100 Best JavaScript Books of All Time

We've researched and ranked the best javascript books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more

Featuring recommendations from Val Head, David Heinemeier Hansson, Jakob Nielsen, and 5 other experts.
1

JavaScript

The Good Parts

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...
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Recommended by Auston Bunsen, and 1 others.

Auston BunsenI’m actually a self-taught programmer, so these books have really helped me with practical skills that I could put to use & yield results. The return on investment for these kinds of books is off the charts for me! (Source)

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2
Completely revised and updated, this best-selling introduction to programming in JavaScript focuses on writing real applications.

Eloquent JavaScript dives into the JavaScript language to show programmers how to write elegant, effective JavaScript code. Like any good programming book, Eloquent JavaScript begins with fundamentals--variables, control structures, functions, and data structures--then moves on to complex topics like object-oriented programming and regular expressions. This third edition introduces new features covering the 2017 version of...
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3

JavaScript

The Definitive Guide

Since 1996, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide has been the bible for JavaScript programmers—a programmer's guide and comprehensive reference to the core language and to the client-side JavaScript APIs defined by web browsers. The 6th edition covers HTML5 and ECMAScript 5, with new chapters on jQuery and server side JavaScript. It's recommended for experienced programmers who want to learn the programming language of the Web, and for current JavaScript programmers who want to master it. less

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4
Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja uses practical examples to clearly illustrate each core concept and technique. This completely revised edition shows you how to master key JavaScript concepts such as functions, closures, objects, prototypes, and promises. It covers APIs such as the DOM, events, and timers. You’ll discover best practice techniques such as testing, and cross-browser development, all taught from the perspective of skilled JavaScript practitioners. less

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5

JavaScript Patterns

What's the best approach for developing an application with JavaScript? This book helps you answer that question with numerous JavaScript coding patterns and best practices. If you're an experienced developer looking to solve problems related to objects, functions, inheritance, and other language-specific categories, the abstractions and code templates in this guide are ideal -- whether you're writing a client-side, server-side, or desktop application with JavaScript.

Written by JavaScript expert Stoyan Stefanov -- Senior Yahoo! Technical and architect of YSlow 2.0, the web page...
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6
No matter how much experience you have with JavaScript, odds are you don't fully understand the language. This concise yet in-depth guide takes you inside scope and closures, two core concepts you need to know to become a more efficient and effective JavaScript programmer. You'll learn how and why they work, and how an understanding of closures can be a powerful part of your development skillset.

Like other books in the "You Don't Know JS" series, Scope and Closures dives into trickier parts of the language that many JavaScript programmers simply avoid. Armed with this...
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7
"It's uncommon to have a programming language wonk who can speak in such comfortable and friendly language as David does. His walk through the syntax and semantics of JavaScript is both charming and hugely insightful; reminders of gotchas complement realistic use cases, paced at a comfortable curve. You'll find when you finish the book that you've gained a strong and comprehensive sense of mastery." --Paul Irish, developer advocate, Google Chrome "This is not a book for those looking for shortcuts; rather it is hard-won experience distilled into a guided tour. It's one of the few... more

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8
Learn JavaScript and jQuery a nicer way

This full-color book adopts a visual approach to teaching JavaScript & jQuery, showing you how to make web pages more interactive and interfaces more intuitive through the use of inspiring code examples, infographics, and photography. The content assumes no previous programming experience, other than knowing how to create a basic web page in HTML & CSS. You'll learn how to achieve techniques seen on many popular websites (such as adding animation, tabbed panels, content sliders, form validation, interactive galleries, and sorting...
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9

You Don't Know JS

Up & Going

It’s easy to learn parts of JavaScript, but much harder to learn it completely—or even sufficiently—whether you’re new to the language or have used it for years. With the "You Don’t Know JS" book series, you’ll get a more complete understanding of JavaScript, including trickier parts of the language that many experienced JavaScript programmers simply avoid.

The series’ first book, Up & Going, provides the necessary background for those of you with limited programming experience. By learning the basic building blocks of programming, as well as JavaScript’s core...

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10
No matter how much experience you have with JavaScript, odds are you don't fully understand the language. This concise, in-depth guide takes you inside JavaScript's this structure and object prototypes. You'll learn how they work and why they're integral to behavior delegation--a design pattern in which objects are linked, rather than cloned.

Like other books in the "You Don't Know JS" series, this and Object Prototypes dives into trickier parts of the language that many JavaScript programmers simply avoid. Armed with this knowledge, you can become a true JavaScript master.
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Don't have time to read the top JavaScript books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

  • Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
  • Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
11

Head First JavaScript Programming

A Brain-Friendly Guide

What will you learn from this book?

This brain-friendly guide teaches you everything from JavaScript language fundamentals to advanced topics, including objects, functions, and the browser's document object model. You won't just be reading--you'll be playing games, solving puzzles, pondering mysteries, and interacting with JavaScript in ways you never imagined. And you'll write real code, lots of it, so you can start building your own web applications. Prepare to open your mind as you learn (and nail) key topics including: The inner details of JavaScriptHow JavaScript works with...
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12
The most enthusiastically reviewed programming book on AmazonBuy the book and get access to all 1,750 interactive exercises free.
"Damn, this program is ridiculously good. The author needs to sign up to run this country's education program."-Matthew Highland
"This is the most incredible learning experience I have ever had. Amazing!!" -Jon W. Christophersen
"If you're thinking of learning how to program in JavaScript, I promise, this is the ONLY way to go." -L. Phillips
"Mark's exercises are worth more than the $300 class I took. Love this program." -Michelle Schackel
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13

Object-Oriented JavaScript

Although object orientated programming is probably not the first thing that programmers think of when they think of JavaScript, JavaScript is not just object-oriented but also incredibly powerful and expressive, putting many design decisions in the hands of those developers who know how to use it effectively. Object-Oriented JavaScript helps experienced programmers understand JavaScript's unique approach to object-oriented programming so they can tackle their problems effectively, and with less code. Author Nicholas Zakas provides even readers with minimal JavaScript experience a deep... more

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14

You Don't Know JS

ES6 & Beyond

No matter how much experience you have with JavaScript, odds are you don't fully understand the language. As part of the "You Don't Know JS" series, this compact guide focuses on new features available in ECMAScript 6 (ES6), the latest version of the standard upon which JavaScript is built.

Like other books in this series, You Don't Know JS: ES6 & Beyond dives into trickier parts of the language that many JavaScript programmers either avoid or know nothing about. Armed with this knowledge, you can achieve true JavaScript mastery.

With this book, you will:
more

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15
No matter how much experience you have with JavaScript, odds are you don't fully understand the language. As part of the "You Don't Know JS" series, this concise yet in-depth guide focuses on new asynchronous features and performance techniques--including Promises, generators, and Web Workers--that let you create sophisticated single-page web applications and escape callback hell in the process.

Like other books in this series, You Don't Know JS: Async & Performance dives into trickier parts of the language that many JavaScript programmers simply avoid. Armed with...
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16

High Performance JavaScript

If you're like most developers, you rely heavily on JavaScript to build interactive and quick-responding web applications. The problem is that all of those lines of JavaScript code can slow down your apps. This book reveals techniques and strategies to help you eliminate performance bottlenecks during development. You'll learn how to improve execution time, downloading, interaction with the DOM, page life cycle, and more.

Yahoo! frontend engineer Nicholas C. Zakas and five other JavaScript experts -- Ross Harmes, Julien Lecomte, Steven Levithan, Stoyan Stefanov, and Matt...

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17

Build interactive, data-driven websites with the potent combination of open source technologies and web standards, even if you have only basic HTML knowledge. In this update to this popular hands-on guide, you’ll tackle dynamic web programming with the latest versions of today’s core technologies: PHP, MySQL, JavaScript, CSS, HTML5, and key jQuery libraries.

Web designers will learn how to use these technologies together and pick up valuable web programming practices along the way—including how to optimize websites for mobile devices. At the end of the book, you’ll put...

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18
Dispels the myth that JavaScript is a "baby" language and demonstrates why it is the scripting language of choice used in the design of millions of Web pages and server-side applications Quickly covers JavaScript basics and then moves on to more advanced topics such as object-oriented programming, XML, Web services, and remote scripting Addresses the many issues that Web application developers face, including internationalization, security, privacy, optimization, intellectual property issues, and obfuscation Builds on the reader's basic understanding of HTML, CSS, and the Web in general This... more

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19
This edition is no longer available. less

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20
No matter how much experience you have with JavaScript, odds are you don't fully understand the language. As part of the "You Don't Know JS" series, this compact guide explores JavaScript types in greater depth than previous treatments, defining the problems of coercion, demonstrating why types work, and showing developers how to take advantage of those features.

The type system in JavaScript is subject to several misconceptions. Many developers believe that JavaScript has no types, but that's not the case. JavaScript uses a number of types behind the scenes, and has a...
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Don't have time to read the top JavaScript books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

  • Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
  • Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
21
While some web developers dismiss JavaScript as a flawed language, this succinct book shows you how to make the best of it by practicing a functional style of JavaScript programming.

Written by Michael Fogus—a core contributor to Clojure and ClojureScript, and author of The Joy of Clojure (Manning)—this book is packed with not only the how of functional programming, but also the why. Each topic illustrated with pointed examples. You’ll also get a thorough reference to the Underscore.js library and its idioms, including:


Closures
more

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22
A two-book set for web designers and front-end developers This two-book set combines the titles HTML & CSS: Designing and Building Web Sites and JavaScript & jQuery: Interactive Front-End Development. Together these two books form an ideal platform for anyone who wants to master HTML and CSS before stepping up to JavaScript and jQuery.

HTML & CSS covers structure, text, links, images, tables, forms, useful options, adding style with CSS, fonts, colors, thinking in boxes, styling lists and tables, layouts, grids, and even SEO, Google...
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23

Maintainable JavaScript

When you're writing code alone, you have a lot of leeway. But when you start writing code as part of a team, you need to think harder about the decisions you make. This book will help you do that.
When you write code in a team setting, will other developers be able to understand what you did? Did you organize your code in such a way that it's easy to adapt and extend? Will your code survive once you're gone? Maintainable JavaScript doesn't just recommend a set of guidelines, it examines guidelines being used and recommended by others in the industry, so you get a feel for what's...
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24

Javascript Allongé

A strong cup of functions, objects, combinators, and decorators
by Reginald Braithwaite

JavaScript Allongé solves two important problems for the ambitious JavaScript programmer. First, JavaScript Allongé gives you the tools to deal with JavaScript bugs, hitches, edge cases, and other potential pitfalls.

There are plenty of good directions for how to write JavaScript programs. If you follow them without alteration or deviation, you will be satisfied. Unfortunately, software is a complex thing, full of interactions and side-effects. Two perfectly reasonable pieces of...
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Sean Thomas Larkin ()If you have remotely any interest in functional programming, then you will love this book. I love thinking about how to use these concepts in fn'al components too (pure fns, currying, partial application, unary). Please go and read it! https://t.co/IjALZ4aFSz (Source)

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26

Async JavaScript

JavaScript is a single-threaded language living in a multimedia, multi-tasking, multi-core world. Even experienced JavaScripters sometimes find themselves overwhelmed as complex apps grow into a tangled web of callbacks.

With Async JavaScript, you'll learn about:

Event scheduling
The PubSub pattern
Promises and Deferred objects
Flow control with Async.js
Recipes for common async scenarios
Multi-threading with Web Workers
AltJS languages
and more, with examples tailored to jQuery and Node.js.
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28
If you want to learn how to build efficient user interfaces with React, this is your book. Authors Alex Banks and Eve Porcello show you how to create UIs with this small JavaScript library that can deftly display data changes on large-scale, data-driven websites without page reloads. Along the way, you'll learn how to work with functional programming and the latest ECMAScript features.

Developed by Facebook, and used by companies including Netflix, Walmart, and The New York Times for large parts of their web interfaces, React is quickly growing in use. By learning how to...
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29

jQuery in Action

A good web development framework anticipates what you need to do and makes those tasks easier and more efficient; jQuery practically reads your mind. Developers of every stripe-hobbyists and professionals alike-fall in love with jQuery the minute they've reduced 20 lines of clunky JavaScript into three lines of elegant, readable code. This new, concise JavaScript library radically simplifies how you traverse HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and add Ajax interactions to your web pages.

jQuery in Action, like jQuery itself, is a concise tool designed to make...
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30

JavaScript & jQuery The Missing Manual

JavaScript lets you supercharge your HTML with animation, interactivity, and visual effects--but many web designers find the language hard to learn. This easy-to-read guide not only covers JavaScript basics, but also shows you how to save time and effort with the jQuery and jQuery UI libraries of prewritten JavaScript code. You'll build web pages that feel and act like desktop programs--with little or no programming.

The important stuff you need to know: Pull back the curtain on JavaScript. Learn how to build a basic program with this language. Get up to speed on jQuery. Quickly...
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Don't have time to read the top JavaScript books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

  • Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
  • Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
31
As a web developer, you'll already know that JavaScript is a powerful language, allowing you to add an impressive array of dynamic functionality to otherwise static web sites. But there is more power waiting to be unlockedJavaScript is capable of full objectoriented capabilities, and by applyingobject-oriented principles, best practices, and design patterns to your code, you can make it more powerful, more efficient, and easier to work with alone or as part of a team.

With Pro JavaScript Design Patterns, you'll start with the basics of objectoriented programming in JavaScript...
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32

JavaScript Web Applications

Building rich JavaScript applications that bring a desktop experience to the Web requires moving state from the server to the client side—not a simple task. This hands-on book takes proficient JavaScript developers through all the steps necessary to create state-of-the-art applications, including structure, templating, frameworks, communicating with the server, and many other issues.

Throughout the book, you'll work with real-world example applications to help you grasp the concepts involved. Learn how to create JavaScript applications that offer a more responsive and improved...
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33
Do you want to build web pages but have no prior experience? This friendly guide is the perfect place to start. You'll begin at square one, learning how the web and web pages work, and then steadily build from there. By the end of the book, you'll have the skills to create a simple site with multicolumn pages that adapt for mobile devices.

Each chapter provides exercises to help you learn various techniques and short quizzes to make sure you understand key concepts.

This thoroughly revised edition is ideal for students and professionals of all backgrounds and skill...
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Recommended by Jakob Nielsen, and 1 others.

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34

JavaScript Pocket Reference

JavaScript is the ubiquitous programming language of the Web, and for more than 15 years, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide has been the bible of JavaScript programmers around the world. This book is an all-new excerpt of The Definitive Guide, collecting the essential parts of that hefty volume into this slim yet dense pocket reference.

The first 9 chapters document the latest version (ECMAScript 5) of the core JavaScript language, covering:


Types, values, and variables
Operators, expressions, and statements
Objects and arrays
Functions...
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35
What if William Shakespeare were asked to generate the Fibonacci series or Jane Austen had to write a factorial program? In If Hemingway Wrote JavaScript, author Angus Croll imagines short JavaScript programs as written by famous wordsmiths. The result is a peculiar and charming combination of prose, poetry, and programming.

The best authors are those who obsess about language--and the same goes for JavaScript developers. To master either craft, you must experiment with language to develop your own style, your own idioms, and your own expressions. To that end, If...
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36
This book deals with a programming language, but it isn't intended for programmers. This is a book for web designers. Specifically, this book is intended for standards-aware designers who are comfortable using CSS and XHTML. If that sounds like you, read on... This book is made up of equal parts code and concepts. Don't be frightened by the code: I know it might look intimidating at first, but once you've grasped the concepts behind the code, you'll find yourself reading and writing in a new language. Learning a programming language might seem like a scary prospect, but it needn't be. DOM... more

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37

Node.js in Action

Summary

Node.js in Action is an example-driven tutorial that starts at square one and guides you through all the features, techniques, and concepts you'll need to build production-quality Node applications. You'll start by learning how to set up your Node development environment, including loading the community-created extensions. Next, you'll run several simple demonstration programs where you'll learn the basics of a few common types of Node applications. Then you'll dive into asynchronous programming, a model Node leverages to lessen application bottlenecks.
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38

jQuery

Novice to Ninja

jQuery: Novice to Ninja is a compilation of best-practice jQuery solutions to meet the most challenging JavaScript problems. In this question-and-answer book on jQuery, you'll find a cookbook of ready-to-go solutions to help breathe life into your web page.

Topics covered include: - Scrolling, Resizing and Animating Webpage elements - Backgrounds, Slideshows, and Crossfaders - Menus, Tabs, and Panels - Buttons, Fields, and Controls - Lists, Trees, and Tables - Frames, Windows, and Dialogs - Adding interactivity with Ajax - Using the jQuery User Interface Themeroller - Writing your...
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39
How prepared are you to build fast and efficient web applications? This eloquent book provides what every web developer should know about the network, from fundamental limitations that affect performance to major innovations for building even more powerful browser applications—including HTTP 2.0 and XHR improvements, Server-Sent Events (SSE), WebSocket, and WebRTC.

Author Ilya Grigorik, a web performance engineer at Google, demonstrates performance optimization best practices for TCP, UDP, and TLS protocols, and explains unique wireless and mobile network optimization requirements....
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40
This is a book on the functional paradigm in general. We'll use the world's most popular functional programming language: JavaScript. Some may feel this is a poor choice as it's against the grain of the current culture which, at the moment, feels predominately imperative. However, I believe it is the best way to learn FP for several reasons:

You likely use it every day at work.

This makes it possible to practice and apply your acquired knowledge each day on real world programs rather than pet projects on nights and weekends in an esoteric FP language.

We don't...
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Don't have time to read the top JavaScript books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

  • Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
  • Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
41

Node.js Design Patterns - Second Edition

Get the best out of Node.js by mastering its most powerful components and patterns to create modular and scalable applications with ease

Node.js is a massively popular software platform that lets you use JavaScript to easily create scalable server-side applications. It allows you to create efficient code, enabling a more sustainable way of writing software made of only one language across the full stack, along with extreme levels of reusability, pragmatism, simplicity, and collaboration. Node.js is revolutionizing the web and the way people and companies create their software.
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42

Pro JavaScript Techniques

Pro JavaScript Techniques is the ultimate JavaScript book for the modern web developer. It provides everything you need to know about modern JavaScript, and shows what JavaScript can do for your web sites. This book doesn't waste any time looking at things you already know, like basic syntax and structures.

Expert web developer and author John Resig concentrates on fundamental, vital topics--what modern JavaScripting is (and isnt), the current state of browser support, and pitfalls to be wary of. The book is organized into four sections:

Modern...
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43

AngularJS

Develop smaller, lighter web apps that are simple to create and easy to test, extend, and maintain as they grow. This hands-on guide introduces you to AngularJS, the open source JavaScript framework that uses Model–view–controller (MVC) architecture, data binding, client-side templates, and dependency injection to create a much-needed structure for building web apps.

Guided by two engineers who worked on AngularJS at Google, you’ll walk through the framework’s key features, and then build a working AngularJS app—from layout to testing, compiling, and debugging. You’ll learn how...
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45
Get to the forefront of server-side JavaScript programming by writing compact, robust, fast, networked Node applications that scale. Ready to take JavaScript beyond the browser, explore dynamic languages features and embrace evented programming? Explore the fun, growing repository of Node modules provided by npm. Work with multiple protocols, load-balanced RESTful web services, express, 0MQ, Redis, CouchDB, and more. Develop production-grade Node applications fast.

JavaScript is the backbone of the modern web, powering nearly every web app's user interface. Node.js is JavaScript...
more

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46

JavaScript Enlightenment

If you're an advanced beginner or intermediate JavaScript developer, "JavaScript Enlightenment" will solidify your understanding of the language--especially if you use a JavaScript library. In this concise book, JavaScript expert Cody Lindley (jQuery Cookbook) provides an accurate view of the language by examining its objects and supporting nuances.

Libraries and frameworks help you build web applications quickly and efficiently, but when things go wrong or performance becomes an issue, knowing how and why they work is critical. If you're ready to go under the hood and get your...
more

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47

Testable JavaScript

One skill that’s essential for any professional JavaScript developer is the ability to write testable code. This book shows you what writing and maintaining testable JavaScript for the client- or server-side actually entails, whether you’re creating a new application or rewriting legacy code.

From methods to reduce code complexity to unit testing, code coverage, debugging, and automation, you’ll learn a holistic approach for writing JavaScript code that you and your colleagues can easily fix and maintain going forward. Testing JavaScript code is complicated. This book helps you...
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48

Head First Design Patterns

You're not alone.

At any given moment, somewhere in the world someone struggles with the same software design problems you have. You know you don't want to reinvent the wheel (or worse, a flat tire), so you look to Design Patterns--the lessons learned by those who've faced the same problems. With Design Patterns, you get to take advantage of the best practices and experience of others, so that you can spend your time on...something else. Something more challenging. Something more complex. Something more fun.

You want to learn about the patterns that matter--why to...
more

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49
Functional Programming in JavaScript teaches JavaScript developers functional techniques that will improve extensibility, modularity, reusability, testability, and performance. Through concrete examples and jargon-free explanations, this book teaches you how to apply functional programming to real-life development tasks. The book includes insightful comparisons to object-oriented or imperative programming, which will allow you to ease into functional design. Moreover, you'll learn a repertoire of techniques including function chaining and pipelining, recursion, currying, binding, functional... more

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50
The Road to learn React teaches you the fundamentals of React. You will build a real world application along the way in plain React without complicated tooling. Everything from project setup to deployment on a server will be explained. The book comes with additional referenced reading material and exercises with each chapter. After reading the book, you will be able to build your own applications in React. The material is kept up to date by me and the community. In the Road to learn React, I want to offer a foundation before you start to dive into the broader React ecosystem. It has less... more

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Don't have time to read the top JavaScript books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

  • Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
  • Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
51
JavaScript for Kids is a lighthearted introduction to the JavaScript language and programming in general. With the help of kid-friendly examples, author Nick Morgan teaches the essentials of JavaScript. Morgan starts with the basics of strings, arrays, and loops, then moves on to show readers how to modify elements with jQuery and draw graphics with canvas. By the end of the book, you'll be ready to create your own fun animations and games and you'll have a solid understanding of the fundamentals of JavaScript. less

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52
Take your existing JavaScript skills to the next level and learn how to build complete web scale or enterprise applications that are easy to extend and maintain. By applying the design patterns outlined in this book, you’ll learn how to write flexible and resilient code that’s easier—not harder—to work with as your code base grows.

JavaScript has become one of the most widely used—and essential—programming languages for the Web, on both the client-side and server-side. In the real world, JavaScript applications are fragile, and when you change them things often break. Author Eric...
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53
I am not a recruiter. I am a software engineer. And as such, I know what it's like to be asked to whip up brilliant algorithms on the spot and then write flawless code on a whiteboard. I've been through this as a candidate and as an interviewer.

Cracking the Coding Interview, 6th Edition is here to help you through this process, teaching you what you need to know and enabling you to perform at your very best. I've coached and interviewed hundreds of software engineers. The result is this book.

Learn how to uncover the hints and hidden details in a question,...
more

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54
ECMAScript 6 represents the biggest update to the core of JavaScript in the history of the language. In Understanding ECMAScript 6, expert developer Nicholas C. Zakas provides a complete guide to the object types, syntax, and other exciting changes that ECMAScript 6 brings to JavaScript. Every chapter is packed with example code that works in any JavaScript environment so you'll be able to see new features in action.

You'll learn:
-How ECMAScript 6 class syntax relates to more familiar JavaScript concepts
-What makes iterators and generators useful
-How arrow...
more

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55
This little book shows JavaScript developers how to build superb web applications with CoffeeScript, the remarkable little language that’s gaining considerable interest. Through example code, this guide demonstrates how CoffeeScript abstracts JavaScript, providing syntactical sugar and preventing many common errors. You’ll learn CoffeeScript’s syntax and idioms step by step, from basic variables and functions to complex comprehensions and classes.

Written by Alex MacCaw, author of JavaScript Web Applications (O’Reilly), with contributions from CoffeeScript creator Jeremy Ashkenas,...
more

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56
Every day, more and more people want to learn some HTML and CSS. Joining the professional web designers and programmers are new audiences who need to know a little bit of code at work (update a content management system or e-commerce store) and those who want to make their personal blogs more attractive. Many books teaching HTML and CSS are dry and only written for those who want to become programmers, which is why this book takes an entirely new approach.

• Introduces HTML and CSS in a way that makes them accessible to everyone—hobbyists, students, and professionals—and it’s...
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57

Test-Driven JavaScript Development

For JavaScript developers working on increasingly large and complex projects, effective automated testing is crucial to success. Test-Driven JavaScript Development is a complete, best-practice guide to agile JavaScript testing and quality assurance with the test-driven development (TDD) methodology. Leading agile JavaScript developer Christian Johansen covers all aspects of applying state-of-the-art automated testing in JavaScript environments, walking readers through the entire development lifecycle, from project launch to application deployment, and beyond.

Using...
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58

High Performance Web Sites

Want your web site to display more quickly? This book presents 14 specific rules that will cut 25% to 50% off response time when users request a page. Author Steve Souders, in his job as Chief Performance Yahoo!, collected these best practices while optimizing some of the most-visited pages on the Web. Even sites that had already been highly optimized, such as Yahoo! Search and the Yahoo! Front Page, were able to benefit from these surprisingly simple performance guidelines.

The rules in High Performance Web Sites explain how you can optimize the performance of the Ajax,...
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59
jQuery simplifies building rich, interactive web frontends. Getting started with this JavaScript library is easy, but it can take years to fully realize its breadth and depth; this cookbook shortens the learning curve considerably. With these recipes, you'll learn patterns and practices from 19 leading developers who use jQuery for everything from integrating simple components into websites and applications to developing complex, high-performance user interfaces.

Ideal for newcomers and JavaScript veterans alike, jQuery Cookbook starts with the basics and then moves to...
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60

JavaScript for impatient programmers

This book makes JavaScript less challenging to learn for newcomers by offering a modern view that is as consistent as possible. Highlights: Get started quickly by initially focusing on modern features. Test-driven exercises and quizzes available for most chapters. Covers all essential features of JavaScript, up to and including ES2019. Optional advanced sections let you dig deeper. No prior knowledge of JavaScript is required, but you should know how to program.More information (TOC, preview of content, etc.): https: // more

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61

Javascript Grammar

Explore modern JavaScript in this volume containing hundreds of source code examples. Visual diagrams designed to accurately describe difficult concepts such as Prototype, Event Loop and Object Oriented Programming. JavaScript Grammar covers all important features of modern JavaScript (ES6-ES10) from simple to advanced. Each feature is explained with simple examples, so the book is easy to follow. As you progress through the book you will be faced with increasingly advanced examples with several programming techniques clearly explained and with clean code. less

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62
Create and publish your own interactive data visualization projects on the Web—even if you have little or no experience with data visualization or web development. It’s easy and fun with this practical, hands-on introduction. Author Scott Murray teaches you the fundamental concepts and methods of D3, a JavaScript library that lets you express data visually in a web browser. Along the way, you’ll expand your web programming skills, using tools such as HTML and JavaScript.

This step-by-step guide is ideal whether you’re a designer or visual artist with no programming experience, a...
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63

Composing Software

All software design is composition: the act of breaking complex problems down into smaller problems and composing those solutions. Most developers have a limited understanding of compositional techniques. It's time for that to change.

In "Composing Software", Eric Elliott shares the fundamentals of composition, including both function composition and object composition, and explores them in the context of JavaScript. The book covers the foundations of both functional programming and object oriented programming to help the reader better understand how to build and structure complex...
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64
If you want to build your site’s frontend with the single-page application (SPA) model, this hands-on book shows you how to get the job done with Backbone.js. You’ll learn how to create structured JavaScript applications, using Backbone’s own flavor of model-view-controller (MVC) architecture.

Start with the basics of MVC, SPA, and Backbone, then get your hands dirty building sample applications—a simple Todo list app, a RESTful book library app, and a modular app with Backbone and RequireJS. Author Addy Osmani, an engineer for Google’s Chrome team, also demonstrates advanced uses...
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65

Head First Java

Learning a complex new language is no easy task especially when it s an object-oriented computer programming language like Java. You might think the problem is your brain. It seems to have a mind of its own, a mind that doesn't always want to take in the dry, technical stuff you're forced to study.

The fact is your brain craves novelty. It's constantly searching, scanning, waiting for something unusual to happen. After all, that's the way it was built to help you stay alive. It takes all the routine, ordinary, dull stuff and filters it to the background so it won't interfere with...
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67
The ultimate learn-by-doing approach. Short chapters are paired with free interactive online exercises to teach the fundamentals of HTML and CSS. Written for beginners, useful for experienced developers who want to sharpen their skills. Prepares the reader to code a website of medium complexity. The learner spends two to three times as long practicing as he does reading. Based on cognitive research showing that retention increases 400 percent when learners are challenged to retrieve the information they just read. Explanations are in plain, nontechnical English that people of all backgrounds... more

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68

Beginning JavaScript

The bestselling JavaScript guide, updated with current features and best practices Beginning JavaScript 5th Edition shows you how to work effectively with JavaScript frameworks, functions, and modern browsers, and teaches more effective coding practices using HTML5. This new edition has been extensively updated to reflect the way JavaScript is most commonly used today, introducing you to the latest tools and techniques available to JavaScript developers. Coverage includes modern coding practices using HTML5 markup, the JSON data format, DOM APIs, the jQuery framework, and... more

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69

Head First HTML5 Programming

HTML has been on a wild ride. Sure, HTML started as a mere markup language, but more recently HTML’s put on some major muscle. Now we’ve got a language tuned for building web applications with Web storage, 2D drawing, offline support, sockets and threads, and more. And to speak this language you’ve got to go beyond HTML5 markup and into the world of the DOM, events, and JavaScript APIs.

Now you probably already know all about HTML markup (otherwise known as structure) and you know all aboutCSS style (presentation), but what you’ve been missing is JavaScript (behavior). If all you...
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70

Learning jQuery

Step through each of the core concepts of the jQuery library, building an overall picture of its capabilities. Once you have thoroughly covered the basics, the book returns to each concept to cover more advanced examples and techniques. This book is for web designers who want to create interactive elements for their designs, and for developers who want to create the best user interface for their web applications. Basic JavaScript programming and knowledge of HTML and CSS is required. No knowledge of jQuery is assumed, nor is experience with any other JavaScript libraries. less

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71
I wasn't smart enough to learn a computer language like Python-until I got smart about how to learn it.I was smart enough to earn an honors degree in philosophy from Harvard, but an aptitude test told me to avoid computer programming. I'm sure it was right. But then I designed a learning system for myself that quadrupled my aptitude for learning computer languages. It worked so well for me that I've used it to teach coding to grandmothers, cab drivers, musicians, and 50,000 other newbies.

"Mark Myers' method of getting what can be...difficult information into a format...
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72

DOM Enlightenment

With DOM Enlightenment, you’ll learn how to manipulate HTML more efficiently by scripting the Document Object Model (DOM) without a DOM library. Using code examples in cookbook style, author Cody Lindley (jQuery Cookbook) walks you through modern DOM concepts to demonstrate how various node objects work.

Over the past decade, developers have buried the DOM under frameworks that simplify its use. This book brings these tools back into focus, using concepts and code native to modern browsers. You’ll understand the role jQuery plays in DOM scripting, and learn how to use the...
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74
Everything you need to learn JavaScript from Scratch!

Packed with numerous examples, Simply JavaScript is a step-by-step introduction to programming in JavaScript the right way. Learn how easy it is to use JavaScript to solve real-world problems, build smarter forms, track user events (such as mouse clicks and key strokes), and design eye-catching animations. Then move into more powerful techniques using the DOM and Ajax.

Learn JavaScript's built-in functions, methods, and properties. Easily integrate JavaScript in your web site. Use JavaScript to validate form...
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77

Head First JavaScript

So you're ready to make the leap from writing HTML and CSS web pages to creating dynamic web applications. You want to take your web skills to the next level. And you're finally ready to add "programmer" to the resume. It sounds like you're ready to learn the Web's hottest programming language: JavaScript. Head First JavaScript is your ticket to going beyond copying and pasting the code from someone else's web site, and writing your own interactive web pages.

With Head First JavaScript, you learn:


The basics of programming, from variables to types to...
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78

JavaScript Cookbook

Why reinvent the wheel every time you run into a problem with JavaScript? This cookbook is chock-full of code recipes that address common programming tasks, as well as techniques for building web apps that work in any browser. Just copy and paste the code samples into your project -- you’ll get the job done faster and learn more about JavaScript in the process.

You'll also learn how to take advantage of the latest features in ECMAScript 5 and HTML5, including the new cross-domain widget communication technique, HTML5's video and audio elements, and the drawing canvas. You'll find...
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79
Node.js is white hot, powering the server side of major web apps from Walmart, PayPal, and Netflix. While super-powerful, raw Node can be complex and awkward. Express.js is a web application framework for Node that organizes server-side JavaScript into testable, maintainable modules. It provides a powerful set of features to efficiently manage routes, requests, and views, along with beautiful boilerplate for web applications. Lightweight, fast, and unobtrusive, Express helps harness Node's raw power so developers can concentrate on what the application does instead of managing the nit-picky... more

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Don't have time to read the top JavaScript books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

  • Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
  • Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
81
If you want to get started with AngularJS, either as a side project, an additional tool, or for your main work, this practical guide teaches you how to use this meta-framework step-by-step, from the basics to advanced concepts. By the end of the book, you'll understand how to develop a large, maintainable, and performant application with AngularJS.

Guided by two engineers who worked on AngularJS at Google, you'll learn the components needed to build data-driven applications, using declarative programming and the Model-view-controller pattern. You'll also learn how to conduct unit...
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82

Head First HTML and CSS

Tired of reading HTML books that only make sense after you're an expert? Then it's about time you picked up Head First HTML and really learned HTML. You want to learn HTML so you can finally create those web pages you've always wanted, so you can communicate more effectively with friends, family, fans, and fanatic customers. You also want to do it right so you can actually maintain and expand your web pages over time so they work in all browsers and mobile devices. Oh, and if you've never heard of CSS, that's okay--we won't tell anyone you're still partying like it's 1999--but if you're going... more

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83

jQuery Pocket Reference

"As someone who uses jQuery on a regular basis, it was surprising to discover how much of the library I’m not using. This book is indispensable for anyone who is serious about using jQuery for non-trivial applications." -- Raffaele Cecco, longtime developer of video games, including Cybernoid, Exolon, and Stormlord

jQuery is the "write less, do more" JavaScript library. Its powerful features and ease of use have made it the most popular client-side JavaScript framework for the Web. This book is jQuery's trusty companion: the definitive "read less, learn more" guide to the...
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84

Elixir in Action

The Elixir language blends the battle-tested power and stability of the Erlang virtual machine with an approachable and expressive syntax. Revised and updated for the Elixir 1.7, Elixir in Action, Second Edition teaches you how to apply Elixir to practical problems associated with scalability, fault tolerance, and high availability. Along the way, you'll develop an appreciation for, and considerable skill in, a functional and concurrent style of programming. less

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85
Today's web sites have moved far beyond "brochureware." They are larger and more complex, have great strategic value to their sponsors, and their users are busier and less forgiving. Designers, information architects, and web site managers are required to juggle vast amounts of information, frequent changes, new technologies, and sometimes even multiple objectives, making some web sites look like a fast-growing but poorly planned city-roads everywhere, but impossible to navigate. Well-planned information architecture has never been as essential as it is now.

Information...
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Recommended by Jakob Nielsen, and 1 others.

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86

Beginning JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language that enables you to enhance static web applications by providing dynamic, personalized, and interactive content. This improves the experience of visitors to your site and makes it more likely that they will visit again. You must have seen the flashy drop-down menus, moving text, and changing content that are now widespread on web sites—they are enabled through JavaScript. Supported by all the major browsers, JavaScript is the language of choice on the Web. It can even be used outside web applications—to automate administrative tasks, for...

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87

The Node Beginner Book

The aim of The Node Beginner Book is to get you started with developing applications for Node.js, teaching you everything you need to know about advanced JavaScript along the way on 59 pages. less

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88
Learn how to write HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and build your own website, app, and game! An essential guide to computer programming for kids by kids.
Crack open this book and set off on several fun missions while simultaneously learning the basics of writing code. Want to make a website from scratch? Create an app? Build a game? All the tools are here, laid out in a user-friendly format that leads kids on an imaginary quest to keep a valuable diamond safe from dangerous jewel thieves. Presented by Young Rewired State an international collective of tech-savvy kids in...
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89
Learn everything about utilizing the JavaScript language with the next generation of Rich Internet Applications from the accessible information in JavaScript Programmer's Reference, both a tutorial and a reference guide for web developers. Master methods for using Java with applications like Microsoft's Silverlight, Ajax, Flex, Flash and AIR by practicing with hands-on examples with practical, usable code. Employ this complete JavaScript reference to help you understand JavaScript Data Types, Variables, Operators, Expressions and Statements, work with JavaScript Frameworks and data,... more

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90
JavaScript (and its frameworks such as jQuery) and HTML (along with its style sheet language CSS) have become the unlikely stars of the software world. Due to their monopoly position in web browsers, and the fact web browsers have spread from PCs to phones, tablets and TVs; their status will continue to grow and grow.
Despite their success, many software engineers are apprehensive about JavaScript and HTML. This apprehensiveness is not completely unfounded; both JavaScript and HTML were rushed in their early years, and driven by commercial rather than engineering interests. As a...
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Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

  • Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
  • Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.
91

CoffeeScript

CoffeeScript is JavaScript done right. It provides all of JavaScript's functionality wrapped in a cleaner, more succinct syntax. In the first book on this exciting new language, CoffeeScript guru Trevor Burnham shows you how to hold onto all the power and flexibility of JavaScript while writing clearer, cleaner, and safer code.

CoffeeScript: Accelerated JavaScript Development offers a thorough introduction to this new language, starting from the basics. You'll learn to use time-saving features like list comprehensions and splats, organize your code into modules with...
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92

Head First jQuery

Want to add more interactivity and polish to your websites? Discover how jQuery can help you build complex scripting functionality in just a few lines of code. With Head First jQuery, you'll quickly get up to speed on this amazing JavaScript library by learning how to navigate HTML documents while handling events, effects, callbacks, and animations. By the time you've completed the book, you'll be incorporating Ajax apps, working seamlessly with HTML and CSS, and handling data with PHP, MySQL and JSON.

If you want to learn—and understand—how to create interactive web pages,...
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93

Even Faster Web Sites

Performance is critical to the success of any web site, and yet today's web applications push browsers to their limits with increasing amounts of rich content and heavy use of Ajax. In this book, Steve Souders, web performance evangelist at Google and former Chief Performance Yahoo!, provides valuable techniques to help you optimize your site's performance.

Souders' previous book, the bestselling High Performance Web Sites, shocked the web development world by revealing that 80% of the time it takes for a web page to load is on the client side. In Even Faster Web...
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94

Professional JavaScript

In depth knowledge of JavaScript makes it easier to learn a variety of other frameworks, including React, Angular, and related tools and libraries. This book is designed to help you cover the core JavaScript concepts you need to build modern applications.

You'll start by learning how to represent an HTML document in the Document Object Model (DOM). Then, you'll combine your knowledge of the DOM and Node.js to create a web scraper for practical situations. As you read through further lessons, you'll create a Node.js-based RESTful API using the Express library for Node.js. You'll...
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95

Third-Party Javascript

Summary

Third-Party JavaScript guides web developers through the complete development of a full-featured third-party JavaScript application. You'll learn dozens of techniques for developing widgets that collect data for analytics, provide helpful overlays and dialogs, or implement features like chat or commenting. The concepts and examples throughout this book represent the best practices for this emerging field, based on thousands of real-world dev hours and results from millions of users.

About this Book

There's an art to writing...
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98
This is an exciting time to learn JavaScript. Now that the latest JavaScript specification--ECMAScript 6.0 (ES6)--has been finalized, learning how to develop high-quality applications with this language is easier and more satisfying than ever. This practical book takes programmers (amateurs and pros alike) on a no-nonsense tour of ES6, along with some related tools and techniques.

Author Ethan Brown ("Web Development with Node and Express") not only guides you through simple and straightforward topics (variables, control flow, arrays), but also covers complex concepts such as...
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99
Learning jQuery: Better Interaction Design and Web Development with Simple JavaScript Techniques. This book is for web designers who want to create interactive elements for their designs, and for developers who want to create the best user interface for their web applications. The reader will need the basics of HTML and CSS, and should be comfortable with the syntax of JavaScript. No knowledge of jQuery is assumed, nor is experience with any other JavaScript libraries required. less

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100

Javascript

Novice to Ninja

Learn JavaScript from scratch!

Packed with numerous examples, JavaScript: Novice to Ninja is a fun, step-by-step and comprehensive introduction to development in JavaScript.

Discover how to use JavaScript to solve real-world problems, build smarter forms, track user events, and design eye-catching animations.




Learn JavaScript's built-in functions, methods, and properties.
Use JavaScript to validate form entries and interact with your users.
Understand how to respond to user events and add interactivity to your applications.
more

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Don't have time to read the top JavaScript books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

  • Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
  • Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
  • Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.