Eloquent JavaScript
second edition

This is a book about JavaScript, programming, and the wonders of the digital. You can read it online here, or get your own paperback copy of the book.

Cover image

Written by Marijn Haverbeke.

Licensed under a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial license. All code in this book may also be considered licensed under an MIT license.

Illustrations by various artists: Cover by Wasif Hyder. Computer (introduction) and unicycle people (Chapter 21) by Max Xiantu. Sea of bits (Chapter 1) and weresquirrel (Chapter 4) by Margarita Martínez and José Menor. Octopuses (Chapter 2 and 4) by Jim Tierney. Object with on/off switch (Chapter 6) by Dyle MacGregor. Regular expression diagrams in Chapter 9 generated with regexper.com by Jeff Avallone. Game concept for Chapter 15 by Thomas Palef. Pixel art in Chapter 16 by Antonio Perdomo Pastor.

The second edition was made possible by 454 financial backers, with significant contributions from , , and .

Contents

  1. Introduction

  2. (Part 1: Language)

    Values, Types, and Operators
  3. Program Structure
  4. Functions
  5. Data Structures: Objects and Arrays
  6. Higher-order Functions
  7. The Secret Life of Objects
  8. Project: Electronic Life
  9. Bugs and Error Handling
  10. Regular Expressions
  11. Modules
  12. Project: A Programming Language

  13. (Part 2: Browser)

    JavaScript and the Browser
  14. The Document Object Model
  15. Handling Events
  16. Project: A Platform Game
  17. Drawing on Canvas
  18. HTTP
  19. Forms and Form Fields
  20. Project: A Paint Program

  21. (Part 3: Node)

    Node.js
  22. Project: Skill-Sharing Website

Other pages

A paper version of Eloquent JavaScript, including a bonus chapter, is being brought out by No Starch Press. They also sell an ebook version more polished than the files linked below.

Translations