Functional JavaScript book review

Disclaimer: I got this book as part of the bloggers review program at O’Reilly.

Overview.

This book has something for every body. If you are a functional person you may learn the way of JavaScript and how to achieve most of the functional idioms with the language.

If you are a JavaScript person you will learn how to use your tool of choice in a functional way.

Even if you are familiar with JavaScript and functional programming, the book serves as a good resource to refresh and update your knowledge on both fields.

There are lots of code examples that illustrate each and every point in the book. I found myself going back to those examples as a way to internalize the most complicate or tricky concepts.

If you are new to JavaScript the first two to three chapters are going to serve as a good introduction to the language in the context of functional programming.

Regarding your JavaScript level I would recommend to at least skim over those initial chapters to make sure you don’t miss anything important.

The book is a good and deep read without being dry or boring. Michael Fogus manages to keep the interest while increasing the difficulty level across the book.

The progression feels natural and you shouldn’t have problems following along. At the end of the book you will be able to see problems in a new light where data and behaviour don’t (necessarily) need to be coupled in the concept of Object.

Conclusion

I would certainly recommend the book to all JavaScript developers out there. Thinking in a functional way when developing your next big JS project should help to create cleaner and more maintainable code.