bookreview - JavaScript, The Definitive Guide, 6th edition by David Flanagan

Javascript, The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition by David Flanagan

This book is called ‘the definitive guide’ for a reason: it is by far the most complete book on Javascript that you can buy. Every subject, from syntax to popular libraries is covered. The 6th edition is completely updated to reflect the latest standard, ECMAscript 5. The newest features such as localstorage and geolocation are explained in this new edition. The book follows a clear outline. It starts by explaining the language and it’s syntax, followed by it’s features. Next is the usage of the language, both as a client-side language and as a server-side language. The book also covers the most popular Javascript library: jQuery.

I found the book, although it is written as a reference, easy and entertaining to read. The book is a great resource to use while developing Javascript, because every little detail is covered. A good indication of its quality is that the book survived five editions and is still going strong! What I did miss is some guidance around real world Javascript development and tooling. The book does not explain anything around unit testing, development environments and other useful tooling. That would be a welcome addition for the 7th edition!

Find the book at http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596805531/

Disclaimer: I have joined the O’Reilly Blogger Review Program (http://oreilly.com/bloggers/). It means that I receive free books that I review. I am not forced to write nice things, so this review is an honest one.