Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Eloquent JavaScript, 3rd Edition: A Modern Introduction to Programming

Top positive review

BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU WANT TO LEARN JAVASCRIPT!

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2019

I have so many books and many books on JavaScript. This so far seems to be my favourite of the bunch. I have the paperback book (Which the binding came unglued almost immediately - only con on this book I have against it) and I have the eBook. I use the eBook the most sitting on my desktop next to my laptop and external keyboard/mouse and find I can learn from it easily. I've already learned so much about ES6+ (ECMAScript) not starting with only Vanilla and moving forward but intertwining the newer changes to the language with the old and showing along the way (whether on purpose or not) how to refactor the code so it is more concise using the new shortcuts implement into JavaScript over the last few years. And it builds on topics, gives test questions to rattle your mind a bit and you can tell it was written by someone with Industry inside experience. And one interesting thing I learned from it which the books pounds into you is you need to manage the fine line between shorter/less/cleaner code and efficiency. Sometimes if performance is in question slopppy and longer written out code might suit your needs better. It's a 5 star book. I've been waiting many months for this books to come out and it was worth the wait.

86 people found this helpful

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Tyler M

Not beginner friendly.

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2019

If you don't have years of programming experience, and want to get started in JavaScript, do not buy this book. The practice problems in chapter 2 will have you pulling your hair out. And if you look at the solutions, you will want to slap the author with the book. It moves too fast and assumes too much.
This book seems to assume you've already been programming in JavaScript for, I dunno, 3-5 years, and need a refresher.
THIS IS NOT A BEGINNING PROGRAMMING BOOK!

105 people found this helpful

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From the United States

Gothic

BUY THIS BOOK IF YOU WANT TO LEARN JAVASCRIPT!

Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2019

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86 people found this helpful

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Dan

Excellent JavaScript book

Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2019

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I am a JavaScript developer with a lot of real-world experience, but I lacked the ability to fundamentally rationalize and explain the "WHY" of decisions I was making. This was, of course, problematic when I was interviewing for a new job.

I turned to books to get a more well-rounded understanding of the language I had been using for so long, and Eloquent JavaScript was one of the most helpful for me. Most everything you need is covered inside with code examples written in ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) syntax which is ideal for programmers working with modern web application frameworks.

This book is available completely free from the publisher (Google search "Eloquent JavaScript"), but the physical copy is delightfully high quality. It is certainly worth your money. Maybe give the online version a look and, if you find the content good/helpful/whatever, consider purchasing the paperback.

I would recommend this book for anyone who works with JavaScript. For a beginner, I would pair it with a book on programming fundamentals and get started coding literally anything.

33 people found this helpful

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Joshua Kaplan

Hard (But very good)

Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2019

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I once took a class in JavaScript and we had a teacher that went through the basics very nice and slowly, making everything easy to understand. That teacher got sick and so for a brief period of time he was replaced by a substitute. This substitute teacher made the class very difficult. He used difficult examples and overloaded the lectures with information that made my head feel like it was going to explode! I grew to feel very frustrated at that teacher. But i also learned a lot.

This book is like that 2nd teacher. It's difficult and packed with information. Some of the examples feel unnecessarily difficult. As if trying to learn classes and constructors isn't difficult enough, he goes on to use an example of class syntax to make a matrix. And each chapter is like this where there's a couple examples that are almost unnecessarily difficult to follow. It can be frustrating.

But, it's also a treasure trove of information. And anything I don't understand, I can just look up simpler explanations. I think that's powerful because it points to things I can look up and learn more deeply about.

I don't recommend this book to beginners. I recommend having a mild understanding of JavaScript fundamentals before going into this book. If you have learned JavaScript basics but want to go deeper then I recommend this book. I think this book would benefit anyone who isn't a total expert or a total beginner.

87 people found this helpful

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Tyler M

Not beginner friendly.

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2019

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105 people found this helpful

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Shawn C.

Updated and relevant and necessary

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2018

Verified Purchase

Please everyone on my team read this as it makes all our lives easier when we deal with your code

24 people found this helpful

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W. ALLEN

Absolutely outstanding quality of teaching

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2022

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Without a doubt, I think this is one of the best book for learning JavaScript. This book is especially good if this will be the first programming language that you learn. The features of JavaScript are thoroughly taught and the basic concepts of modern computer programming is also taught. The author has a writing style that is very engaging, even entertaining at times, which is help in a subject as dry as learning a new programming language. I highly recommend it.

One person found this helpful

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JRP

A great resource for Those of us who are new to Javascript.

Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2019

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Very detailed and thorough, I was getting frustrated with the online course I was taking, the explanations in this book helped me understand what I was doing. Finally finding this resource was like taking a breath of fresh air.

11 people found this helpful

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Rabi Abraham

This book just does not suit my study style

Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

I really wanted to like this book as I wanted to get up and running with JavaScript as soon as possible. It's let me down. I think it comes down to "horses for courses". This horse (me) does not appreciate this course (Eloquent JavaScript).

I'm an old-school programmer. Picked up Kernighan & and Ritchie's "C Programming Language" when it first came out in the 1980s. Loved it! Succinct but incredibly precise. I read it over two days and really KNEW the language!

"Eloquent JavaScript" is neither succinct nor precise. It spends pages on a topic without helping you understand what the inner workings of the topic are. This simply does not work for me, though it might for others. The reason you program is because natural languages like English are not precise in a way that allows a computer can actually implement the sentences - at least not yet. A good book on programming should bridge the gap between English and the stuff a computer can implement. Eloquent JavaScript NEVER took me to the other side of that bridge.

The problem is partly mine. Perhaps the author expects the reader to "bridge" the gaps on his/her own. But I've programmed in at least a half dozen languages. Sure I can guess what the details are... The description of "closures" on pages 48-49 is vague and left me struggling to understand this important topic.

As an alternative to Eloquent JavaScript, I highly recommend the "You Don't Know JS" series by Kyle Simpson!

25 people found this helpful

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George Ohm

Great Book!

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2020

Verified Purchase

I came for the JavaScript but stayed for the dry humor. A really decent resource for anyone just wanting to learn more about programming as a general topic but through the lense of JS. Very economical writing that rides a nice balance between beginner concepts and more complex ideas. I'm not advanced enough to pick apart any errors they made in their writing but it seems to be held in decently high regard by the computing community. The author also made a decent companion site with resources/answers for the practice lessons they give at the end of each chapter. They even included a little in-browser code editor to run the code examples you produce if you go through their practice lessons. Kind of nice if you just want to just play with his ideas a bit and not bother with firing up a whole IDE session on your computer.

One person found this helpful

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NotMyRealName

Fantastic dive into JavaScript

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2019

Eloquent JavaScript is unlike so many of the educational materials out there. It is complete and thorough in a sense that few books or websites are. For being a single book that doesn't read like a dense textbook, it spans a surprising amount of material, including asynchronous programming, node, and data immutability. Some of these concepts have their own chapters, but many of these concepts are introduced within the context of a problem that they help solve rather than being formally discussed.

I've removed one star for a reason that will be an issue for many people. This book is *hard* as an intro text. It very quickly goes from introducing basic concepts and syntax into higher order/first class functions then into asynchronous programming. It ramps up very quickly, and in order to really understand the content, you will likely find yourself revisiting sections several times. There will be times where new syntax is simply introduced without explanation until later in the chapter. In my read through there were times that I needed to pull up documentation or head over to StackOverflow in order to figure out what the hell just happened.

Personally I see this as a weakness *and* a strength. The book is engaging and leads you along a very carefully planned path, but it also requires you to think for yourself and to extend your research beyond the book itself. As he builds up the code example that the chapter is based around, you will find yourself lost at times. This is a good thing. Just because something is hard doesn't mean it isn't worthwhile. Being forced to parse more difficult code rather than just learning each bit of the language in isolation is, imo, a better route to understanding as it gives context.

If you want something that is quick and easy to work through, or that is laser focused on each feature and can be used as a reference, I would recommend a different book. This book is a journey and can be a tough climb at times but it is worth it.

86 people found this helpful

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