the corresponding code example. Why is that '.' THERE? Where is that function declared? Where did that variable come from?...Cue 10-15 minutes of re-reading the instruction passage and re-analyzing the example code. Throw up hands in frustration. Do a google search, find the publisher's website, and discover, 'LO AND BEHOLD, pages upon pages of errata.

Ok that's frustrating, but once you find the errata and learn to ignore the obvious typos and misnamed functions -- it's passable. And so, fairly smooth (albeit monotonous) sailing until the chapter on Events Handling. Suddenly, the reader is thrown into the abyss. The chapter is prologued with the warning, paraphrased: "You should skip this because it will confuse you". Nevertheless, I read on and was -- as predicted -- pretty confused. Maybe I should have skipped it.

That chapter on Event Handling, however, was not an island; there were concepts in subsequent chapters that were rather dependent on the material covered. I think it was probably an afterthought to stick in the "confusion" warning, perhaps after the editor tried to get through the chapter with limited success. To invoke another recent read - Made to Stick - I think Learning Javascript suffers from "The Curse of Knowledge". The author clearly knows a lot about javascript, but he struggles to communicate his knowledge in a way that non-knowers will easily comprehend.

Nevertheless, I made it through and feel like I have a pretty good handle on the core concepts, it just took a little more outside research and re-reading than I would have preferred. The big payoff is the end of the text, in chapters 13 and 14, where Powers dives into the world of javascript libraries and APIs. For those developing web apps, this is interesting and readily applicable stuff.