Author: Christian Johansen
Publisher: Addison Wesley, 2010
Pages: 600
ISBN: 978-0321683915
Aimed at: Intermediate Javascript developers
Rating: 4.5
Pros: Good explanations of advanced topics
Cons: Assumes a lot of prior knowledge
Reviewed by: Ian Elliot

Covers a range of advanced Javascript topics, often abandoning the topic of testing.

Author: Christian Johansen
Publisher: Addison Wesley, 2010
Pages: 600
ISBN: 978-0321683915
Aimed at: Intermediate Javascript developers
Rating: 4.5
Pros: Good explanations of advanced topics
Cons: Assumes a lot of prior knowledge
Reviewed by: Ian Elliot

The only problem with this book is that it isn't really focused on Test-Driven Javascript Development.  It ranges over topics that could be classified as "advanced Javascript". This isn't necessarily a bad thing and I have to say that I enjoyed reading this book.

It starts off looking at automated testing and test-driven development and the whole of Part I - 69 pages is more or less a mini-book on the topic. It does a good job of selling the idea of test driven development but at the end of the day it doesn't really give you the information you need to implement the idea. It doesn't explain or recommend a single way to do the job. At the end you might be left wishing you could implement test driven development but not really having a clear idea how to go about it.

Part II of the book more or less forgets test driven development and goes into the details of Javascript from a programmer's point of view. Here we are introduced to all of the advanced ideas and some of the strange ways that Javascript has of doing things - functions, closure, this, context, prototypal inheritance and so on. At over 150 pages this is a large chunk of the book and dwarfs the section introducing testing.

Part III returns to test driven development with a look at real world issues. Topics covered include the observer pattern, coping with browser differences, Comet, Node.js and TDD and the DOM. This is all really interesting material but you don't feel that it is focused on testing. Part IV does rather better in this respect as it is on testing patterns - mocking and stubbing - and writing good unit tests.

At the end of the book I felt I'd learned a lot about Javascript and a little about the testing approach to building programs. However I didn't feel that I was on top of the TDD approach and would probably need another book or some additional help. There were also points in the book where a little too much was taken for granted. Some of the examples aren't easy to work out especially if you are a beginner. However overall this is a really good book on Javascript that you can return to often. Highly recommended.