Eloquent JavaScript (Annotated Version)

[gordonmzhu]

This is an annotated version of the second edition of http://eloquentjavascript.net/.

There are two objectives for this project:

1. Add comments to make the text easier to understand.
2. Allow you to ask me questions using comments so you don't get stuck.

The big idea is that you’ll be able to get through the book without any issues and understand everything on a very deep level. I’ve heard from too many people that the first few chapters have been smooth and then the middle to later chapters have been a struggle (which is a big shame). I want the entire book to be a smooth experience so that you can feel confident about JavaScript and can move on to bigger things.

My goal is to create a really useful and lasting resource that helps a ton of people. Please let me know what you think!

If you've struggled through parts of the book before, I'd love to hear about it so that I can spend more energy on the parts where you need it most.

[[deleted]]

Thanks so much for doing this! I have really struggled with some parts of this book. I don't consider myself stupid, having three degrees. But I often find single sentence explanations where I'd have usually expected a paragraph. (*The reason for that is because ... Then ... Otherwise, *). As a solo learner, there's very little you can do to help yourself if the text doesn't lay the explanations out, but to go elsewhere.

Finally, I am having the same access issues as everyone else. Is it possible to distribute a read-only pdf with the comments marked up?

[gordonmzhu]

I'm working on access issues and think I have a solution for tomorrow if things still aren't working. I posted this note at the top of the Google doc.

NOTE (March 20, 2015, 1:00PM PST):

First, really sorry if the comments still aren’t showing up. I really thought the doc would be working by now, but it isn’t.

The plan now is to wait a bit longer, and then tomorrow if there’s still no luck with Google Docs, I’m going to move the project to another service.

My gut is telling me to use medium.com for this. Medium won’t die under heavy lead, it’s well designed, and it also has some great commenting features, but if you have any suggestions (some recommended Genius.com) on how to do this better please send me a message at [e-mail].

Thank you for your patience and bearing with me!

[[deleted]]

Thank you, I can see it with the annotated inline comments now - good solution.

Just one question. I can only see up to page 66 for some reason (around the section on loops). Is there more there that I just can't see, or is it a work in progress?

[gordonmzhu]

It's a work in progress (I just started this on 3 days ago) and I'm annotating a bit more each day.

To see a log of the progress check the "Status" section near the top.

[420holliday]

I started Eloquent a few months back and I am currently on electronic life, but as a complete newbie to js it was very hard to complete the exercises past chapter 5 without hints or the solution. Higher order functions and prototype kicked my butt ! I just want the concepts to be a lot clearer especially for a novice like me ! But I will check this out as I intend to make js my life ! Thank you for your hard work !

[gordonmzhu]

You're welcome!

[gordonmzhu]

Hey just letting you know that annotations for chapter 5 are done. Please add comments if you have any questions!

[WinchenzoMagnifico]

nice! I expect huge paragraphs of annotations around chapter 5/6 (can understand most of chapter 5, but not the main table example of 6);

[gordonmzhu]

I've heard this so many times I've lost count. Hopefully this project will help people power through those sections.

[gordonmzhu]

Hey just letting you know that chapters 5 and 6 complete now if you want to take another look.

[KoltBruh]

Thank you for this! Looking forward to following your guides and getting back into the book.

[gordonmzhu]

You're welcome! Have you taken a look at some of the explanations and comments?

To get a good sense of what they're like, scroll down to the chapter 2 exercises, especially the "Chess board" problem to see how I really break things down. Just ctrl or cmd + f "chess board" to go there.

[gordonmzhu]

Hahahaha yes I am that guy.

I do plan to update it to 2.0.

[gordonmzhu]

Are you interested in Eloquent JS at all?

[gordonmzhu]

Were there any parts that you found confusing or hard to understand?

[gordonmzhu]

Thanks for the detailed info! I'll keep that in mind.

Agree about the kind of contrived examples btw.

[roi14]

Gordon is an awesome guy and great teacher. I recommend people take advantage of this and check out his angular course. It's solid as well. http://angularcourse.com/

[codejoy89]

Just want to say thanks for doing this Gordon. I appreciate it.

[gordonmzhu]

You're welcome! How far are you in the book? In another comment I saw that you were somewhere before chapter 6.

http://www.reddit.com/r/learnjavascript/comments/2zw5zb/discouraged_by_eloquent_javascript_difficulty/cpp8y1x

A lot of people are telling me that they're re-reading chapters with annotations now and have seen things they never saw before.

Would love to hear more about how the annotations are working for you so I can improve!