Ask HN: Can I learn JS in a month?

Your inquiry leaves something out that's important -- whether you have learned any computer programming languages before.

I ask because writing HTML and using CSS don't count as "programming", they're more like word processing. Computer programming has little in common with HTML and CSS development work.

So as far as learning JavaScript in a month, it depends on whether you've had any exposure to other computer languages. If not, then a month of exposure to JavaScript might not be enough to make you productive in the language.

Adding JavaScript to your knowledge base is certainly a good idea, but if you haven't done any programming before, and to become proficient, you might want to schedule more time for it.

I've just been trying out CodeAcademy[1] and it seems like a nice place to get your hands dirty if you like learning things interactively. They do have a track on jQuery as well - which is something that I think you should be interested in coming from the HTML/ CSS side of things where you want to add interactivity to your pages.

These courses should be quick to run through, get your confidence up and have you playing around with JavaScript on your own projects very quickly.

There are a few other similar sites out there.

[1]http://www.codecademy.com/tracks/javascript

You could certainly learn how the general syntax of the language and how things like prototyping and callbacks work.

Why limit it to a month though? Learn the basics, develop an understanding of how it works and then carry on learning as you go.

As for books: "JavaScript: The Good Parts" and "jQuery in Action" should help you out.

Could you learn French in a month?

You could learn the basic structures of the language, and enough words to get by in a lot of common situations. But you wouldn't have the same dexterity as a fluent speaker and would often find yourself lost for a particular word.

If you want to get into JavaScript OOP, you should read http://killdream.github.com/blog/2011/10/understanding-javas...

iTunes university has a free JS course. Its a college course.

I'd also learn jQuery. The selectors work like CSS does, so that will be familiar to you.

I think you can learn almost any language in a couple of week, but mastering them is a completely different story...

Why come here to ask? Go forth and learn, my friend ... :-)

Thanks for references mates!!!