Some Background

A year or so ago, I set out to learn Web Development. My first challenge was to create a personal website. Not knowing were to begin, I started Googling, “How to learn web development?”

After some time spent researching I came across a GitHub repo called, The Odin Project. I followed along for quite a while and picked up HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and some Ruby. The learning path set out by The Odin Project is great. Yet, I found myself still lacking fundamental knowledge in JavaScript. This made it very challenging when trying to understand JavaScript specific concepts.

Coming from C++ I didn’t understand what many things meant. Questions I found asking myself were what is ECMAScript? What’s the difference between ES5 and ES6? What does reduce, map, and filter do? Some of the more subtle concepts were easy to miss too like variable context (also called scope.) Of course I Googled all these questions but there were too many cracks in my foundation to fill.

Back To Basics

Even though I was able to build my personal website and some Web Apps I realized it’s time I learn JavaScript the right way. I often find the best way to learn a new programming language is through reading a book. Books are peer reviewed and sometimes include practice problems. You can also start learning about subtle language details that are easy to misunderstand. You’ll be able to answerfundamental questions like: What are the primitive types? What is a reference? What is the proper syntax for flow control statements? How is the data represented in memory?

Recommended Reads

I came across this Medium article that lists 5 recommended books for learning JavaScript by. I started with Eloquent JavaScript, 2nd Edition Marijn Haverbeke. I read the first chapter and found the book to be better suited for someone new to programming. Next I started reading, Professional JavaScript for Web Developers by Nicholas C. Zakas. This book fits my needs a little better. The topics are concise and accompanied by excellent code samples. Effective JavaScript by David Herman will be the next book I look over but so far I’ve been enjoying Zakas’ book. I definitely recommend it.

Written by Rick Boshae who lives and works in Los Angeles building useful things. You should follow him on Twitter