JavaScript Allongé

What readers are saying

“I think it’s one of the best tech books I’ve read since Sedgewick’s Algorithms in C.” Andrey Sidorov

“Your explanation of closures in JavaScript Allongé is the best I’ve read.” Emehrkay

“It’s a different approach to JavaScript than you’ll find in most other places and shines a light on some of the more elegant parts of JavaScript the language.” @jeremymorrell

And listen to the JavaScript Jabber Book Club Podcast about JavaScript Allongé!

Why they’re saying it:
JavaScript Allongé solves two important problems for the ambitious JavaScript programmer. First, JavaScript Allongé gives you the tools to deal with JavaScript bugs, hitches, edge cases, and other potential pitfalls.

There are plenty of good directions for how to write JavaScript programs. If you follow them without alteration or deviation, you will be satisfied. Unfortunately, software is a complex thing, full of interactions and side-effects. Two perfectly reasonable pieces of advice when taken separately may conflict with each other when taken together. An approach may seem sound at the outset of a project, but need to be revised when new requirements are discovered.

When you “leave the path” of the directions, you discover their limitations. In order to solve the problems that occur at the edges, in order to adapt and deal with changes, in order to refactor and rewrite as needed, you need to understand the underlying principles of the JavaScript programming language in detail.

“This book is awesome and blowing my mind in a great way.” Johnathan Mukai

You need to understand why the directions work so that you can understand how to modify them to work properly at or beyond their original limitations. That’s where JavaScript Allongé comes in.

JavaScript Allongé is a book about programming with functions, because JavaScript is a programming language built on flexible and powerful functions. JavaScript Allongé begins at the beginning, with values and expressions, and builds from there to discuss types, identity, functions, closures, scopes, and many more subjects up to working with classes and instances. In each case, JavaScript Allongé takes care to explain exactly how things work so that when you encounter a problem, you’ll know exactly what is happening and how to fix it.

“Enjoying Javascript Allonge… I think it’s the best discussion of functional programming in js I’ve found so far.” Nicholas Faiz

Second, JavaScript Allongé provides recipes for using functions to write software that is simpler, cleaner, and less complicated than alternative approaches that are object-centric or code-centric. JavaScript idioms like function combinators and decorators leverage JavaScript’s power to make code easier to read, modify, debug and refactor, thus avoiding problems before they happen.

JavaScript Allongé teaches you how to handle complex code, and it also teaches you how to simplify code without dumbing it down. As a result, JavaScript Allongé is a rich read releasing many of JavaScript’s subtleties, much like the Café Allongé beloved by coffee enthusiasts everywhere.

“Reading JavaScript Allongé by @raganwald. This book is so good that it’s blowing my mind.” Guillermo Pascual

Table of Contents

Chapter 1. The first sip: Basic Functions
Chapter 2. The Recipe Cheat Sheet
Chapter 3. Recipes with Basic Functions
Chapter 4. The Pause That Refreshes: Rebinding and References
Chapter 5. Recipes with Rebinding and References
Chapter 6. Stir the Allongé: Objects, Mutation, and State
Chapter 7. Recipes with Objects, Mutations, and State
Chapter 8. Finish the Cup: Instances and Classes
Chapter 9. Recipes with Instances and Classes
Chapter 10. Sequence
Chapter 11. New Ideas
Chapter 12. Recipes for New Ideas