--- product_id: 3646002 title: "Head First JavaScript Programming: A Brain-Friendly Guide" price: "€ 57.21" currency: EUR in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.pt/products/3646002-head-first-javascript-programming-a-brain-friendly-guide store_origin: PT region: Portugal --- # Head First JavaScript Programming: A Brain-Friendly Guide **Price:** € 57.21 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Head First JavaScript Programming: A Brain-Friendly Guide - **How much does it cost?** € 57.21 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.pt](https://www.desertcart.pt/products/3646002-head-first-javascript-programming-a-brain-friendly-guide) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description What will you learn from this book? This brain-friendly guide teaches you everything from JavaScript language fundamentals to advanced topics, including objects, functions, and the browserÃ??Ã?¢??s document object model. You wonÃ??Ã?¢??t just be readingÃ??Ã?¢??youÃ??Ã?¢??ll be playing games, solving puzzles, pondering mysteries, and interacting with JavaScript in ways you never imagined. And youÃ??Ã?¢??ll write real code, lots of it, so you can start building your own web applications. Prepare to open your mind as you learn (and nail) key topics including: The inner details of JavaScript How JavaScript works with the browser The secrets of JavaScript types Using arrays The power of functions How to work with objects Making use of prototypes Understanding closures Writing and testing applications WhatÃ??Ã?¢??s so special about this book? We think your time is too valuable to waste struggling with new concepts. Using the latest research in cognitive science and learning theory to craft a multi-sensory learning experience, Head First JavaScript Programming uses a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works, not a text-heavy approach that puts you to sleep. This book replaces Head First JavaScript, which is now out of print. Review: Very good for experienced programmers too (in other languages). - This book keeps you engaged, and keep you moving - even if you don't have a good reading practice of Technical books. I have read about closures in Java 8 and groovy articles, but I completely understood it only from this book. The coining of the word 'free variables' - variables which are neither local nor global, but declared in the enclosing functions is very good. The definition and explanation that - functions returned from other functions which has also free variables attached to it (in its environment), and those free variables are live variables and not a copy is a very good explanation. For experienced programmers in other languages (say 5 to 9, which I am ) , you will find this book interesting only if you write answers to the problems and have a pencil with you all the time. Else, it will be a book containing very basic programming constructs which you might know it already. but, if you write the answers, you may find that you made some mistakes and you will wonder why For experienced javascript programmers, I am not sure whether you will find it more exiciting, but certain chapters on - Objects, Prototypes, event handling will help you to keep your basics strong. Few instances are 1. In a chapter - "they build a War Ship Game", the whole code will be divided into Controller, Model and View. This is well explained and would let you think that, even a small peice of code should not hang on the JS file, but go inside a object as a method or a property. The control should start and end like this : EventHandlers triggered by windows.onload --> Controller -> Model ->View 2. The transition from each topic was very good. They described about variables and functions (global and local), and then they explained why it has to be inside a Object Literal. and later described why they have to be inside a Contructor (Object object rather than Object Literal), and then they explain why all the commonly used functions and variables should be inside a Prototype, and finally, they explained Prototypical inheritance. 3. All the hanging functions (alert, prompt etc.,,) and objects (console) are properties of window object. Also, all the user defined global variables and functions would be attached to the window object 4. Also, by default "this" would be pointing to window object. Whenever you call a function on a Object Literal or object, the "this" will point to that object instance(that is why you refer the variable with this inside a member method). also, whenever you can a constructor with new, an object will be created, and "this" will point to that object inside the constructor. 5. Also, when a instance is returned by the constuctor, a Constructor.prototype object (an empty object) will be also be attached the object instance. this will help you to understand prototypical inheritance a lot better in the later chapter. 6. Math is an Javascript supplied object. Date, RegExp are constructors. That is why you would always write Math.random(), and new Date(), new RegExp(/^\d{3}-?\d{4}/). This book is NOT for javasript programmers who are very good in their basics. I cant comment on this a lot, because I just now started to work on my first javascript project, but aspiring to be a good one by end of this year. For aspiring programmers (who were never programmers), I think, this is a very good book to start your career. Review: Highly recommended as first learning resource for JavaScript programming - For the last two years, I have been struggling with learning to code. This was due to a mix of having a busy schedule that hasn't always been conducive to learning code in my spare time, along with having cobbled together a number of tutorials online and never coming out of any of them feeling like I truly understood the concepts. I had ignored this book for a while now despite seeing it recommended now and again. It seemed juvenile in its approach. Instead I attempted to jump straight into more advanced books, always having to stop reading them after a few chapters because concepts weren't sinking in. Finally, after putting down code for half a year and realizing I'd forgotten nearly everything, I decided to pick up this book. I honestly wish I had purchased this two years ago. This book does a wonderful job at explaining concepts as simple as how to assign a variable and as advanced as closures and object prototypes. The conversational approach to this book means that when you're first starting out, you don't have to waste time attempting to interpret an extremely technical explanation of concepts, as I found with this book I understood almost straight away in most cases. The book's difficulty level does ramp up around the time the Battleship game is built in chapter 8. (By the way, this chapter does a great job of introducing MVCs without actually having you use one that's pre-built.) Therefore I would even recommend this book to intermediate learners if they have had trouble truly understanding advanced object construction, closures, how to use prototypes - essentially everything chapter 8 onward. The exercises in this book also give good practice to solidify what you're learning. What this book doesn't cover, or only lightly touches upon: (1) Writing complex algorithms. The book's focus is on getting a good understanding of concepts, not on working through challenges that require much algorithmic thinking. (Unless you want to build Battleship on your own in chapter 8.) A supplemental resource would be necessary for this. (2) Any JavaScript library or framework, including jQuery. There are 2 pages that touch upon jQuery at the very end of the book. This is a good thing. Too many resources online have you learning jQuery without understanding vanilla JavaScript. (3) Making API calls. (4) Promises (5) Anything else that is seen in chapter 14 ("Top 10 Topics We Didn't Cover"). Overall I strongly recommend this book. Like any resource, it should not be the only thing you use to teach yourself to code. However, it is a great starting resource for beginners as well as a supplemental resource for anyone who has the basics down but needs to clarify some of the more complex concepts later in the book. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #1,002,367 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #182 in JavaScript Programming (Books) #1,406 in Software Development (Books) #1,619 in Computer Programming Languages | | Customer Reviews | 4.6 out of 5 stars 967 Reviews | ## Images ![Head First JavaScript Programming: A Brain-Friendly Guide - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91vuSBT14BL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very good for experienced programmers too (in other languages). *by P***N on January 17, 2015* This book keeps you engaged, and keep you moving - even if you don't have a good reading practice of Technical books. I have read about closures in Java 8 and groovy articles, but I completely understood it only from this book. The coining of the word 'free variables' - variables which are neither local nor global, but declared in the enclosing functions is very good. The definition and explanation that - functions returned from other functions which has also free variables attached to it (in its environment), and those free variables are live variables and not a copy is a very good explanation. For experienced programmers in other languages (say 5 to 9, which I am ) , you will find this book interesting only if you write answers to the problems and have a pencil with you all the time. Else, it will be a book containing very basic programming constructs which you might know it already. but, if you write the answers, you may find that you made some mistakes and you will wonder why For experienced javascript programmers, I am not sure whether you will find it more exiciting, but certain chapters on - Objects, Prototypes, event handling will help you to keep your basics strong. Few instances are 1. In a chapter - "they build a War Ship Game", the whole code will be divided into Controller, Model and View. This is well explained and would let you think that, even a small peice of code should not hang on the JS file, but go inside a object as a method or a property. The control should start and end like this : EventHandlers triggered by windows.onload --> Controller -> Model ->View 2. The transition from each topic was very good. They described about variables and functions (global and local), and then they explained why it has to be inside a Object Literal. and later described why they have to be inside a Contructor (Object object rather than Object Literal), and then they explain why all the commonly used functions and variables should be inside a Prototype, and finally, they explained Prototypical inheritance. 3. All the hanging functions (alert, prompt etc.,,) and objects (console) are properties of window object. Also, all the user defined global variables and functions would be attached to the window object 4. Also, by default "this" would be pointing to window object. Whenever you call a function on a Object Literal or object, the "this" will point to that object instance(that is why you refer the variable with this inside a member method). also, whenever you can a constructor with new, an object will be created, and "this" will point to that object inside the constructor. 5. Also, when a instance is returned by the constuctor, a Constructor.prototype object (an empty object) will be also be attached the object instance. this will help you to understand prototypical inheritance a lot better in the later chapter. 6. Math is an Javascript supplied object. Date, RegExp are constructors. That is why you would always write Math.random(), and new Date(), new RegExp(/^\d{3}-?\d{4}/). This book is NOT for javasript programmers who are very good in their basics. I cant comment on this a lot, because I just now started to work on my first javascript project, but aspiring to be a good one by end of this year. For aspiring programmers (who were never programmers), I think, this is a very good book to start your career. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Highly recommended as first learning resource for JavaScript programming *by A***R on October 25, 2017* For the last two years, I have been struggling with learning to code. This was due to a mix of having a busy schedule that hasn't always been conducive to learning code in my spare time, along with having cobbled together a number of tutorials online and never coming out of any of them feeling like I truly understood the concepts. I had ignored this book for a while now despite seeing it recommended now and again. It seemed juvenile in its approach. Instead I attempted to jump straight into more advanced books, always having to stop reading them after a few chapters because concepts weren't sinking in. Finally, after putting down code for half a year and realizing I'd forgotten nearly everything, I decided to pick up this book. I honestly wish I had purchased this two years ago. This book does a wonderful job at explaining concepts as simple as how to assign a variable and as advanced as closures and object prototypes. The conversational approach to this book means that when you're first starting out, you don't have to waste time attempting to interpret an extremely technical explanation of concepts, as I found with this book I understood almost straight away in most cases. The book's difficulty level does ramp up around the time the Battleship game is built in chapter 8. (By the way, this chapter does a great job of introducing MVCs without actually having you use one that's pre-built.) Therefore I would even recommend this book to intermediate learners if they have had trouble truly understanding advanced object construction, closures, how to use prototypes - essentially everything chapter 8 onward. The exercises in this book also give good practice to solidify what you're learning. What this book doesn't cover, or only lightly touches upon: (1) Writing complex algorithms. The book's focus is on getting a good understanding of concepts, not on working through challenges that require much algorithmic thinking. (Unless you want to build Battleship on your own in chapter 8.) A supplemental resource would be necessary for this. (2) Any JavaScript library or framework, including jQuery. There are 2 pages that touch upon jQuery at the very end of the book. This is a good thing. Too many resources online have you learning jQuery without understanding vanilla JavaScript. (3) Making API calls. (4) Promises (5) Anything else that is seen in chapter 14 ("Top 10 Topics We Didn't Cover"). Overall I strongly recommend this book. Like any resource, it should not be the only thing you use to teach yourself to code. However, it is a great starting resource for beginners as well as a supplemental resource for anyone who has the basics down but needs to clarify some of the more complex concepts later in the book. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Enlightening *by K***. on January 24, 2015* Is it strange to say that a Javascript book has a great ending? Well, this one did. I'm not one of the people who was asked to do a review. I just bought a hardcopy and actually read every word on every page for my own use - just a regular web developer looking to deepen my understanding. My skill level: I've been studying Javascript for a couple of years and have used it a lot at my new job in the last 6 months. Sometimes I inherit projects that have pre-existing Javascript that is sometimes pretty complex. We also use some frameworks and libraries like jQuery, Express, nodeJS, and AngularJS. So, I got this book to understand all those things better. About the Book: The book itself is steady and clear with a variety of projects and written in a friendly tone. It starts from zero, so if you know nothing, you're in the right place. If, like me, you've been working in it and have wondered what some of the parts do at a fundamental level but haven't had a chance to get to the bottom of it, this book will probably cover it. Even though it covers the basic stuff, it also gets into advanced topics. In fact, the last three chapters are worth the cost of the book alone. The chapter on prototypal inheritance upped my game in one evening. No kidding. My Experience with the Book: It's over 600 pages but flows pretty quickly considering the topic. If like me, you've been working with Javascript, you might find the first 400 pages or so to be a refresher and zoom through. After about pg. 400, I started running into more bits of info and concepts that really clarified some things. That's where I really started getting grateful that they'd done all this hard work. As I went through this book, I was also going through the 12 hour series "Crockford on Javascript" at the same time. He gets pretty in depth in some of it and on a spooky number of occasions I'd just learned a concept the night before in this book that Crockford would then discuss. Much to my delight I understood everything he went into where I know I would have missed things had I not had this book in my back pocket. My Full Assessment: Just get the book. It's great - every page. Work your way through it and then watch the 'Crockford on Javascript' series (free on YouTube) and you'll prove to yourself just how cool you are. Then go get that dev job. They don't use dollar signs in programming languages for nothing. :) ## Frequently Bought Together - Head First JavaScript Programming: A Brain-Friendly Guide - Head First HTML5 Programming: Building Web Apps with JavaScript --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.pt/products/3646002-head-first-javascript-programming-a-brain-friendly-guide](https://www.desertcart.pt/products/3646002-head-first-javascript-programming-a-brain-friendly-guide) --- *Product available on Desertcart Portugal* *Store origin: PT* *Last updated: 2026-10-06*