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JavaScript: The Good Parts

Publisher: Yahoo Press

Release Date: December 2008

Pages: 172

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Most programming languages contain good and bad parts, but JavaScript has more than its share of the bad, having been developed and released in a hurry before it could be refined. This authoritative book scrapes away these bad features to reveal a subset of JavaScript that's more reliable, readable, and maintainable than the language as a whole—a subset you can use to create truly extensible and efficient code.

Considered the JavaScript expert by many people in the development community, author Douglas Crockford identifies the abundance of good ideas that make JavaScript an outstanding object-oriented programming language-ideas such as functions, loose typing, dynamic objects, and an expressive object literal notation. Unfortunately, these good ideas are mixed in with bad and downright awful ideas, like a programming model based on global variables.

When Java applets failed, JavaScript became the language of the Web by default, making its popularity almost completely independent of its qualities as a programming language. In JavaScript: The Good Parts, Crockford finally digs through the steaming pile of good intentions and blunders to give you a detailed look at all the genuinely elegant parts of JavaScript, including:

Syntax
Objects
Functions
Inheritance
Arrays
Regular expressions
Methods
Style
Beautiful features

The real beauty? As you move ahead with the subset of JavaScript that this book presents, you'll also sidestep the need to unlearn all the bad parts. Of course, if you want to find out more about the bad parts and how to use them badly, simply consult any other JavaScript book.

With JavaScript: The Good Parts, you'll discover a beautiful, elegant, lightweight and highly expressive language that lets you create effective code, whether you're managing object libraries or just trying to get Ajax to run fast. If you develop sites or applications for the Web, this book is an absolute must.

Chapter 1 Good Parts
1. Why JavaScript?
2. Analyzing JavaScript
3. A Simple Testing Ground
Chapter 2 Grammar
1. Whitespace
2. Names
3. Numbers
4. Strings
5. Statements
6. Expressions
7. Literals
8. Functions
Chapter 3 Objects
1. Object Literals
2. Retrieval
3. Update
4. Reference
5. Prototype
6. Reflection
7. Enumeration
8. Delete
9. Global Abatement
Chapter 4 Functions
1. Function Objects
2. Function Literal
3. Invocation
4. Arguments
5. Return
6. Exceptions
7. Augmenting Types
8. Recursion
9. Scope
10. Closure
11. Callbacks
12. Module
13. Cascade
14. Curry
15. Memoization
Chapter 5 Inheritance
1. Pseudoclassical
2. Object Specifiers
3. Prototypal
4. Functional
5. Parts
Chapter 6 Arrays
1. Array Literals
2. Length
3. Delete
4. Enumeration
5. Confusion
6. Methods
7. Dimensions
Chapter 7 Regular Expressions
1. An Example
2. Construction
3. Elements
Chapter 8 Methods
Chapter 9 Style
Chapter 10 Beautiful Features

Appendix Awful Parts
1. Global Variables
2. Scope
3. Semicolon Insertion
4. Reserved Words
5. Unicode
6. typeof
7. parseInt
8. +
9. Floating Point
10. NaN
11. Phony Arrays
12. Falsy Values
13. hasOwnProperty
14. Object
Appendix Bad Parts
1. ==
2. with Statement
3. eval
4. continue Statement
5. switch Fall Through
6. Block-less Statements
7. ++ −−
8. Bitwise Operators
9. The function Statement Versus the function Expression
10. Typed Wrappers
11. new
12. void
Appendix JSLint
1. Undefined Variables and Functions
2. Members
3. Options
4. Semicolon
5. Line Breaking
6. Comma
7. Required Blocks
8. Forbidden Blocks
9. Expression Statements
10. for in Statement
11. switch Statement
12. var Statement
13. with Statement
14. =
15. == and !=
16. Labels
17. Unreachable Code
18. Confusing Pluses and Minuses
19. ++ and −−
20. Bitwise Operators
21. eval Is Evil
22. void
23. Regular Expressions
24. Constructors and new
25. Not Looked For
26. HTML
27. JSON
28. Report
Appendix Syntax Diagrams
Appendix JSON
1. JSON Syntax
2. Using JSON Securely
3. A JSON Parser
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Books & Videos

JavaScript: The Good Parts

Read on Safari with a 10-day trial

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Good Parts

Why JavaScript?

Analyzing JavaScript

A Simple Testing Ground

Chapter 2 Grammar

Whitespace

Names

Numbers

Strings

Statements

Expressions

Literals

Functions

Chapter 3 Objects

Object Literals

Retrieval

Update

Reference

Prototype

Reflection

Enumeration

Delete

Global Abatement

Chapter 4 Functions

Function Objects

Function Literal

Invocation

Arguments

Return

Exceptions

Augmenting Types

Recursion

Scope

Closure

Callbacks

Module

Cascade

Curry

Memoization

Chapter 5 Inheritance

Pseudoclassical

Object Specifiers

Prototypal

Functional

Parts

Chapter 6 Arrays

Array Literals

Length

Delete

Enumeration

Confusion

Methods

Dimensions

Chapter 7 Regular Expressions

An Example

Construction

Elements

Chapter 8 Methods

Chapter 9 Style

Chapter 10 Beautiful Features

Appendix Awful Parts

Global Variables

Scope

Semicolon Insertion

Reserved Words

Unicode

typeof

parseInt

+

Floating Point

NaN

Phony Arrays

Falsy Values

hasOwnProperty

Object

Appendix Bad Parts