steps involved with learning JS and ext

[piston]

It seems that most of the people in this forum know a thing or 2 about javascript and I'm sure the main coders in the project probably have degrees in the subject. For people like myself that do not have formal degrees in coding, can anyone direct me to a place that I can learn javascript to a point where I can stop hacking together examples and start writing useful code?

I've read all the tutorials, watched some videos, looked at the docs, etc but I think I'm missing a basic understanding of JS which I can't find here. I tried the online tutorials from other sites, but they are terribly boring and not really "hands on" enough for me. If anyone has any firsthand experience in learning JS by themselves, I'd really like to know. I've started watching Douglas Crockford's series (http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=111593), but even his beginner videos seem above my head. He also says most books on the subject are worthless.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

BTW - do most of you guys have formal training in JS, or just self-taught?

[brian.moeskau]

Is there such a thing as "formal training in JavaScript?"

Have you looked through any of our accumulated references? http://extjs.com/learn/Manual:Resources

Other than that, I'm not sure that there is a "holy grail" of JS reference material. I think it's mainly a matter of picking a project and diving in, making mistakes, and figuring it out. That's how I learned.

[BernardChhun]

self-taught over here as well :)

and here are some useful books on JS:
http://www.amazon.com/Pro-JavaScript-Techniques-John-Resig/dp/1590597273
http://www.amazon.com/JavaScript-Definitive-Guide-David-Flanagan/dp/0596101996/ref=pd_sim_b_1_img/105-3276953-2819652
http://www.amazon.com/ppk-JavaScript-1-e-VOICES/dp/0321423305/ref=pd_sim_b_4_img/105-3276953-2819652

[tjcrowder]

Three things:

1. Keep reading/watching Crockford, especially if you have a background in any other high-level language, and you'll learn some very good stuff.

2. The second of the links BernardChhun gave you (to "JavaScript - The Definitive Guide" by David Flanagan) is the most frequently-recommended book on JS I've ever heard of.

3. Most importantly: Get your hands dirty. Muck about with the examples and see what happens. Play. The best way to learn just about anything is by doing, and playing is a great stress-free form of "doing".

Enjoy!

[Frank]

If Ext, it's a good start right here:
Tutorial:Playing With Ext The Easy Way
http://extjs.com/learn/Tutorial:Playing_With_Ext_The_Easy_Way

[mystix]

crockford's videos + accompanying powerpoint slides are a must.
watch, rewatch, rinse, dry, repeat.

once done, muck with the Ext source + examples + firefox + firebug + mozilla developer center + google.
chew, gargle, swallow, repeat.

[piston]

yeah, i'm doind all of the above - but these examples are pretty complex - I think anyway. I've been going through the basics on echoecho.com - learning the syntax and components. Most tutorials I see don't really show you proper syntax - they just say "copy and paste this into an empty file" which anyoen can do, but when I try to actually write some stuff, I have so many syntax errors, I can't get off the ground. I was looking for a javascript tutorial that also had examples of the tutorials plus a test of some sort but didn't find any. I'll just have to keep getting my hands dirty I guess.

[SeaSharp]

If you have just been through the Crockford videos then a good starting point is the Ext tutorial titled Application Layout for Beginners. This tutorial is not about UI layout but instead provides a foundation stone for building your Ext application using the OO techniques recommended by Crockford.

Don't get too stressed by those Crockford video's I suspect experienced programmers only absorb 50% of the material on the first pass.

The other tip is to install Firebug, set break points and watch what happens in the Ext examples.