beTech :: Evolve Already

Okay, so JavaScript has to be one of the most conflicted languages out there. It’s ubiquitous and easy to pick up yet mysterious and hard to master at the same time. Everything is an object, sorta? Lamda functions? Prototype? Closure? Object literal notation? Different browser implementations? Come on, puh-leaze!

Yet you’re compelled to master JavaScript since it’s now considered a real language with scores of libraries and even a CPAN/Pear-style repository. It powers awe-inspiring Web sites applications from Amazon to NetVibes to Zimbra. Why it even can be found lurking beneath the surface of various desktop widgets, iPhone apps, and even mainstream applications such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Great, we’ve made our case.

Super. You’re on board the JavaScript train, you’ve already picked up Javascript: The Definitive Guide (via Safari Books), read a chapter every day, and slept with it under your pillow for the past three weeks. But you’re still bewildered and, gee, you have a stiff neck. Brilliant!

Well today is your lucky day. Watch the following series of videos and your JavaScripting life will change. One of the masters of the language, Douglas Crockford (senior JavaScript Architect at Yahoo! and father of JSON), explains in ample detail the inner workings of this marvelous language and how it got to be so wacky in the first place (many thanks to Microsoft and Netscape). He gets into the nitty and the gritty of programming JavaScript and also presents many of the common, uniquely JS show-stoppers along with their effective work-arounds. I found the series enlightening and I think you will too. Enjoy:

• The JavaScript Programming Language Part 1/4 (see video on right)
• The JavaScript Programming Language Part 2/4
• The JavaScript Programming Language Part 3/4
• The JavaScript Programming Language Part 4/4
• Theory of the DOM Part 1/3
• Theory of the DOM Part 2/3
• Theory of the DOM Part 3/3
• Advanced JavaScript Part 1/3
• Advanced JavaScript Part 2/3
• Advanced JavaScript Part 3/3

By the way, Crockford’s accompanying slides are worth the download, especially in the Advance JavaScript series where the video munges up some of the text.

Posted Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 at 3:23 pm • Trackback URI • Comments RSS
Categories: JavaScript