Pre-Request

This book assumes you have basic knowledge of client-side web development techniques. In order to follow the examples, you need to know basic HTML and CSS. You’ll learn some intermediate JavaScript programming skills too, but knowing some fundamental JS would be great.

The following is a list of online resource that you may learn yourself alongside the book examples.

HTML and CSS

Here is a list of resources if you need to get started learning HTML and CSS, the browser technology that display information and formatting styles.

• HTML and CSS book by Jon Duckett.

  This book helps you learn the most basic web design skills from scratch. The book demonstrates web design technologies with useful graphs and code examples.

• Learn to Code HTML & CSS by Shay Howe.

  Shay Howe shows the essential techniques to craft your own web page. It’s easy to follow and you’ll learn the fundamentals to get started as web designer.

• Learn CSS Layout by Bocoup.

  There are many ways to lay out content in CSS. This website provides comprehensive reference on all major layout approaches.

• Learn to Code Advanced HTML & CSS by Shay Howe.

  After you get familiar with basic HTML and CSS, you may read this resource that will take you to the next level of web design.

JavaScript

We use a lot of JavaScript in this book. All the interaction and canvas graphics are done via script. Here are several resources that worth reading.

• JavaScript and jQuery 101 by jQuery.

  The jQuery learning center contains detail guides to learn the concept of JavaScript and jQuery. It’s a good place to reference different object types. It also teaches you the jQuery concept and essential code.

• Eloquent JavaScript by Marijn Haverbeke.

  This is a must have book if you want to learn JavaScript inside out. It covers the JavaScript programming for both client-side and browser-side.

• JavaScript book by Jon Duckett.

  Jon Duckett has the ability to present programming skills in an easy-to-follow way. This JavaScript book demonstrates how JavaScript and jQuery works in beautiful and useful illustrations and charts.

• JavaScript Best Practices by Thinkful.

  JavaScript can be evil if writing it badly. JavaScript Best Practices show different tricks to write maintainable and less buggy code.

• JavaScript: The Right Way by William Oliveira.

  This is a big list of JavaScript resources containing latest practices and modern libraries.

• JavaScript: The Good Part by Douglas Crockford.

  This book shows the beauty part of JavaScript. It presents the readers how JavaScript is different than the traditional object-oriented programming languages. JavaScript has its own way to write OOP.

CoffeeScript

CoffeeScript is beauty way to write JavaScript. It provides syntax that makes writing JavaScript application much easier. We will use CoffeeScript in some examples. Please note that CoffeeScript is JavaScript. It is like shorthand of JavaScript. When we write our program, we still think in JavaScript way. So you still need to learn JavaScript well.

• Official site of CoffeeScript

  The official site contains all the syntax that we need to get started.

• JS2Coffee converter

  At the beginning of learning CoffeeScript, you may find yourself struggling between JS and Coffee. This converter is a handy tool to convert the given script between JavaScript and CoffeeScript.

• The little book of CoffeeScript

  If you prefer reading book than website, you’ll find this book useful as the reference guide to the CoffeeScript syntax.

• CoffeeScript Cookbook

  This cookbook contains lots of practical examples for your daily JS development needs.

• CoffeeScript Ristretto

  This book provides a journey of JavaScript and CoffeeScript development process. The examples in this book demonstrates how we can write code to get the job done at the first step, then fine tuning the code to make it more readable and maintainable.