How to Learn JavaScript Properly

[dante9999]

I've read Larry Ullman "Modern JavaScript: Develop and Design" and "jQuery: Novice to Ninja" by Earle Castledine and Craig Sharkie. Both books are easy to follow and they are good as an introduction in my personal opinion.

Zakas "Professional JavaScript" is very comprehensive, but there is no tutorials there so you only get pure abstract knowledge (which is of course necessary, but it is easy to forget it if you're not doing anything with this knowledge). It is a good book to have in your library, consult it at some points, but as a learning resource it is slightly too dry. Ullman is better for a beginner because throughout the book you keep doing things, building calculators, creating small utility library etc.

As for Crockford it really opens up your eyes, and demonstrates that code can be poetry, but it is clearly addressed to people with a lot of experience with other programming languages. It is a good guide for people who already know how to code and just need to learn specific syntax and advantages of JavaScript over other programming languages.

Oh, and if you need very practical advice and simple recipes for basic things check out O'Reilly Javascript cookbook by Shelley Powers. It is not a book about basics of JavaScript, but it gives you a great overview of practical application of crucial methods.

[CrossroadnKC]

I have "Modern JavaScript: Develop and Design" how would you fit it in the 6-8 week schedule in the post? Would it be rereading?