JavaScript Crash Course

by Nick Morgan

January 2024, 376 pp.

ISBN-13:

9781718502260

Download Chapter 3: Compound Data Types

Look Inside!

JavaScript is the programming language of the internet—the secret sauce that makes websites dynamic, responsive, and all-around awesome. This fast-paced tutorial quickly teaches total beginners how to code in this popular, easy-to-learn language. Light-hearted and hands-on, the book introduces you to programming essentials through fun examples, hands-on exercises, and cool projects like building a Pong-style computer game. You’ll discover all of the important aspects of the language (without delving into expert-level nitty-gritty details or confusing jargon) as you develop a fast knack for programming with JavaScript.

Learn fundamental JS coding concepts, including objects, functions, arrays, and loops
Explore key web programming topics, like interactivity and drawing graphics with Canva
Use JavaScript to make games, apps, and even create music

Author Bio

Nick Morgan is a software engineer at Twitter. He started on the web team, writing JavaScript to help to build the main twitter.com website. He now writes Scala for the backend Tweets service, working on projects such as the change from 140 to 280 character Tweets and the Limit Replies feature. Nick grew up in the UK, and has a degree in Music and Sound Recording from the University of Surrey. He now lives in Colorado with his wife, two daughters, three cats, and one dog.

Table of contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: The Language
Chapter 1: Getting Started
Chapter 2: The Basics
Chapter 3: Compound Data Types
Chapter 4: Conditionals and Loops
Chapter 5: Functions
Chapter 6: Classes
Part II: Interactive Javascript
Chapter 7: HTML, the DOM, and CSS
Chapter 8: Event-Based Programming
Chapter 9: The Canvas Element
Part III: Projects
Chapter 10: Pong
Chapter 11: Object-Oriented Pong
Chapter 12: Generating Sounds
Chapter 13: Writing A Song
Chapter 14: Introducing The D3 Library
Chapter 15: Visualizing Data From The Github Search Api
Afterword: Next Steps
Index

The chapters in red are included in the Early Access PDF.

View the detailed Table of Contents
View the Index

Reviews

"The perfect no-nonsense guide for folks who just want to roll their sleeves up and pick up the basics from scratch. It skips the distractions that often complicate a mastery of web programming, like UI frameworks, build tools, and server tech, using real projects to give aspiring web engineers a solid foundation."
—Jed Schmidt, founder of BrooklynJS

“A fun, practical, hands-on introduction that I wish I had when I was learning JavaScript. Readers can learn from the very basics all the way through making real games and applications that are relevant to ‘real-world’ development practices.”
—Cassidy Williams, @cassidoo, startup advisor and CTO at Contenda

“JavaScript Crash Course offers practical, pragmatic, and project-based education on how to think about and work with JavaScript. . . . By the time you complete the crash course, you'll be ready to start your own projects. Nick is providing a wonderful service with his hands-on teaching, both here and in JavaScript for Kids. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.”
—Scott Hanselman, @shanselman, VP Developer Community at Microsoft

"Nick has managed to condense the foundational concepts of JavaScript into concise, approachable descriptions that are easily accessible to beginners. Throw in some fun lessons in graphics and sound to create a game, and you've got an excellent and engaging JavaScript book that’s well worth your time."
—Nicholas C. Zakas, @slicknet, creator of ESLint and veteran JavaScript book author