A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript. The new tech-assisted approach that requires half the effort

I was working through another book, Head First Javascript Programming (HFJP), when a colleague clued me in to this book. I think that HFJP is a good book too but I wanted to ramp up quickly. I am an experienced C# programmer and I found myself getting bogged down in HFJP because it is a book designed for beginner programmers. A Smarter Way to Learn Javascript (SWLJ) is also covering a lot of things I already know (it also targets a lot of things I already know.) But with SWLJ I will be able to move through the topics quickly and get pretty quickly to the dynamic and quirky features of Javascript that I am trying to wrap my brain around. The technique in the book is very innovative. He takes a complex topic and divides it up into bite-sized chunks. The reading and exercises are extremely well-thought out and only requires you to know what is being covered in the current chapter and past chapters. Each chapter logically builds on previous chapters. The tecnnique is simple. Read (<10 mins), do the exercises (<25 mins), take a walk. (I think that the last step is pretty important...who knows what the brain does when we reduce our cognitive load after cognitive work....it helps us memorize better though.) Many of the 4-star reviewers mention the frustration of having the get the exercises EXACTLY right. And I DO sympathize with this complaint to some extent. Even your white space (spaces and carriage returns) have to be exactly right. BUT you get a chance to do the ones you miss again at the end. And I think you have to realize that requiring you to do the exercises using a certain style of coding is a VERY GOOD thing. Many employers REQUIRE you to code a certain way (using a style guide) and even have built in code checkers to be sure programmers are doing it a certain way. (Sound familiar...that's what Mark is doing). I am pretty sure that all of the conventions Mark asks you to use are COMMON conventions. And if you are not required to follow a style guide as a programmer you should adopt your own anyway (why not Marks?) It will make reading your code easier for other programmers. Finally I wanted to talk about cost The Kindle version of the book is <$7.00 and the exercises are free. By comparison I paid over $30.00 for HFJP. What do you have to lose really? You can get this book for the price of your next Venti Latte. Give it a try. Seth

Before I say anything else - if you are looking to learn the Basics of JavaScript, freshen up what you already know, or prepare yourself to be able to be fluent in JavaScript, this is a must buy. Now for the rest of the review. If you are anything like me, you have spent hours on the internet trying to figure out the best way to start learning JavaScript. It can be a daunting task. This website tells you this, this forum tells you that, this developer says no, that developer says yes. This book is the solution to the seemingly never ending wondering around the internet. Develop your own programming style and learn to do it properly with this book! Mark Myers has a way of writing that holds your attention in a way that you would never expect from a textbook. Somehow he manages to minimize the amount of reading and maximize the amount of learning. It really is incredible, and you may not understand what I mean until you read it for yourself. Each chapter generally consists of only a few pages. It takes, even a slow reader, 5-15 minutes to read a chapter. Each chapter is immediately followed by free practice quizzes. You can practice the quizzes as many times as you like, you can view the answers if you get the question wrong, and you can even use a program (also free) that allows you to take your JavaScript practice even further - where you can practice coding as much as you like and whatever you like. So, I've covered readability, it's great. The voice of the book is excellent. The text is backed up by solid practical practice. The practice questions are short, sweet, and they make you code "properly". I say "properly" because, as you will read, there are many ways to code in javascript, but this book prepares you to do it cleanly and professionally.

I have previously reviewed Mark's HTML/CSS book which I had to learn in tandem while learning JavaScript in this book. I am very enthusiastic about learning coding this way, as an older person who has an in-born love for computer programming but is intimidated by the thought of having to try to remember things I've learned (not nearly as easy to do as when I was young). Since I have now gotten used to the general concepts of coding that cross platforms (I have now learned some PHP at free sites online, also with a PHP/MySQL book purchased from Amazon, and am now also working my way through Mark's Python book), I realize even more how helpful teaching like this is for either beginners or someone like me who learned some programming languages long ago but needed a reboot having forgotten much of what I'd originally learned. Mark uses the same type of starting examples across his different books, they are simple to understand and he starts out very easy, plainly laid out so that you are able to grasp the underlying mechanisms at play. One thing to note is he doesn't get into any detail about regular expressions. In the chapter that touches on it, he openly expresses that. As I'm here to learn how to fluently code with confidence, at first I was a little concerned about this, but there are places I can find online to go into further depth on this subject, which sounds a little confusing. As this book is quite long and in depth aside from that, I'm not sure how much more getting deeper into RegEx would've extended this book. So, when you consider that getting this book in Kindle, e-reader format is so very inexpensive (you just download the Amazon reader app to your computer and start working on it through there, the links at the end of the chapters will open your browser to practice what you just learned), a person can easily afford other teaching materials to go into more depth on that subject if you so desired. Having looked at some other reviews of the chapter practice sessions, I feel the need to state that I've never had an issue with any of the peculiarities of learning code this way. The author has to structure the practices with precise number of spaces in certain areas, etc., as this is an automated system, not an AI system, of checking what you entered to see if it's a workable way of completing the required task, so the rigidness of the practice is necessary. It's the short chapters and immediate, multiple question practice that is the overwhelming strength of this book. I can't really imagine a different way now that I've tried this way. Originally I had tried taking lots of notes (to help my old memory) and then doing the practice at the end of each chapter. I realized at one point about halfway through this book that I had to go through the HTML/CSS book in order to be able to work with JavaScript for webpages. Once I finished that book, I went back through the first JavaScript chapters again rapid-fire, because I'd already lost some confidence in my memory of what I'd already learned with JavaScript (kids out there, getting old sucks that way!). That way of going through the book works really well, I found (that's how I am now going through Mark's Python book). I also discovered that I did in fact retain more than I believed I did, this way of learning truly works!

I just completed this book, and finished every exercise. In parallel, I've also been going through the Code Academy JavaScript course, so I have somewhat of a basis of comparison to another popular (and free) option. Overall, this book and the accompanying exercises are a great introduction to JavaScript--and you really can't beat the value. That being said, based on my experience with the Code Academy course, I do think there is room for improvement. A few specific observations, which I hope the author considers improving going forward: 1. Some of the exercises reject completely functional, valid JavaScript--even answers that are seemingly indistinguishable from that which the exercises say is the correct answer. This was particularly frustrating in that latter chapters, where the code can be a little more complex. There were several instances in which I could not identify a single character of difference between the "correct" answer, and what I had entered. On multiple occasions, after failing to identify any differences between my code and the author's example, I did a copy/paste of the "correct" answer over my own code; the validator not infrequently would reject it as wrong. Frustrating. The author would serve his students well if he would implement a method of showing specific errors. Definitely room for improvement here. 2. Another reviewer (too harsh in my opinion) rated this book poorly due to the fact that you don't actually run any JavaScript yourself--you merely emulate the coding process in the author's web application. Though that reviewer wrongly panned an otherwise strong book, his general criticism, in my opinion, has merit. It is possible that you get through this entire book and >1000 exercises having never actually saved a .js file and figured out how to run it in a browser. That, to me, seems a rather fundamental part of JavaScript. I think this book would be improved if the author would come up with a way (or a chapter) where the student would actually create a .js file and get that file to execute. 3. The exercises for each chapter follow the same pattern. A few simple questions, a drag and drop, failsafe coding, etc. Some of these teaching methods work extremely well in early parts of the book, but become overly burdensome later on (I'm looking at you, drag and drop questions!). Personally, I found the failsafe coding to be more valuable once things started to get more complex. 4. I've not yet finished the Code Academy course, but I have gotten far enough through it that I can safely say there are some differences between what this book teaches and what Code Academy teaches. In speaking with a few seasoned developers, they tend to like some of Code Academy's methods better. Specifically: a. One of the first things Code Academy teaches is console.log(). This isn't addressed in Mr. Myers' book, and could be an incredibly valuable tool for someone new to JavaScript. b. Functions are taught differently. Code Academy teaches you to assign a function to a variable, which most developers I've spoken with tend to prefer. Example: //code academy way var orangeCost = function (cost) { var total = cost * 5; console.log(total); } orangeCost(5); //Smarter Way Version function orangeCost(cost) { var total = cost * 5; return total; } orangeCost(5); As I complete the Code Academy course, I will update this review with additional observations. Despite these criticisms, Mr. Myers has done a very good job building a JavaScript resource about which he should be very proud.

This training technology (it's much more than a book) probably was targeted at web developers and it's great for them but it has far wider applicability. Beginners: Kids, I am your grandfather, a card carrying Mensan, and have been in information technology since before your parents were born, *stop reading* come back when you've completed the 'A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript" that I gave you. Senior Citizens: Stop wasting time with "brain training". Learn something useful while training AND acquire a new opportunity for self expression. You'll have fun, improve reading comprehension, memory, reasoning, typing accuracy and speed. For some parts you'll need a little HTML. Someone should write a one page HTML cheat sheet specific to the course. Lynda.com: Immediately purchase Mark for an obscene amount of money and we can all say we knew him when. The rest of you: Mark Myers has done something great here. He has applied some sound psychological principles to teach practical JavaScript programming. Why do you care? Add "these few precepts in thy memory": JavaScript started off as Brendan Eich's simple, quick effort to provide web site scripting. It is now a monster probably accounting for more lines of code than any other language and is best described by David Flanagan's 1078 pages of "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide". You probably aren't going to go cover-to-cover with that tome but, if you're serious, you should own a copy. JavaScript has been taken over by a standards body and is called ECMAScript 5 with ECMAScript 6 soon to be released. People are cross compiling other languages into JavaScript. Browsers run it so efficiently that first person shooters have been written in JavaScript. "It's alive!" AND evolving. Of course Mark doesn't teach the whole thing. It probably wouldn't even be advisable - see Douglas Crockford's, "JavaScript: The Good Parts", the other book you really should own to get into JavaScript. No, Mark restricted himself to more what Brendan's bosses probably had in mind when they tasked him with coming up with a web scripting language. It's not all you need but it's a real good start. This is not a text to read. It is not a reference. A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript is a training system for a useable subset of JavaScript. It consists of 89, two to three page Chapters. Carefully read the Chapter - there *will* be a quiz. Each topic chapter is matched with 20 exercises on the web site. The exercises are where you'll spend the most time. They create a graduated involvement in producing code starting with filling in blanks with key words and ending up with writing and running actual code snippets. They seduce you with a rapid start and positive reinforcement. This is experiential learning by guided doing and will require effort on your part to carefully read the exercise, to understand the point the author is making and then verify your comprehension by completing the exercise task - usually a line or two of code . There is new info in the exercises; they do not merely cover what's in the text. The format of the exercises is varied which serves to keep your interest up and the positive feedback makes them like eating potato chips - hard to stop with just one. Don't try, do. Encouraging words and a green background added to your answer become rewards you'll seek. If you're wrong, learn from it. It may stick with you longer and you'll get a chance to redeem yourself as you complete the exercises. I worked every one of them - some are real puzzlers requiring brain power beyond rote memory. Keep the big picture in mind and go for simple solutions.

I can't begin to describe how useful this book has been. I am 54 years old and have NEVER coded. I got stuck on lesson 4 in Code Academy and spent 25 minutes before realizing a simple line wasn't running because I had missed a capitalization in a variable name. I was so frustrated at how much time was wasted on simple mistakes that the tutorial wasn't catching. This book creates a very iterative, almost "flash card" approach to getting down the basics of the syntax and the logic, but without wasting valuable time in the process. I believe there are roughly 500 or so "rules" that I'll need to learn before I can do basis programming. By following the traditional coding lessons online, it will take me years. I'm beginning to feel that with just a few more days of work in this book, I'll be able to reach a similar level because the learning process is so iterative and isn't wasteful. Doing his lessons takes me back to the very satisfying experience I had in Algebra II in highschool when I finally got a Math teacher that understood how an average person looked at Math. I was able to learn Math without having the need to have a knack for math. This book is now allowing me to do the same with coding. I can't wait to buy his HTML and CSS books! I do have one suggestion for the author, but I'll leave that for a private suggestion to him -- I believe it will truly make his already exceptional approach even better. (3 weeks into Javascript CODING 4 hours a day 10.15.15....) OK, so I rarely review books, and I've never reviewed one twice...BUT I"M DOING IT NOW!...This Javascript book A Smarter Way to Learn JavaScript: The new approach that uses technology to cut your effort in half by Mark Myers is INCREDIBLE. I am on several MOOC crash courses like Code School and Code Academy, and while both of those learning interfaces are very developed, they sometimes leave me scratching my head saying "what the hell did I just do". 99% of the time it is an error in syntax, punctuation, or some rule that I had overlooked. It is extremely time consuming and frustrating to spend 15 minutes only to find out you forgot a " ". Working in tandem with Myers' book, I have cut down my learning time by half at least, and I am moving through the materials much more quickly, not just learning how be a better syntax monitor, but also understanding the fundamentals of how structure works within a program. Myers' exercises do an incredible job at that. Kudos to Myers. I can't wait to get to his book on html and CSS!

I've been in IT for a long time and have read many technical books to help prepare for several certifications. I was used to reading all chapters then going back through the book to highlight important notes and then re-reading important notes before the exams. I've also resorted to finding generic mock exams on the internet in order to study before an exam. I love Mark's book because he takes you step by step; learn one topic and then immediately test your new skills with his online site. As you go through additional chapters in the book, the test questions get harder and harder because he not only includes your newly found knowledge on that one topic, he also combines everything you've learned up until that spot. I find this method very effective because you are repeatedly asked to build upon what you've learned. I also like that the chapters are short; I'm able to block an hour out of my day and read through a chapter PLUS take the practice exam. In addition, the practice exams at the end of each chapter are hands-on; they are not just true/false or multiple choice questions like most other practice exams are; they are actually real coding questions that ask you to write the code yourself with the ability to check to make sure your code works. If you get an answer wrong, he shows you what you did wrong and then gives you a chance to come back to the question later to try again until you get it right. Like I said, I have an extensive IT background but I had ZERO programming knowledge. Since our company purchased new software at my company that requires me to know JavaScript in order to administer the application, this is my very first attempt at learning any programming language. I saw the great reviews on this book and thought I'd give it a shot since the price was so low; I figured I had nothing to lose! I am not disappointed!! Mark, thank you for making a great learning tool. This book is worth WAY more than what you are selling it for.

I have done code academy, the tutorials on W3schools and numerous books listed as top sellers on amazon. Like many of the reviews on here have said this is a great book / way to learn. The main problem for most people new to coding and trying to learn is just grasping the simple syntax and foundations of a language. On top of that all, learning java-script as your first language can be a little puzzling as there is very little order in this language due to it's nature which may be a blessing for some or a curse for others, depending on your own internal interpretation methods. Regardless this book is a ACE in your resource arsenal, the chapters are not rapidly jammed together asking for to many techniques to fast, and the book doesn't start off trying to show you a general layout of the language before you even know what a variable is like many other books. If you have 20 or 30 minutes you can easily finish a 2-4 page chapter and take the quiz for each chapter. The real bread and butter of this book is the practice lessons, so do not skip them. They REALLY work and really force you to remember what you are doing. You will have assisted questions at first, then fill in questions, then timed questions, and then some questions where you need to code a block in the last few questions. The Author Mark Meyers really does a superb job in his book and especially his approach for each mini lesson. The book is broke down into about 90ish short mini quizzes and even shorter chapter spinets. The chapters are to the point and not in a bad way either. Get this book if you want to learn Java Script and don't know where to start, you will not regret it.

After trying online classes, tutorials and other books; I have found this resource to get me off the ground when it comes to Javascript programming. The chapters are very short and east to assimilate. The online practice at first seems overly picky (when it comes to semantic) but it has a great purpose. I do and redo the exercises until i get them right. I can not recommend this book enough to those who want to try their hands at programming.

Das Buch ist so aufgebaut das man von Anfang an alles von Grund auf ausarbeitet, jeder kann mit diesem Buch Javascript lernen.

If you are new to computer programming, and want to learn JavaScript, this is "The Book". Or if you just want a book that does not assume any prior knowledge, and you like to learn things from square one, then this book is for you. This book gently teaches you the basics by constant repetition via the great, free, companion website. If you prefer doing versus reading, then this book gives you just enough knowledge in a couple of pages, to get you started programming in no time. Highly recommended. This should be required reading!

Quick. Effective. Ready to learn? GO! Much more than a book. I found it really useful. I'm learning fast and furious.

Suite à une formation vidéo un peu floue sur javascript, j'ai acheté ce livre sur Kindle ( moins de 7 euros ) car il avait énormément d'avis positifs sur amazon.com. Je ne suis pas déçu. L'auteur est extrêmement clair et vous fait avancer pas à pas dans la pratique de javascript. Mais la cerise sur le gâteau ce sont les super exercices accessibles sur son blog, via un lien fourni à chaque fin de chapitre (parfois, 20 exercices pour 2 pages de théorie ! ). Exercices chronométrés, théoriques et répétitifs, corrigés immédiatement afin de bien retenir et appliquer ce que l'on vient de lire dans le bouquin. Un très bon livre motivant pour un prix dérisoire !