Hacker News Reader

Comment by mcantelon | Hacker News Reader

They've probably been revising it as JS has progressed.

Perhaps, but lacking a formal ToC and using the "review" that's listed on Amazon, I'm not seeing any indication of:

    * ES5
    * CommonJS
    * promises/deferreds
    * AMD/UMD/etc.
    * NodeJS
    * asynchronous concerns such as callback hell (and other focus areas as addressed by Async.js[1])
    * packages
    * HTML5
    * the MV* hysteria

Granted, many of those aren't central to "JS" proper, they should at least bear a mention....but perhaps not. Just seems like what's covered is mostly run-of-the-mill JS fodder...

1. https://github.com/caolan/async#readme

A couple of those items show up in the index that's available on the Manning site, and the preface that's available there addresses them a bit too. Also implies that most of the revisions weren't made by Resig but by the coauthor...

I can confirm that there is very little coverage of these topics -- perhaps a bit about ES5, but I've read the MEAP, and I don't recall reading anything about the rest of them.

There is no coverage of any of these at all. I really think the book is an overview of cross platform javascript issues from 3-4 years ago that someone who wanted to clone jquery would need to know. That is about it. I am really disappointed at the lack of progress throughout the MEAP stage. I hoped it would develop into more advanced areas but it must have been hard for the authors to change focus especially after years of writing the book.

> [...] an overview of cross platform javascript issues from 3-4 years ago that someone who wanted to clone jquery would need to know.

Ugh! I have his prior book, Pro JavaScript Techniques (Apress, 2006), and that's basically how I've always described it. I refer to it as 'The jQuery Memoirs'.

I wouldn't consider Pro JavaScript Techniques to be "The jQuery Memoirs" really at all. It only mentions libraries in passing. Whereas this book is much more in-depth and really breaks apart the fundamental aspects of a JavaScript DOM library in a way that developers can put into common use.

It may only mention libraries in passing, but I seemed to remember that many of the techniques were used in jQuery (where applicable). I don't mean any offense by relating that to memoirs; rather, it was very helpful to see many of your examples in real-life code that I was using every day -- and finally understanding both the how and the why.

Thanks for the reply, and good luck with the book! I do plan to check it out.

Oh, no worries - hope you'll enjoy it!

I don't think it makes sense to shift the focus of the book - the topic that it serves (understanding the fundamental construction of JavaScript DOM libraries and the trickier aspects of the JavaScript language) is one that is grossly underserved. The issues that jQuery tackles are still issues that are relevant to developers on the whole. I should note that while the book does tackle cross platform issues that isn't exclusively what it tackles - at least 1/2 of the book is on nothing but the JavaScript language, for example.

asides from ES5 and promises , none of these are core javascript issues. NodeJS is not javascript , CommonJS what the hell is that ? nobody cares about that stuff , HTML5 is a set of apis , nothing to do with javascript , If i want a book on javascript i want a book on the language itself , not on canvas , webgl, requireJS or Express or Backbone ...

False, you want a book plus its applications; if you buy a book about woodworking you probably want to see some examples of furniture creation and other practical challenges to apply your new found knowledge.

That is why this book deals with DOM and BOM from chapter 11 to 15 even if those are not purely JavaScript.

> asides from ES5 and promises [...] CommonJS what the hell is that ?

Perhaps you should learn what you're criticizing before you criticize it; CommonJS has put forth a lot of effort to try and standardize API's across platforms (browser, server). API's for things like...promises[1]. And modules, plus many more[2]. Ironically, several of these could very well end up in ES Harmony, and so to discuss them now wouldn't be too much of a risk because the problems they solve exist today.

1. http://wiki.commonjs.org/wiki/Promises

2. http://www.commonjs.org/specs/

> NodeJS is not javascript [...]nobody cares about that stuff , HTML5 is a set of apis , nothing to do with javascript

Yes, but if you work with JS in any capacity today, then there's a good chance you'll be working with either or both of those technologies.

> not on canvas , webgl, requireJS or Express or Backbone

I didn't mention any of those...

Core or not, I'd prefer coverage of those issues myself. I can't really think of core problems I run into myself, I've been writing core JavaScript for a decade or something, but there's lots of intricacies with those other things where I wouldn't mind tips. Different audiences, I suppose. I browsed the TOC one kind reviewer was nice enough to list, saw there wasn't anything I was interested in or had trouble with lately, and moved on.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com