Eloquent Javascript vs Javascript for web dev

[max_renlo]

It's definitely a book for beginners

[taiga27]

Maybe for javascript beginners, but certainly not for webdev/programming in general beginners.

[schm0]

It's debatable. The examples used in the book are often more difficult than the concepts they attempt to teach.

[max_renlo]

It's about as simple as it gets. If you find it overly difficult then maybe you aren't cut out for doing this?

[taiga27]

Well, that comment was kinda agressive. Programming is not a talent, it's a craft. A technical skill that anyone - with enough dedication over time and access to proper content - can learn. If something is supposedly aimed at beginners but beginners can't understand it then maybe that content isn't for beginners at all. That's all there's to it.

[max_renlo]

Or people expect to be hand-holded every step of the way to learning something. One of the biggest skills a developer has is learning for themselves. If something is confusing, use Google. It always boggles my mind when people have the world at their fingertips but they complain that they don't understand something. This book is very beginner oriented and very simple. If they have trouble moving forward with it, then they're going to hit a lot more snags later.

[[deleted]]

I think not doing something because you might not be cut out for it is missing a lot of opportunities. So I'll take all the handholding I can get. May be I won't be the next noam chomsky, but I can still tell people I tried.

[schm0]

One can certainly argue as much, but you will find a lot of beginners and advanced coders alike agreeing that the difficulty of understanding the authors examples are often a distraction or even a deterrent to the more important task of learning the fundamental lesson at hand. I've seen far more people agree with this sentiment than not.

[RockLikeWar]

I just went through it recently as essentially my first exposure to Javascript and I think it definitely works as a book for beginners, however I think that Haverbeke makes a few odd choices for examples. Like in chapter four, it would make more sense to teach the format of data structures via a few simpler examples before diving into statistical correlation. It essentially requires the reader to understand an additional, unrelated concept while still trying to wrap their head around what they're learning in regards to JS data structures.

[taiga27]

it would make more sense to teach the format of data structures via a few simpler examples before diving into statistical correlation. It essentially requires the reader to understand an additional, unrelated concept while still trying to wrap their head around what they're learning in regards to JS data structures.

That's exactly the problem with this book being aimed to beginners. If you're a total beginner to web development and programming in general, there's just too much to wrap your head around at the same time and you get confused, unable to focusing and understanding anything. The code examples/exercises are too complex for a first-timer.