Ask HN: Best resources for learning javascript? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Best resources for learning javascript?

6 pointsdsawler5 comments

I should preface this by saying I have no programming knowledge, but am a designer looking to learn some new things, and mainly, to help my prototyping move along a bit quicker.

I tried reading and doing the exercises in Eloquent Javascript, but, it was a bit confusing for me even in Chapter 2.

I tried jQuery Fundamentals, even without js knowledge, as there was a "Javascript Basics" chapter -- I was lost right around "syntax basics".

I've read that the Lynda tutorials were bad. I can't find a review for the Think Vitamin js videos, and the Peep Code videos are strictly jQuery.

Anyone know of a video series?

Or, maybe since I get lost so early on in the process (ahem, chapter 2), I should start with another language?

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For someone with your background, I would suggest O'Reilly's "Head First JavaScript". It really assumes nothing.

As a counterpoint, most people on this site tend to recommend Crockford's "JavaScript: The Good Parts". However, that book might be better coming from a stronger programming background.

Head First books are usually pretty goos for beginners, with a lot of pictures to accompany the explanations.

I found out after far too much time, that a huge part of my personal success with a programming language is whether or not I "click" with its syntax. So my previous attempts at learning javascript failed miserably because I just never got over the syntax.

However, after getting into coffeescript (http://jashkenas.github.com/coffee-script/) I've actually started to enjoy doing javascript related programming.

So you might take a look and see if its syntax appeals to you. The big downside is that it assumes a prior knowledge of JS, so you'll still need other resources to really learn what's possible with JS/CS.

And my even more niche advice is that, for me, what really built up my momentum was to rewrite someone else's JS site in coffeescript. It's definitely a roundabout way of learning, but I basically got to learn coffeescript and javascript at the same time as I pored over this other person's code line by line as I rewrote it.

I don't know how common my syntax "hang-up" is, but if you do start looking at other languages, I would advise that you seek out sample programs so you can get familiar with what the syntax looks like. And then pick the language that makes the most sense to you even without any programming knowledge.

JavaScript is rather tricky as a first language, it owes a lot of it's syntax to C, C# and Java - so that presumes some prior programming chops.

I would suggest learning Python. It has far less syntax and the indentations actually are logical if you think of them as sub-sections to the enclosing section - as in structured writing.

If you do decide to give Python a try, have a look out for tutorials with Turtle Graphics, it's nice to have early feedback. Since you are starting out now, I recommend going straight to Python v3.x - BTW it works equally well on Windows, Mac and Linux - so nothing to fear there.

This is exactly what someone else keeps telling me. Time for me to listen, I guess. Thanks!

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