Announcing the JavaScript Explained Book by Zac Gordon
If you use WordPress in a professional way, you’ve probably come across Zac Gordon.
Zac is an enthusiastic and charming teacher who focuses on JavaScript in WordPress. He borrowed the phrase “Learn JavaScript Deeply” from Matt Mullenweg and he made it into his personal slogan. For the last several years, Zac has produced video classes, online conferences, live talks, and podcasts that focus on teaching you how to use Javascript in WordPress.
We recently partnered with Zac on a book, “React Explained“. That book is available now. It’s a fun and enjoyable introduction to React, which is the JavaScript framework of choice for WordPress, Drupal, Magento, and thousands of developers.
React Explained was a great project, so we’re delighted to announce that our collaboration is continuing.
Zac is working on a second book, “JavasScript Explained”. We’re aiming for a launch on July 1st.
You can think of this book as a prequel to React Explained. Whereas the React book focused on higher-level topics, this new “JavaScript Explained” will get you up-and-running with Javascript.
This will be the 13th book from OSTraining. As with all our other books, it will be available in eBook formats for OSTraining members, and in paperback format on Amazon.
Zac’s Introduction to Javascript Explained
I have been learning and teaching JavaScript long enough to see it go through various versions, best practices and popular libraries and frameworks.
A few of the core principals of JavaScript have remained constant over the years. Some best practices and approaches have evolved dramatically.
This book is intended to help beginners to JavaScript (and possibly programming in general).
We do not learn “basic JavaScript” like you do with many beginning JavaScript resources.
My goal is to provide you with the “most common” and “best approaches” as simply and as early as possible, while keeping in mind of course this is still a resource for beginners.
If you are new to JavaScript you shouldn’t notice this difference in approach. However, if you have looked at beginner JavaScript resources before you might notice we skip over some of the basics and start right with the best practice. This is designed to help you get up and running faster. Some concepts we will introduce as needed, rather than all upfront at the beginning.
I have taught JavaScript many ways over the last 15 years and I am truly excited to be writing about JavaScript in this way, at this time. The language and community have come so far and are doing so much!
By the end of the book you should feel comfortable, reading, writing, building and troubleshooting with this highly in demand and commonly used language.
To get the most out of the book, read the chapters, work on the practice exercises and take time playing with the projects along the way. The more you practice, the more everything will sink in.
In the projects you will get introduced to some code and concepts not covered in the chapters. This is to help push your learning further and show you how to more easily accomplish common tasks.
So, dig in and enjoy! I hope this opens new doors for you and your life!
Table of Contents for Javascript Explained
- Welcome
- Getting Setup
- Working with Simple Data
- Simple Data Exercises
- Writing Reusable Code
- Reusable Code Exercises
- Using Complex Data
- Complex Data Exercises
- The Browser API
- Browser API Exercises
- The Fetch API
- Fetch API Exercises
- A JavaScript Project
