It was a pleasant surprise. It is a nice concept I have not previously seen done. (I'm sure someone can come up with examples of where it has previously been done before but this is the first I personally have seen it.)
I'm currently using it as a beginners Javascript book and find it extremely accessible.
It has an excellent balance of design patterns and introductory knowledge to attract the new and also seasoned developers who are beginning to look at javascript more seriously.
(This book is also a great primer for anyone who did not understand Javascript the Good Parts)
Seeing that the standard is already being finalized towards a release in 4 months[1], this seems like an unfortunate omission in an otherwise top-notch text.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECMAScript#ECMAScript_Harmony_....
For something that won't be supported for a while yet (without using a transpiler), that seemed too much bother. I might add such chapters in the future.
https://twitter.com/awbjs/status/474662357516689410
http://blog.oio.de/2014/06/13/ecmascript-6-delayed-mid-2015/
"I am happy to announce that the online edition of Eloquent JavaScript's 2nd edition is done, and online at " http://eloquentjavascript.net
It was way over the heads of the beginners the book was aimed at, but it sure was fun to try and figure out.
The book was written for both computer and pdf, so you should really build the PDF from the code to get the parts of the text that have been altered for print. If you just PDF the html, you end up with some weird things from the interactive parts.
You can find the build targets here: https://github.com/marijnh/Eloquent-JavaScript/blob/master/M...
It's amazing how it's well written and fun to read. I like it puts some effort in showing you quickly the benefit of what you learned, you never get the impression something is pointless. (NB: it's big but you don't have to read it all. I read say the first half, than used it more like a reference book.)
"Casual computing has become become much "
And I do love good writing...
That kind of zealotry always produces a lot of impractical silliness, and there has been a sort of counter-revolution since then. In some circles, objects have a rather bad reputation nowadays."
Eloquent JS, maybe, eloquent writing. Not in this book.