

JQuery Fundamentals - ZeroMinx
http://jqfundamentals.com/book/book.html

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krelian
I never understood why certain books who are covering a framework or a very
particular aspect of programming must start with what is basically a short
tutorial about the programming language they are using. Maybe it's just me but
I always assumed that someone who buys a book about JQuery already knows
Javascript and if he doesn't a short tutorial just isn't enough. Take a look
for example at [Hacking - The Art of
Exploitation](<http://nostarch.com/hacking2.htm>), a great book that deals
with stuff like buffer overflows, network sniffing and shell code injection
but starts with a tutorial about C...

~~~
rimantas

      Maybe it's just me but I always assumed that someone who
      buys a book about JQuery already knows Javascript and if he
      doesn't a short tutorial just isn't enough.
    

There were many to come to Ruby by trying Ruby on Rails first, and I think
there are many to discover Javascript by having to accomplish something with
jQuery. Of course that's not the ideal way to learn things, but your
assumption is often wrong.

~~~
jamesbritt
Do you really think these people properly learned Ruby by reading a Rails-
specific book with a 10-page overview of Ruby?

There's some good business in picking up Rails projects when a client
discovers they've hired someone who really only knows how to wire up pre-coded
plugins to auto-generated MVC code, and cannot custom-code special
requirements.

~~~
Goosey
Personally I think YAGNI can apply to skill sets as well.

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DTrejo
I'm looking forward to seeing them add a section on infinite undo / back +
forward button support.

~~~
catshirt
(hopefully on topic) if i understand correctly, this isn't exactly a jquery
"thing", but jquery is certainly of assistance...

i wrote something for this quite a while ago (likely could be improved...),
<http://gist.github.com/614392>

~~~
DTrejo
Thanks catshirt :)

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revjx
I've never touched JQuery. I learned Javascript, and by the time I was
comfortable enough with that I didn't really want to have to be bothered with
an unfamiliar syntax. If I've ever needed to accomplish something
repetitively, I've written my own little (and probably very badly-optimised)
JS library - that's definitely helped me understand more about JS than using
JQuery ever would.

~~~
iron_ball
Counterpoint: I understand Javascript and the DOM all too well, and coding my
own "poorly-optimized" library for things that could be handled in one line of
jQuery strikes me as a huge waste of time.

~~~
revjx
OK, I won't be self-deprecating on HN in the future then... it's not poorly
optimised. The point I was trying to make is that I learned far more about how
Javascript works by learning the language first and thoroughly than I ever
would have by learning how to use JQuery. My particular area of work means
that cross-browser compatibility isn't a problem - hence writing my own
library that might not be compatible with older browsers is not an issue, and
it is also better for my own edification.

~~~
iron_ball
Upvoted. I hope I didn't come across as blasting you. I agree that hand-coding
your own Javascript is the best way to learn, and a front-end developer should
know pure Javascript as well as jQuery. That said, for real-world
applications, a stable third-party library is a better idea.

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Griever
I love this book! The advanced topics really helped me out with some
performance issues I was having with my own sites.

Definitely a recommended read.

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ritonlajoie
Thanks ! I have been waiting for that for a long time now, not having that
much time to read this documentation, that one, this one, etc...

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anarchitect
Nice! There's some really useful examples in the advanced chapters.

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grigy
I've learned JavaScript and JQuery by this book. Very good one.

