Jef Claes

On software and life

22 Feb 2010

Book review: Object-Oriented JavaScript

Although I’ve made my feet wet with various JavaScript frameworks, I am not a JavaScript hero at all. This might be one of the disadvantages of being a WebForms developer and having great toolkits at hand like the AJAX Control Toolkit and Telerik RADControls.

Because you really can’t call yourself a webdeveloper without having some understanding of JavaScript I decided to order Object-Oriented Javascript by Stoyan Stefanov.

This book really handles the language itself. The first chapters handle the basics: Types, loops, functions and objects. Although these concepts and the syntax resemble C#, JavaScript is a total different beast. After covering the basics, Stoyan goes deeper into OO JavaScript with Prototype and Inheritance. Then he shows the Browser Environment and he finishes the book with Coding and Design patterns.

All these concepts are accompanied by a ton of easy-to-read examples. After every chapter he also gives you some homework, because you learn coding by coding. After finishing this book you can also use the excellent Appendix for your reference.

I thought this was a great and very complete book. Definitely one of the best software books I’ve read in a while.

Get the book here (Amazon).