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Comment by scottmagdalein | Hacker News Reader

To those who've read both, I wonder how [the first edition of] Eloquent JavaScript compares with JavaScript: The Good Parts.

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JavaScript: The Good Parts has passages like this:

  The new function object is given a prototype property
  whose value is an object containing a constructor property
  whose value is the new function object.

... whereas Eloquent Javascript is written in English.

[Edit: To be fair, Douglas Crockford does write in the preface that the book is dense and may require multiple readings. He means it.]

I'm the author of Eloquent JS, so I'm far from unbiased, but the main difference in my mind is that The Good Parts is very spartan and extremely prescriptive in what you should do and, especially, what you should never do, whereas Eloquent JS tries to actually be attractive to read and have a much more open and enthusiastic mindset towards what programming is.

Thanks!

I wouldn't try to learn JS from The Good Parts. It is more of a guide to how to write solid JS after you've learned the basics of how it works.

Eloquent JavaScript on the other hand, is a great book to actually learn from.

My favorite quote from the Good Parts: "if you want to find out more about the bad parts and how to use them badly, simply consult any other JavaScript book"

(That quote is a great illustration of Crockfords insufferable arrogance.)

To be honest. I've seen way, way worse. He is very, very, VEERY arrogant - if you don't put space before and after an operation sign, you are an idiot. But the man earned it, somewhat.

I've seen people that are that arrogant and have delusions of grandeur. They are the poison, really.

To be fair when TGP was first published most of the books on the market were garbage.

They are not really comparable, Crockford's book is for programmers who want to use JavaScript and do it 'The Right Way' TM. Eloquent JavaScript reads much more like a story that happens to teach basic programming concepts, which happen to use JavaScript. It could be read both by an experienced developer and a someone who wants to dive in with no programming experience. The Good Parts would be useless to a beginner.

For someone who has rarely if ever programmed (or just done basic HTML/CSS) I recommend Eloquent JavaScript. For experienced programmers or someone who has been hacking JS on their own for a while, but wants to improve, I recommend The Good Parts.

You can learn a lot from both, but they are aimed at different audiences, IMO.

I felt Eloquent JavaScript was more approachable than The Good Parts for someone coming up to speed....

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