JavaScript Crash Course

Nick Morgan is a software engineer, most recently at Twitter. He started on the web team, writing JavaScript to help to build the main twitter.com website, before moving to writing Scala for the backend Tweets service, where he helped design Edit Tweet and the change from 140 to 280 character tweets. Nick grew up in the UK, and has a degree in Music and Sound Recording from the University of Surrey. He now lives in Colorado with his wife, two daughters, three cats, and one dog.

"The perfect no-nonsense guide for folks who just want to roll their sleeves up and pick up the basics from scratch. It skips the distractions that often complicate a mastery of web programming, like UI frameworks, build tools, and server tech, using real projects to give aspiring web engineers a solid foundation."—Jed Schmidt, founder of BrooklynJS“A fun, practical, hands-on introduction that I wish I had when I was learning JavaScript. Readers can learn from the very basics all the way through making real games and applications that are relevant to ‘real-world’ development practices.”—Cassidy Williams, @cassidoo, startup advisor and CTO at Contenda“JavaScript Crash Course offers practical, pragmatic, and project-based education on how to think about and work with JavaScript. . . . By the time you complete the crash course, you'll be ready to start your own projects. Nick is providing a wonderful service with his hands-on teaching, both here and in JavaScript for Kids. I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.”—Scott Hanselman, @shanselman, VP Developer Community at Microsoft "Nick has managed to condense the foundational concepts of JavaScript into concise, approachable descriptions that are easily accessible to beginners. Throw in some fun lessons in graphics and sound to create a game, and you've got an excellent and engaging JavaScript book that’s well worth your time."—Nicholas C. Zakas, @slicknet, creator of ESLint and veteran JavaScript book author"When learning an instrument, the best results come from balancing theory with playing real music. JavaScript Crash Course provides a similar balance for learning to program. You get to see JavaScript's workings as a language and fundamental part of the Web, while also sinking your teeth into some practical projects. This book will help you build up your JavaScript 'repertoire' and develop a good mindset for progressing further."—Peter Cooper, Editor of JavaScript Weekly"Ideal for high school and college students, self-study, and public library collections, Javascript Crash Course is a "must-have" for anyone who needs to learn Javascript fast for school, business, or just plain fun. Highly recommended!"—Midwest Book Review

• Introduction Part I: JavaScript Basics Chapter 1: What Is JavaScript? Chapter 2: Data Types and Variables Chapter 3: Arrays Chapter 4: Objects Chapter 5: Conditionals and Loops Chapter 6: Functions Chapter 7: Classes Part II: Interactive JavaScript Chapter 8: HTML, the Document Object Model, and CSS Chapter 9: Event-Based Programming Chapter 10: The Canvas Element Part III: Projects Chapter 11: Project 1: Making a Game Chapter 12: Project 1B: Object-Oriented Pong Chapter 13: Project 2: Making MusicChapter 14: Project 3: Visualizing Data