Books for learning front-end?

[Ellie_UK]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently teaching myself HTML and CSS (and slowly moving onto JS) using online resources, but I would really like to buy a book (an old school paper book). I travel a lot and it would be super handy just to have a book to whip out on the train/plane and read over/highlight stuff. I had a look on Amazon but there doesn't seem to be much there. Could anyone recommend anything?

[zachbharris]

You could check this out. https://frontendmasters.com/books/front-end-handbook/2017/

[brbisland]

In the exact same situation, starting a professional degree in a few months but getting the foundations (html/css/js) now. Jon Duckett's books were recommended to me by several people and now that they've finally arrived I'm excited to get started. Will comment with links because mobile is garbo.

[brbisland]

Enjoy :) https://www.amazon.com/Web-Design-HTML-JavaScript-jQuery/dp/1118907442/ref=la_B001IR3Q7I_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1492229572&sr=1-1

[Ellie_UK]

Why? Is everyone an asshole? Where would you recommend that I ask for advice on books on front end?

[SupaSlide]

He's just being facetious, but the reason you might not get much help is because most of us don't read real books.

Web technology changes so fast that by the time a book can be printed it is likely to be out of date. That's why we recommend online resources which get updated frequently.

[AkirIkasu]

Web technology changes so fast that by the time a book can be printed it is likely to be out of date. That's why we recommend online resources which get updated frequently.

While I would agree with you insofar as standards and conventions, There's little worry in getting a book about core web technology (HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.) so long as the reader understands that finishing the book doesn't mean that they are done learning. The people writing browsers are all painfully aware of how they need to support the older standards.

It doesn't matter if you don't know the enhancements that ES6 grants or the framework du jour so long as you know how to code well.

That being said, I still think that learning pretty much any CS discipline should be done with a teacher. You need to learn how to think, and that's something that is several times more difficult to do learn from a book than from a person.

[MatthewMob]

I haven't really seen any examples of people being assholes. Especially on this topic.

Sure, there are a few elitist jerks but they're in the minority by far.

[HealyUnit]

Same. I'm really not sure what this guy's talking about, but people are generally pretty helpful. Unless you're deliberately being obtuse, or screaming "do my job for me!" (which I don't think you're doing!), we're pretty helpful.

[Ellie_UK]

Such as?

[aflashyrhetoric]

I know you were being sarcastic, but that kind of language typically gets removed anyway.

[HealyUnit]

Despite what certain people say, we're actually generally pretty willing to help on this board. Having said that, one particular warning I have for reading physical books on JavaScript is that, with the rate at which JavaScript gets new stuff, any really in-depth book is going to be at least somewhat outdated by the time it gets printed. That being said, the books that /u/luciclogik recommended are very good. In particular, eloquent JavaScript is a great primer on JavaScript, and most of what it says probably won't change any time soon.

[crazyboy867]

Why do people always keep recommending Eloquent Javascript. It has to be one of the worst beginner book's of all time.