Book of the Day: Effective JavaScript

http://blog.mediumequalsmessage.com/book-of-the-day-effective-javascript

by cwebbdesign • 13 years ago

68 21 13 years ago

blog.mediumequalsmessage.com

stevoski• 13 years ago

Is it a similar concept to Effective C++ or Effective Java? Or is the similar name a co-incidence?

willhsiung• 13 years ago

Yes to the 1st question - http://scottmeyers.blogspot.com/2013/01/new-esds-book-effect...

h2s3• 13 years ago

While this book sounds good, to me this looks a little like a shady attempt to make a quick buck off of Amazon referrals. Reassure me?

coldtea2• 13 years ago

Don't buy it if you don't like it.

I don't understand what exactly problems people with referrals.

Would you prefer it he had an under the table deal with the author which you could not see?

h2s3• 13 years ago

You say you don't understand the problem? Allow me to explain.

Referral links in book reviews are a problem because of the conflict of interest they create. If the author of the review chooses to put a referral link into it, they create a financial incentive to bias their own review in favour of the book. Rather than a means of helping people determine which books to buy, reviews become a hollow call to action with a conversion rate measured in referral dollars. A review with a referral link in it has absolutely no credibility.

On top of that, they call the very purpose of the review itself into question. Is the author of the review really reviewing anything at all, or are they simply writing reviews as a means of generating cash? This particular blog is brimming with glowing reviews of Javascript books, each with Amazon referral links inside. Are there really so many must-have Javascript books on the market? If so, do we really need the dubious help of a blogger to find a good one?

mudge• 13 years ago

I think it is a brilliant way to make some money. Find a really good book and write a really good book review about it and then make money on referral links. Nothing wrong at all with getting paid to do a good thing like this.

vijayr• 13 years ago

Personally, it doesn't bother me too much. One suggestion could be to have two links - one with referral and the other, without. And mark them explicitly and leave the choice to the user to decide on which link to click.

habitue• 13 years ago

I've read it as well, it was at least as good as Effective Java.

One thing that's interesting about the book is that while he mentions things like "don't use feature X, works strangely in some browsers", he never explicitly states which browsers. He also doesn't make a lot of mention to frameworks etc, or the DOM. Just the common denominator javascript as it is implemented, and the language features. So don't expect it to teach you the latest tricks in your favorite MVC framework. It's written in a very timeless way on purpose, and he very deliberately avoids making reference to "current events" in javascript.

apaprocki• 13 years ago

Dave Herman is great. I had so much faith in Dave that prior to even seeing the book I purchased a copy for every person in the company who ever deployed JS (~2,000 copies):

https://twitter.com/apaprocki/status/289839413733781504

I only received positive feedback and most people said they learned at least one new thing from the book :)

tingletech• 13 years ago

> The history is convoluted, but it boils down to a matter of

> copyright: For legal reasons, the standards organization,

> Ecma International, was unable to use the name “JavaScript”

> for its standard."

(from the sample chapter PDF)

He must mean "a matter of trademark" rather than "a matter of copyright".

dherman• 13 years ago

Thanks for the erratum report. I always mix those two up! :-/ I've added it to the errata page:

https://github.com/effectivejs/site/wiki/Errata

(Let me know if I got your name wrong for the credit; I followed links from your HN profile.)

Thanks, Dave

CWIZO• 13 years ago

I'm currently reading secrets of JS ninjas. Has anybody read both and would mind posting a quick comparison?

dropdownmenu• 13 years ago

I have not read this book, but I can say that javascript powerful when you ask the question: what can I do with a closure?

lowboy2• 13 years ago

It's a great book, well-written. Anyone touching JS should get it.

ibudiallo• 13 years ago

How did this become a discussion about referral links. My co worker bought the book and brought it to work. I read two chapters and went to get a copy for myself.

There, no referrals.

Book of the Day: Effective JavaScript

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