Learn Enough JavaScript to Be Dangerous: A Tutorial Introduction to Programming with JavaScript

All You Need to Know, and Nothing You Don't, to Write JavaScript for the Web and Beyond

JavaScript plays a key role in modern software development, not only because it is the only language that runs inside virtually all web browsers, but also because it has become widely used for back-end and general-purpose development as well. Although JavaScript is a big language, you don't need to learn "everything" about it to get started, just how to use it efficiently to solve real problems. In Learn Enough JavaScript to Be Dangerous, renowned instructor Michael Hartl teaches the specific concepts, skills, and approaches you need to be professionally productive.

Even if you've never programmed before, Hartl helps you quickly build technical sophistication and master the lore you need to succeed. Treating JavaScript as a general-purpose language right from the start, Hartl offers examples for creating dynamic effects in browsers and for writing scripts and modules using Node.js. Focused exercises help you internalize what matters, without wasting time on details pros don't care about. Soon, it'll be like you were born knowing this stuff--and you'll be suddenly, seriously dangerous.

Learn enough about . . .

• Rapidly deploying a simple JavaScript app to the live Web
• Working with strings and other native JavaScript objects
• Applying functions and elegant, powerful functional-programming techniques
• Creating new objects with both properties and methods
• Writing tests and improving code with test-driven development (TDD)
• Developing and using self-contained, modular NPM software packages
• Adding interactivity with event listeners, dynamic HTML forms, and DOM manipulation
• Writing useful, nontrivial JavaScript shell scripts
• Building an industrial-grade interactive website with JavaScript, from start to finish

Michael Hartl's Learn Enough series includes books and video courses that focus on the most important parts of each subject, so you don't have to learn everything to get started--you just have to learn enough to be dangerous and solve technical problems yourself.

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Michael Hartl created the legendary Ruby on Rails™ Tutorial that helped jumpstart thousands of web development careers. A cofounder and principal author at Learn Enough, Hartl previously earned a Ph.D. in physics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), where he received a Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is also an alumnus of Harvard University and the world-renowned Y Combinator entrepreneur program.