FOREWORD

I look back at my career (now 20+ years), and in between coming to the realization that my gray hairs have really sprouted out, I reflect on the technologies and people that have dramatically affected my professional life and decisions. If I had to choose one technology, though, that has had the single biggest positive influence on me, it would be JavaScript. Mind you, I wasn’t always a JavaScript believer. Like many, I looked at it as a play language relegated to doing rotating banners and sprinkling some interesting effects on pages. I was a server-side developer, and we didn’t play with toy languages, damn it! But then something happened: Ajax.

I’ll never forget hearing the buzzword Ajax all over the place and thinking that it was some very cool, new, and innovative technology. I had to check it out, and as I read about it, I was floored when I realized that the toy language I had so readily dismissed was now the technology that was on the lips of every professional web developer. And suddenly, my perception changed. As I continued to explore past what Ajax was, I realized that JavaScript was incredibly powerful, and I wanted in on all the goodness it had to offer. So I embraced it wholeheartedly, working to understand the language, joining the jQuery project team, and focusing on client-side development. Life was good.

The deeper I became involved in JavaScript, the more developers I met, some whom to this day I still see as rock stars and mentors. Nicholas Zakas is one of those developers. I remember reading the second edition of this very book and feeling like, despite all of my years of tinkering, I had learned so much from it. And the book felt genuine and thoughtful, as if Nicholas understood that his audience’s experience level would vary and that he needed to manage the tone accordingly. That really stood out in terms of technical books. Most authors try to go into the deep-dive technobabble to impress. This was different, and it immediately became my go-to book and the one I recommended to any developer who wanted to get a solid understanding of JavaScript. I wanted everyone to feel the same way I felt and realize how valuable a resource it is.

And then, at a jQuery conference, I had the amazing fortune of actually meeting Nicholas in person. Here was one of top JavaScript developers in the world working on one of the most important web properties in the world (Yahoo!), and he was one of the nicest people I had ever met. I admit; I was a bit starstruck when I met him. And the great thing was that he was just this incredibly down-to-earth person who just wanted to help developers be great. So not only did his book change the way I thought about JavaScript, but Nicholas himself was someone that I wanted to continue to work with and get to know.

When Nicholas asked me to write this foreword, I can’t explain how flattered I was. Here I am being the opening act for the guru. It’s a testament to how cool of a person he is. Most important, though, it gives me an opportunity to share with you why I feel this book is so important. I’ve read many JavaScript books, and there are certainly awesome titles out there. This book, though, offers in my opinion the total package to make you an incredibly proficient and able JavaScript developer. The smooth and thoughtful transition from introductory topics such as expressions and variable declarations to advanced topics such as closures and object-oriented development is what sets it apart from other books that either are too introductory or expect that you’re already building missile guidance systems with JavaScript. It’s the “everyman’s” book that will help you write code that you’ll be proud of and build web site that will excite and delight.

—Rey Bango

Sr. Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Corporation

jQuery Project Team