When comparing Professional JavaScript for Web Developers, 3rd Edition vs edX, the Slant community recommends edX for most people. In the question“What are the best resources to learn JavaScript?” edX is ranked 15th while Professional JavaScript for Web Developers, 3rd Edition is ranked 18th. The most important reason people chose edX is:
Both edX and the classes are free.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Best book to learn Javascript
Without any hesitation, this is the best book on Javascript with clear-cut and in-depth explanation and coverage. It will make you a top-notch JavaScript developer if you use it properly. Just be patient and you will end up with total understanding. Then you will find yourself as a js programmer. Covers everything that you might need to know about JavaScript.
Pro Explains what makes JS confusing and how to go about it
JS can be a confusing language especially for people coming in from other C-based languages. It often provides difficulty writing good code that uses objects and methods. The book explains why that is and how to think about the language to avoid confusion.
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 Material can be too dense for some
This is not a good starting place for those who can't absorb dense material. It evolves from basic to advanced concepts, but you have to want to stick with it and pay attention.
Con The book requires knowledge of general programming concepts
If your programming experience is currently limited to only HTML and CSS, this book will likely be too advanced to follow. It's great for someone with programming experience in another language who's looking to learn JavaScript. Beginners will have to be willing to simultaneously pick up general programming concepts (like data types, variables).
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.