Panel Noel Rappin (twitter github blog) Jamison Dance (twitter github blog) Charles Max Wood (twitter github Teach Me To Code Intro to CoffeeScript) AJ O’Neal (twitter github blog) Discussion 00:52 - Works in training and talent development for Groupon 00:56 - Author of Rails Test Prescriptions and upcoming Master Space and Time with JavaScript 01:21 - Writing a book about JavaScript 02:33 - Focus of the book Part 1: Jasmine and jQuery and the JavaScript Object Model Part 2: Extended examples of jQuery Part 3: Backbone Part 4: Ember 03:46 - Self-published authors 05:15 - Approaches and mindsets to learning JavaScript 06:04 - “Gotchas!” and bad features in Javascript 09:17 - Modeling JavaScript for beginners 11:23 - (AJ joins the podcast) 11:42 - Resources/Classes for learning JavaScript Good Parts Book: Douglas Crockford JavaScript Patterns: Stoyan Stefanov Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming: Marijn Haverbeke Maintainable JavaScript: Nicholas C. Zakas 13:54 - Hiring people with JavaScript experience at Groupon 15:12 - Training workshops 17:00 - Getting new hires up to speed quickly Pairing Mentoring Lectures Workshops 21:38 - Book Learning You can learn at your own pace But it’s hard to ask questions to a book 22:51 - How Noel gained expertise in JavaScript 24:38 - Code reading and learning to program a language 26:18 - Teaching people JavaScript as their very first language 31:55 - Classroom layout 33:42 - Online training Kahn Academy Computer Science Code Academy Starter League 40:00 - Finding a mentor Stack Overflow Picks Shrines by Purity Ring (Jamison) Learnable Programming: Bret Victor (Jamison) Mob Software: Richard P. Gabriel & Ron Goldman (Jamison) Monoprice.com (AJ) ZREO: Zelda Reorchestrated (AJ) The Official Twitter App (Chuck) Fluid App (Chuck) Try Jasmine! (Noel) Justin Searls (Noel) The Atrocity Archives: Charles Stross (Noel) Futurity: A Musical by The Lisps (Noel) Transcript NOEL: I’m trying to figure out where the chat is in this stupid Skype interface. JAMISON: Just imagine the worst place it could possibly be and that’s where it is. [This episode is sponsored by ComponentOne, makers of Wijmo. If you need stunning UI elements or awesome graphs and charts, then go to wijmo.com and check them out.] [Hosting and bandwidth provided by The Blue Box Group. Check them out at bluebox.net] CHUCK: Hey everybody and welcome to Episode 30 of the JavaScript Jabber show! This week on our panel we have, Jamison Dance. JAMISON: Hey guys! CHUCK: I’m Charles Max Wood from devchat.tv and this week, we have a special guest and that’s Noel Rappin! NOEL: Hey everybody! CHUCK: For the people who don’t know who you are, you want to introduce yourself, Noel? NOEL: Sure. I currently work in training and talent development for Groupon. And I am the author of previously “Rails Test Prescriptions” and currently a self-published book called “Master Time and Space with JavaScript”, which you can get at noelrappin.com. I need to spell that out, right? N-o-e-l-r-a-p-p-i-n.com CHUCK: So I’m little curious, before we get into the topic which is learning and teaching JavaScript, how did you get into writing a book about JavaScript? What’s your background there? NOEL: You know, it actually relates to teaching and learning JavaScript. I think, I was like… a lot of long time web devs. I spent my first round as a web consultant in around, turn of the century 2000’s. I spent time trying to talk clients out of JavaScript stuff because it was such a pain in the neck. And I kind of got away from it for awhile and came back a couple of years ago to realize that basically, everything had changed and they were actually usable tools now. And last summer, I was working with a… at that time,