Text

Readings
Current: Chap. 1, 2, 3
Next: Chap. 4

Here is a page this will give you more information about making and using objects in JavaScript. This link gives good detail on how to use the members (data fields and methods) of an object.

We are creating new objects using an approach this link calls "using object initializers"; we create an explicit object as a local variable in a function and then return that object. This is simple and easy to get right so we are using it as an introductory approach.

This link emphasizes a different (more advanced) way to make objects. It involves writing a special type of function (a constructor) that defines the members of the object, and then creating an object when you need one by using the "new" keyword. This approach is more similar to class-based languages like Java.

We will be using a free, online text this semester:

Eloquent JavaScript: A Modern Introduction to Programming by Marijn Haverbeke

If you prefer paper, or want a paper text as supplement for the online material, you can purchase a paper version of this book fairly cheaply at Amazon and elsewhere. Here is a link:

Elequent JavaScript at Amazon.com

One nice reason to use an online text is to leverage the power of the very computer we seek to learn to program.

The program examples in your text are "live", meaning they can be executed as well as read, so you can see what the code you are examining will do when a computer runs it.

In addition to running the examples, you can edit them... make changes right there on the text web page. Then you can execute the changed program and see what the changes cause to happen when the code is run by computer.

Please look through the text and become familiar with this nice aspect of it. We will examine these features in class.