I appreciate the post, but the typical reaction to these articles seems to be:

- JavaScript looks a bit like (Java/Ruby/other language)

- JavaScript does not work like (said language)

- JavaScript sucks

Granted, I appreciate folks pointing out the "bad parts" of the language and the strange gotchas. And JavaScript has more than its share of bad parts. But it also requires a change in mindset. At minimum, expect

- a priority of first-class functions,

- Prototypal rather than classical inheritance,

- time spent learning JavaScript syntax itself instead of constructs from other languages (which often will work, but not in the way expected).

Books that have given me a renewed appreciation are Douglas Crockford's book (JavaScript the Good Parts) and John Resig's "Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja."