I wrote "quietly" released in my original HN title (since edited by mods) because Resig neither made a blog post nor even tweeted about its availability, which seemed very odd to me, especially for something 4 years in the works.
Sorry for the delay in announcing it - I was waiting for the book to physically arrive in my hands, which it hasn't done so, yet. (I have a copy pre-ordered with Amazon and since that's the way most people will be receiving the acquiring the book, I imagine, I wanted to make sure it was actually, physically, being distributed before I announced it.)
I plan on writing up a full blog post once I have my copy of the book.
This blog post is worth reading. In it he apologizes for the book taking so long and expresses some regret for taking on the project in the first place:
"Ironically working on the book (or not working on it, however you look at it) actually compelled me to NOT blog more as every time I wanted to write a technical blog post I was forcing myself to make the decision “I’m writing about 1000 words on a technical matter, shouldn’t this just be going towards my uncompleted book?” and would just end up writing nothing as a result."
Considering the date, it seems as if it might've been pushed out the door to satisfy contractual obligations.
I'm not sure just how relevant it will be, now that the JS ecosystem has exploded -- seriously, 4 years is _eons_ in the JS world, I think the Jaxer server was still the new tech and NodeJS wasn't even heard of at the time -- and there are 10x's as many JS devs now than there was in 2008 (not to mention that the average competency seems to have greatly improved as well). And I could be wrong, but I think he's mostly disconnected from jQuery itself now, too; I'm clumsy with git/github, but I can't even find his last commit to jQuery, and I know that all of the blog posts on jQuery.com have long since been done by other team members. While he's a really talented dev, his name is pretty rare when it comes to JS news and topics these days.
I definitely agree that there are a ton more JavaScript users now, compared to 4 years ago - I disagree that they're more competent, it's a pretty massive bell curve. The tech bubble can be pretty insular here at Hacker News but I still run across TONS of people who've never 1) Used any JavaScript whatsoever or 2) Have used a JavaScript library but have no concept of how it relates to JavaScript, the DOM, or what the library does under the hood. The book attempts to serve #2 primarily and that's still a MASSIVE audience.
As to being involved in the JavaScript world, my focus has shifted - I'm no longer trying to build tools for people who already have tools, I'm trying to teach the next generation of developers and JavaScript users:
http://ejohn.org/blog/introducing-khan-cs/
I also feel extremely confident that the technical work that I've done with the Khan Academy CS platform continues to be unlike anything else done by other development platforms.
I bought the MEAP a long time ago (allows you to read chapters as they are released...before edit), and I've casually read along. At the time, JS was not a strong language for me; I've put in the effort to reverse that. The main approach (which I liked): a) explain a topic in text b) illustrate with code c) test code => QED. If you're novice/intermediate with the language, I think it may help explain some of the trickier things. My main critique was that I did find some of the text overly verbose. My favorite book is still Stoyan Stefanov's http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Patterns-Stoyan-Stefanov/dp... and I've read nearly all of them at this point.
I preordered it and am supposed to receive it wednesday. I'm excited to go through it. Note that you can get the ebook through the publisher if you buy the print version on Amazon.
I pre-ordered this book when it was first announced. At the time I was a JS novice and now I'm quite accomplished. Hoping there's still something useful to get out of it.
I've grown so dependent on Kindle that if I don't find a book on there I never bought it. I've waited years for the release, I'll wait a bit more for the kindle version.
It's a shame that the price is so onerously high. I find that this is a common trend among technical books: they are often made inaccessible by their prices. Even if a small subset of the market is willing to shell out, such high prices probably alienate those that would most benefit from these books: novice programmers.
The fact that writers can and will sell to a niche audience willing to part with a lot of money ultimately leads to a field sparsely populated with accessible topic literature...
Like so many others, back in 2008 when I bought the MEAP all I really knew was alert("Hello!"); and associating onclicks inline to DOM elements.
It's a good read though, and now that it's finally released, I'll take a look at it again.
The JS ecosystem has changed a lot though, but this book, if I remember it correctly, explains a lot of the rationale of why it's good to program JS a certain way.
Books whose titles contain elements of the set "secret", "ninja", "rock star", "days", "master", "dummies", or ones that have a number in the title (2012, 24, etc) really put me off. I know I shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but these titles are really hard for me to take seriously.
Did we ever come to a decision what's better, the "Ruby Rockstar" or the "Javascript Ninja"? One has the alliterative benefit, the other might have Real Ultimate Power.
Side Note: It's now 2013 and we're still doing that.
[+] [-] simonsarris|13 years ago|reply
He did write a bit about the status of the book back in July, if anyone is interested: http://ejohn.org/blog/secret-omens/
edit: John just tweeted: https://twitter.com/jeresig/status/285858421029347328
[+] [-] jeresig|13 years ago|reply
I plan on writing up a full blog post once I have my copy of the book.
[+] [-] helper|13 years ago|reply
"Ironically working on the book (or not working on it, however you look at it) actually compelled me to NOT blog more as every time I wanted to write a technical blog post I was forcing myself to make the decision “I’m writing about 1000 words on a technical matter, shouldn’t this just be going towards my uncompleted book?” and would just end up writing nothing as a result."
[+] [-] wmf|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] johnward|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] k3n|13 years ago|reply
I'm not sure just how relevant it will be, now that the JS ecosystem has exploded -- seriously, 4 years is _eons_ in the JS world, I think the Jaxer server was still the new tech and NodeJS wasn't even heard of at the time -- and there are 10x's as many JS devs now than there was in 2008 (not to mention that the average competency seems to have greatly improved as well). And I could be wrong, but I think he's mostly disconnected from jQuery itself now, too; I'm clumsy with git/github, but I can't even find his last commit to jQuery, and I know that all of the blog posts on jQuery.com have long since been done by other team members. While he's a really talented dev, his name is pretty rare when it comes to JS news and topics these days.
[+] [-] jeresig|13 years ago|reply
As to being involved in the JavaScript world, my focus has shifted - I'm no longer trying to build tools for people who already have tools, I'm trying to teach the next generation of developers and JavaScript users: http://ejohn.org/blog/introducing-khan-cs/
I also feel extremely confident that the technical work that I've done with the Khan Academy CS platform continues to be unlike anything else done by other development platforms.
[+] [-] mcantelon|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] waffle_ss|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jeresig|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] daviddaviddavid|13 years ago|reply
"Clothing used was similar to that of the samurai, but loose garments (such as leggings) were tucked into trousers or secured with belts."
[+] [-] MartinCron|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beatak|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zenocon|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] softbuilder|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] niels|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] walls|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ben336|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fruchtose|13 years ago|reply
You can order it through them rather than Amazon to get the eBook directly.
[+] [-] bstar77|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pablasso|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jaddison|13 years ago|reply
I wish authors would produce for various platforms, rather than targeting just one, even if it is the de facto market leader.
Edit: of course after I posted this, I see that it is available in PDF format from Manning's site: http://www.manning.com/resig/
[+] [-] nhebb|13 years ago|reply
Ouch! For John's sake I hope Amazon gets the category corrected.
[+] [-] aristus|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dudus|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] philfreo|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ben336|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ruswick|13 years ago|reply
The fact that writers can and will sell to a niche audience willing to part with a lot of money ultimately leads to a field sparsely populated with accessible topic literature...
[+] [-] drchiu|13 years ago|reply
It's a good read though, and now that it's finally released, I'll take a look at it again.
The JS ecosystem has changed a lot though, but this book, if I remember it correctly, explains a lot of the rationale of why it's good to program JS a certain way.
[+] [-] softbuilder|13 years ago|reply
I guess I've been spoiled by the grace of the past 10-15 years of technical book buying, but that is insane.
[+] [-] gcr|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ruswick|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brador|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mhd|13 years ago|reply
Side Note: It's now 2013 and we're still doing that.
[+] [-] CamperBob2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bla2|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ck2|13 years ago|reply
Congrats on finishing it. Book writing is hard.