When comparing JavaScript: The Good Parts vs edX, the Slant community recommends JavaScript: The Good Parts for most people. In the question“What are the best resources to learn JavaScript?” JavaScript: The Good Parts is ranked 6th while edX is ranked 15th. The most important reason people chose JavaScript: The Good Parts is:
JS can be a confusing language and often provides difficulty writing good code that uses objects and methods. Crockford explains why that is and how to think about the language to avoid confusion.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Explains what makes JS confusing and how to go about it
JS can be a confusing language and often provides difficulty writing good code that uses objects and methods. Crockford explains why that is and how to think about the language to avoid confusion.
Pro Good for intermediate programmers
The book requires basic understating of how programming works and even some understanding of JavaScript itself.
Pro Free
Both edX and the classes are free.
Pro Offers courses from well known schools
edX offers courses from a wide range of well known colleges and universities including Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley, Cornell and more.
Pro Large selection of science courses
edX offers a wide variety of science-related courses. This makes it a great resource for learning not only specific programming languages, but also other topics relating to computer science.
Pro A lot of topics (subjects)
Topics include biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, finance, electronics, engineering, food and nutrition, history, humanities, law, literature, math, medicine, music, philosophy, physics, science, statistics and more.
Pro Offer certificates for some courses
Cons
Con Lack of consistency
Where some parts of the book cover very basic concepts, other parts expect at least an intermediate understanding on JavaScript. There is a lack of consistency, causing some confusion as to who the book is aimed at.
Con Lack of engagement in the forums
edX does not have the same forum participation from both students and instructors that other websites do, and the form of engagement often does not encourage discussion.
Con Courses aren't always available
While edX does offer some self-paced courses, you may end up waiting for the course of your choice to be run.
Con The forums are difficult to navigate
The forums are difficult to sort by date and topic, and are unintuitive to navigate.