Introduction
Have you ever tried learning to read, speak, or write in a language different from the one you grew up with? If you were anything like me, your early attempts probably looked something like the following:
Unless you are Jason Bourne (or Roger Federer), you barely survived learning your first language. This is because learning languages is hard. It doesn’t matter if you are learning your first language or a second or third. Being good at a language to a point where you are useful in a non-comical way takes a whole lotta time and effort.
It requires starting with the basics. It requires a boatload of practice and patience. It’s one of those few areas where there really aren’t any shortcuts for becoming proficient.
Parlez-vous JavaScript?
Successfully learning a programming language is very similar to how you would approach learning a real world language. You start off with the basics. Once you’ve gotten good at that, you move on to something a bit more advanced. This whole process just keeps repeating itself, and it never really ends. None of us ever truly stop learning. It just requires starting somewhere. To help you with the “starting somewhere” part is where this book comes in. This book is filled from beginning to end with all sorts of good (and hilarious—I hope!) stuff to help you learn JavaScript.
Now, I hate to say anything bad about a programming language behind its back, but JavaScript is pretty dull and boring:
There is no other way to describe it. Despite how boring JavaScript might most certainly be, it doesn’t mean that learning it has to be boring as well. (FYI: All grammatical snafus are carefully and deliberately placed—most of the time!) As you make your way through the book, hopefully you will find the very casual language and illustrations both informative as well as entertaining (infotaining!).
All this casualness and fun is balanced out by deep coverage of all the interesting things you need to know about JavaScript to become better at using it.
By the time you reach the last chapter, you will be prepared to face almost any JavaScript-related challenge head-on without breaking a sweat.
Contacting Me/Getting Help
If you ever get stuck at any point or just want to contact me, post in the forums at:
For non-technical questions, you can also send e-mail to [email protected], tweet to @kirupa, or message me on Facebook (facebook.com/kirupa). I love hearing from readers like you, and I make it a point to personally respond to every message I receive.
And with that, flip the page—it’s time to get started!