Discussion: Secrets of the Javascript Ninja by John Resig, Parts 1 & 2

John Resig is the creator of JQuery. With his co-author Bear Bibeault, he has been working on Secrets of the Javascript Ninja for years. Anticipation is high, and we're looking forward to digging into this new perspective on Javascript mastery from someone who's approached Javascript like a true martial artist.

If you're a beginner, this book is not for you yet. It is aimed at apprentices with intermediate level JS skill-sets. As a group, we will review the building blocks of Javascript mastery: functions, closures, object-oriented Javascript, prototypes, testing, dom-scripting, and cross-browser JS development.

Rather than try to consume the entire book in one month, we thought it might be better to take it slower, so we can really take in the learnings at a steady pace. Let us know what you think.

We're asking everyone to read the first two parts of Secrets of the Javascript Ninja for the initial meeting, and come prepared to discuss what you learned and what you thought. That would take us through "Taming Threads and Timers." At that point we can all see where we are, and how we prefer to proceed.

For this month:

PART 1 PREPARING FOR TRAINING

Enter the ninja

Arming with testing and debugging

PART 2 APPRENTICE TRAINING

Functions are fundamental

Wielding functions

Closing in on closures

Object-orientation with prototypes

Wrangling regular expressions

Taming threads and timers

For later:

PART 3 NINJA TRAINING

Ninja alchemy: runtime code evaluation

With statements

Developing cross-browser strategies

Cutting through attributes, properties, and CSS

PART 4 MASTER TRAINING

Surviving events

Manipulating the DOM

CSS selector engines

Note: We've updated the date to Monday, May 6, to accommodate those who are attending Railsconf. We also added a location, and increased the number of spots available to let in more folks from the waiting list, thanks to the generous folks at Zencoder.