JavaScript for Cats - An introduction for new programmers

by dwynings • 14 years ago

73 24 14 years ago

STHayden2• 14 years ago

Kinda cool. While covering basic topics I don't know if this really the best guide for beginners. REPL is just not a term a beginner needs to know. Also while the console is awesome It's hard for a beginner to take the knowledge and apply it to something they can immediately do on their own.

maxogden8• 14 years ago

good call, I took the REPL section out. the whole thing is also on github in case you wanna help out https://github.com/maxogden/javascript-for-cats

STHayden2• 14 years ago

also a good call. my god github is amazing. again good job.

ronyeh• 14 years ago

Seems like there are still lots of references to REPL. Potentially remove them all? Why not just call it a console?

rshlo• 14 years ago

great idea, looking forward for the rest.

davvid• 14 years ago

This is a really nice, fun way to teach javascript. The internet is full of cats, so the possibilities are endless as far as the future articles are concerned. I've shared this with my friend who wanted to learn javascript (and also happens to be a total cat nut (just like me)).

chinchang2• 14 years ago

There is mention somewhere that he is going to talk on underscore.js too but its not mentioned in the future topic list?

maxogden8• 14 years ago

Sorry, it's part of the looping section. I should have clarified

chinchang2• 14 years ago

cool! Will wait for the next writeup.

charliepark• 14 years ago

The copy on this reads a lot like Chris Pine's introduction to Ruby. Playful, insightful, and simple enough that it isn't intimidating. Really nice.

maxogden8• 14 years ago

I hadn't seen this specific introduction, thanks! I first learned ruby through _why's poignant guide which definitely influenced the approach I took here

TazeTSchnitzel3• 14 years ago

Great. But teaching beginners not to use semicolons at the end of lines may not be the best of ideas, especially since they can then be caught out when they type two lines that JS sees as one.

maxogden8• 14 years ago

if you find an instance in the code examples where ASI doesn't do its job i'd happily merge in a pull request that inserts a semicolon manually https://github.com/maxogden/javascript-for-cats

TazeTSchnitzel3• 14 years ago

No no no. Teaching people to only use a semicolon in some cases is even worse. It's far better to just tell them to use semicolons everywhere, as they should. ASI is an error-correction mechanism, after all.

swift• 14 years ago

Strange explanation of the word "variable" in here. It doesn't mean "many" - more like "changeable". It's the opposite of "constant".

maxogden8• 14 years ago

"many" as in "many forms". i'll work on clarifying the language

Udo• 14 years ago

I second this "changeable" synonym instead of "many". At that point, you could also add a quick reference to mathematics, because that's where 99% of all people already got some experience with variables.

Very cool tutorial by the way, keep up the great work!

barnette• 14 years ago

This is a very good JavaScript beginner intro from msdn channel 9. http://channel9.msdn.com/Series/Javascript-Fundamentals-Deve...

benatkin• 14 years ago

This is nice, especially how it encourages using the in-browser development environment. I think it should more strongly direct people to use Chrome so it can be one set of instructions and go deeper.

JavaScript for Cats - An introduction for new programmers

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