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Crockford on JavaScript - Volume 1: The Early Years

YUI Library

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  • Recommended by 10 people: 10 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2013 to 2022.
  • Presented by Douglas Crockford

Beginner. No background in the topic needed.

252K views15 years ago10 recommendations

Programming languagesHistory and cultureJavaScriptLanguage design and type systemsHistory of computing

Douglas Crockford traces the historical roots of programming languages and paradigms that influenced the design and structure of JavaScript.

Douglas Crockford puts the JavaScript programming language in its proper historical context, tracing the language's structure and conventions (and some of its quirks) back to their roots in the early decades of computer science.

Why it's here

10 people recommend this

What people say. Highly recommended as an engaging and informative history of programming languages leading up to JavaScript.

Dogamondoon Hacker News • Recommends

On “A Brief And Mostly Wrong History Of Programming Languages”

For a more accurate, informative and very digestible history of the evolution of programming languages, I urge you to watch this. It really is worth it! link to this video
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napsterbron Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: What's the best technical talk you've heard?”

Hard to say if it's the best, but Crockford series on javascript is just awesome. I highly recommend it. link to this video (Browse the related videos to see the others)
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kornakiewiczon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: How to learn about the history of computing?”

The Crockford's lecture about history of web-development (starting far before first computing machines and ending on javascript) is definitely must-watch. It's not so detailed because it's not a book, but gives a good overview. link to this video
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gravypodon Hacker News • Recommends

On “One Click to Be Pro: my list of the best resources for mastering a subject”

I'd strongly recommend putting this link in there: link to this video David, if you see this, I'd like to thank you for these talks as they have reshaped the way I think about software development. I've got more from these then my classes at college have given me do far.
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jliechti1on Hacker News • Recommends

On “JavaScript Isn't Scheme”

Part 1 of Douglas Crockford's On JavaScript gives a really nice history of the many programming languages leading up to JavaScript. Chapter 1: The Early Years : link to this video Chapter 2: And Then There Was JavaScript: link
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rtpgon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Prototypes Are Not Classes”

This sort of realization is the first step to realizing that you really shouldn't be writing javascript like java/C++. It makes things feel a lot nicer when you start really thinking in JS. I'd recommend checking out Crockford's "Crockford on Javascript" series for some good intro on thinking about Javascript ( link to this video ). Section 3 is where you really start talking about JS. For a good counter-example, check out a lot of google's JS libs (in all their giant module goodness).
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johnhenryon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: Good JavaScript introductions for experienced programmers?”

Here's a really good introduction to inheritance: link -- a lot of people struggle unless they have a good understanding of how this works. Also, Douglass Crockford (the person who wrote "JavaScript: The Good Parts") has a number of videos that are very useful. Here's the first in a series of eight: link to this video -- and if you find that useful, you can check out the rest in the list of related videos.
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ggurgoneon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: What's the best path for learning JavaScript for web development?”

Forget about Bootstrap and jQuery, learn vanilla js. Reading Eloquent JavaScript is a good starting point. Once you are done with that, build something and join #javascript @ FreenodeIRC and ask for help when you get stuck on something. The good parts is nice but keep in mind that it is very opinionated, still it is worth reading. There are some lectures by Crockford on youtube too (tl;dr) link to this video Also this on OOP link Finally you may want to familiarize with the most common JavaScript design patterns (some are not unique to js) link
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arsalanbon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: Resources for catching up on modern JavaScript for Python/C++ Programmer”

I'm in the same position as you. I realised I was still writing spaghetti code that relied heavily on DOM manipulation with Jquery. I am currently learning how the language has evolved and the following has been helpful — 1. link 2. link to this video (videos, watch all of them) 3. link 4. link Hope this helps :)
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kornakiewiczon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: What is your favourite tech talk?”

I didn't watch the whole serie yet, but the first two are pretty solid and still fun. The first part doest not cover JS at all, but is rather a brief history of computing. Crockford on JavaScript - Volume 1: The Early Years link to this video
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valwon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Rise of Kotlin: A Programming Language for the Next Generation”

The innovation dynamics in the software industry are (have been) really different than in these fields IMHO. But there are some similar historical precedents. Fourier's work was rejected in his time because Lagrange wouldn't adopt his approach to mathematics. This video is a great retrospective on the evolution and adoption of programming languages / paradigms: link to this video
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gravypodon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Ask HN: Best way to learn about computing history?”

A great summary, from someone who was influential in web technologies, can be found in this series "Crockford on JavaScript": link to this video (context: link )
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kachhalimbuon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Difference between JavaScript and Java?”

or if you prefer watching instead of reading, watch Douglas Crocford talk about JavaScript early years in this talk link to this video
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plumaon Hacker News • Mentions

On ““Swift will be open source later this year””

…en as far as familiarity goes, the only thing Swift looks familiar to (based on first impressions) is Ruby, except it uses a more familiar C-like syntax (i.e. braces). While Ruby programmers are extremely visible (especially in startup/valley crowds) there aren't that many of them -- not to mention that some have already moved on to Rust or JS. 0: link to this video…
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gravypodon Hacker News • Mentions

On “Why Java Sucks – Jonathan Gardner”

> Yet again, they admitted an important feature was missing. Again, I am not familiar with Java 8 but I suspect their implementation is horribly wrong. Admitting something is broken does not mean it sucks. See this comment: link Also, please read this before you wave it off: link > I have. I guess I have just logged more time in Java than others. Java is probably my most used language and that's saying something as I work as a TA for a Python class, use python for most personal projects, and also use many other languages. Java consumes the most time because it has the most polished toolings and standards for developers. Now they may not always be ovserved but if you stay in your own wall…
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gravypodon Hacker News • Mentions

On “A college student’s individual analysis of productivity of four years (2016)”

> why should a protocl like telnet be relevant today A lot of software uses "telnet" as in TCP sockets with \r\n and ASCII encoding. That's all telnet is and that's how a lot of data is shifted around all the time. > To learn from its mistakes? Telnet wasn't a mistake. It was an obvious step from terminals via RS232 to terminals via TCP. Also, telnet is everywhere. If you went into research and someone said "just hook into the telnet stream for $SENSOR" and you said "What's telnet" that wouldn't end well. > No, that's why you take design classes that you seem to dislike. No one in their right minds would call telnet, sending text over TCP, a bad design. It's a bad design for some things, but…
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