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The Little Book on CoffeeScript: The JavaScript Developer's Guide to Building Better Web Apps
This concise book shows JavaScript developers how to build superb web applications with CoffeeScript, the remarkable language that’s gaining considerable interest. Through example code, this guide demonstrates how CoffeeScript abstracts JavaScript, providing syntactical sugar and preventing many common errors. You’ll learn CoffeeScript’s syntax and idioms step by step, from basic variables and functions to complex comprehensions and classes.
Written by Alex MacCaw, author of JavaScript Web Applications (O’Reilly), with contributions from CoffeeScript creator Jeremy Ashkenas, this book quickly teaches you best practices for using this language—not just on the client side, but for server-side applications as well. It’s time to take a ride with the little language that could.
Discover how CoffeeScript’s syntax differs from JavaScriptLearn about features such as array comprehensions, destructuring assignments, and classesExplore CoffeeScript idioms and compare them to their JavaScript counterpartsCompile CoffeeScript files in static sites with the Cake build systemUse CommonJS modules to structure and deploy CoffeeScript client-side applicationsExamine JavaScript’s bad parts—including features CoffeeScript was able to fix
Written by Alex MacCaw, author of JavaScript Web Applications (O’Reilly), with contributions from CoffeeScript creator Jeremy Ashkenas, this book quickly teaches you best practices for using this language—not just on the client side, but for server-side applications as well. It’s time to take a ride with the little language that could.
Discover how CoffeeScript’s syntax differs from JavaScriptLearn about features such as array comprehensions, destructuring assignments, and classesExplore CoffeeScript idioms and compare them to their JavaScript counterpartsCompile CoffeeScript files in static sites with the Cake build systemUse CommonJS modules to structure and deploy CoffeeScript client-side applicationsExamine JavaScript’s bad parts—including features CoffeeScript was able to fix
68 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2012
12 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
April 25, 2019
The littlest of the littler books I've lately looked through :-) I liked the chapters on the good parts and the idioms because they summarized some of the material covered earlier. Quick read to get up and running with the requisite knowledge for a new project at work.
August 13, 2018
Short and concise. I approve.
August 23, 2013
As a developer who loves JavaScript, I am naturally curious about CoffeeScript. Now, I may be a bit late to the game, but I had decided after hearing all that ballyhoo (both laudatory and deprecatory) for the past couple years that it was worth at least a little academic exploration. Now I'd forked the repo and tinkered with it in the REPL but no academic excursion is satisfactory without a good book.
And that's where MacCaw's Little Book on CoffeeScript comes in.
It's short (62 pages!) and gets right to the point. And MacCaw is (by and large) eloquent about the subject, if a bit... provocative at times.
So...
Loved: I wanted to learn a couple of things about CoffeeScript and MacCaw gave us exactly that, and with no ceremony. "This is CoffeeScript. Yes, this is all there is to it. And we're done."
However: there were a few statements in the book that made me bristle a bit. Example:
Hmm... I suspect that most folks would describe the leaky and dangerous global namespace JavaScript's biggest design flaw. But OK.
And there are a couple of other off-hand statements like this (e.g., about "classes" in JavaScript, about mixins) but for the most part, these are minor and do not detract from the crux of the book.
And the crux of the book is about CoffeeScript. And by the end of it, you'll know enough about that little language to form your own opinion of it. And that opinion is probably something like:
"Oh, that's pretty neat."
And that's where MacCaw's Little Book on CoffeeScript comes in.
It's short (62 pages!) and gets right to the point. And MacCaw is (by and large) eloquent about the subject, if a bit... provocative at times.
So...
Loved: I wanted to learn a couple of things about CoffeeScript and MacCaw gave us exactly that, and with no ceremony. "This is CoffeeScript. Yes, this is all there is to it. And we're done."
However: there were a few statements in the book that made me bristle a bit. Example:
The typeof operator is probably the biggest design flaw of JavaScript...
Hmm... I suspect that most folks would describe the leaky and dangerous global namespace JavaScript's biggest design flaw. But OK.
And there are a couple of other off-hand statements like this (e.g., about "classes" in JavaScript, about mixins) but for the most part, these are minor and do not detract from the crux of the book.
And the crux of the book is about CoffeeScript. And by the end of it, you'll know enough about that little language to form your own opinion of it. And that opinion is probably something like:
"Oh, that's pretty neat."
August 23, 2012
A very fast and pleasant read. Yes, most of the content can be found somewhere else, but here it's exposed in a simple manner and is very straight to the point. It doesn't feel like reading docs, nor is it a poignant guide.
The author also manages to stuff some tips, practices and caveats, while offering some simple but fairly illustrative examples.
A nice book for the commute and someone who's wondering what is coffeescript bringing to the field.
The author also manages to stuff some tips, practices and caveats, while offering some simple but fairly illustrative examples.
A nice book for the commute and someone who's wondering what is coffeescript bringing to the field.
January 16, 2015
Well written. Good introduction book on CoffeeScript.
Still I would be more happy if debates would not be solved by sentences like :
The X.Y is liked so it is good.
Should be more objective. When reasoning besides an arguments. And show points or reference another sources for pros/cons.
Still I would recommend it with an open-minded reading mindset. Just doubt when the argument is not supported at all. (Doubt everything what you read and hear and reason.)
Still I would be more happy if debates would not be solved by sentences like :
The X.Y is liked so it is good.
Should be more objective. When reasoning besides an arguments. And show points or reference another sources for pros/cons.
Still I would recommend it with an open-minded reading mindset. Just doubt when the argument is not supported at all. (Doubt everything what you read and hear and reason.)
May 14, 2012
Very basic book which makes a good desk reference. The main coffeescript.org website contains almost the exact same content. Considering it was one of, if not the, first published book dedicated to CoffeeScript - I cannot fault the author for how 'light' it is. Very much akin to other O'Reily books on 'bleeding edge' topics.
March 24, 2013
Quick and down to business overview of the language. Provides very condensed knowledge effectively, although there are places where reasoning behind language features becomes a bit sketchy. Still overall is very good reading, definitely recommended to anyone having decent understanding of JavaScript.
May 5, 2017
It is a good book. I will recommend it to read if you need to work with CoffeeScript, but I also will recommend not to put into the top priority at first because you need to try CoffeeScript on your own to understand what is described in this book. Looks more like reference one, succinct and mainly stick to the point without extra lirik, exactly what I have looked for.
July 6, 2012
Indeed a little book. Seems enough to get started and the tool chain notes were helpful, too.
November 19, 2012
Very short intro but enough to get you started
February 11, 2013
Very short introduction to CoffeeScript. Has free online version. I found introduction at coffeescript.org website better.
February 21, 2013
Nice intro to the language. Lives up to its "Little Book" moniker, by not covering much about style or anything about library, but then does it need to?
July 19, 2013
Lo terminé hace algún tiempito pero olvidé hacer el update. No tengo intenciones de usar coffeescript por el momento, pero es un libro que cualquiera con intenciones de hacerlo debe leerlo.
July 22, 2013
concise. small. good
October 3, 2014
It's little.
It's about coffeescript.
10/10 - would read again.
It's about coffeescript.
10/10 - would read again.
March 26, 2016
Read this to get up to speed with CoffeeScript. Did the trick. For the most part the writing and examples are very clear.
April 28, 2014
Concise.
June 5, 2014
short, clear and concise. just like Coffeescript :)
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews