Yahoo Tech Talk: The JavaScript Programming Language

Douglas Crockford, Yahoo!’s JavaScript Architect, gives a great introduction to “the world’s most misunderstood programming language.”

It’s a four part-er so I’ve included the links for your benefit rather than a mass embedding of the videos:
The JavaScript Programming Language (1 of 4)
The JavaScript Programming Language (2 of 4)
The JavaScript Programming Language (3 of 4)
The JavaScript Programming Language (4 of 4)
Presenation slides (Warning: ZIP link)

I highly recommend you watch it all. There is much in the way of background explaining just why features of JavaScript ended up the way they are, and a lot more to help Java veterans like myself create a proper mental model for JavaScript development.

Doug has also presented “Theory of the DOM” and “Advanced JavaScript” neither of which I have had the chance to take in yet. You can check them all out on Yahoo! Video.

Side note: I don’t like Yahoo! Video nearly as much as its competitors. The base player stalled out on me and wouldn’t let me advance to my previous place in the video when I restarted. I suspect it’s linearly buffering the content in the background and that was the issue, but there’s absolutely no indication that I’ve run out of buffered content or how much buffering has been completed.