Skip to Content
Beautiful JavaScript
book

Beautiful JavaScript

by Anton Kovalyov
August 2015
Intermediate to advanced
168 pages
3h 44m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Beautiful JavaScript

CHAPTER SIX

One World, One Language

There sure are a lot of languages.

Jenn Schiffer

It was September 2003 when I began my undergraduate studies in computer science. Having chosen a liberal arts school, I was required to select a number of general education course requirements that lived outside the realm of my major. One of those requirements was two foreign language courses. When I inquired about using Java to fulfill that sequence, my request was immediately shut down. “You have to pick a real foreign language, like Spanish or French,” my undergraduate advisor told me.

Perhaps I should have asked about JavaScript.

To be multilingual, or a polyglot, has always been presented as superior to being able to speak one’s native language only. I have never understood why people believe this. Living under one roof, having one job for an extended amount of time, and being in a long-term monogamous relationship: these are seen as qualities of a stable life. Being an expert in a single subject, as opposed to knowing a little bit about a lot, is championed. So should be the case with programming.

JavaScript is a single, stable language that is powerful enough to build the World Wide Web, make robots move, and convince publishers to print entire books about it. If we were required to pick a single “best” programming language, JavaScript seems like a no-brainer.

It is understandably controversial to say that a specific language is better than the rest and that it should, therefore, ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Rediscovering JavaScript

Rediscovering JavaScript

Venkat Subramaniam
JavaScript

JavaScript

T. J. Crowder

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781449371142Errata Page