Coffeescript tutorials that don't assume Javascript knowledge

Question

I know I'm coming at this the wrong way. You're supposed to learn Javascript first, then start looking at Coffeescript when you get tired of braces and variable declarations. Me however, I'm a somewhat experienced Ruby and Python programmer but with zero Javascript fluency who looks to get into web scripting (mainly through Rails).

I'm convinced that Coffeescript is the way to go for me, but I'm hard pressed to find a tutorial that does not assume significant Javascript familiarity. Most of the tutorials I have seen explain Coffeescript's peculiarities in detail only to gloss over such minor topics as how to actually write web applications.

So, do you know of any Coffeescript tutorials for people who don't know JS to begin with?

Answer 1

You probably don't want to hear this, but I'm going to say it anyway: you should still learn JavaScript first.

JavaScript is a little unique from other languages, in that it has a monopoly over browser scripting. There is currently no other language that can be used in a browser (unless it uses a plugin, or the interpreter is in JavaScript!). As such, for any project that needs to do any amount of client-side scripting, JavaScript knowledge is a must.

You're probably thinking "Hey, I know Python and Ruby, and I never had to learn C or assembly!", which is of course true. But, those language never had a monopoly over their domain. Python can be used for the same things as C, in many cases. The platform doesn't care what language you use, as long as it supports it.

And the browser platform only support JavaScript.

CoffeScript is an abstraction of JavaScript. Although CoffeeScript is compiled into JavaScript, when you're trying to figure out that obscure JavaScript error, or debug a generated function, or are wondering why there are two levels of unnamed function nesting, you're going to want to know what's really going on.

Now, I'm not saying that you have to become a JavaScript Ninja (although I'd recommend it), but what I am saying is that you should come to grips with the actual web language first.

Learn JavaScript, learn its concepts (it's a very fascinating language, in my opinion, once you get past some of the deficiencies), and then use CoffeeScript to abstract away the technicalities.

Since you did ask for a tutorial, though, here's some: First, the Mozilla guide to JavaScript is quite nice. If you want some more advanced topics, there's also an interactive tutorial made by John Resig. And finally, here's a bunch of CoffeeScript tutorials that you probably already know about.

Answer 2

I suggest the free online Smooth Coffeescript book (based on Eloquent Javascript).

No previous programming knowledge is required. CoffeeScript lets you write web oriented applications simply and elegantly. It is closely related to JavaScript but without its quirky corners.

Smooth CoffeeScript is a book about CoffeeScript and programming. Start with programming fundamentals, learn about functional programming with Underscore and problem solving, study object orientation and modularity. It covers client/server web apps with Canvas and WebSockets.

Answer 3

I had a background in Python, ActionScript and Java. I started directly learning CoffeeScript with no intention of learning JavaScript. I learned a bunch of JavaScript along the way but I think it's perfectly OK to set out to learn CoffeeScript directly.

I was first attracted to Smooth CoffeeScript because it claimed to be targeted at folks trying to learn CoffeeScript directly. However, the style of writing was not to my liking. YMMV.

Besides, with my Python background, I found that I didn't need much help with the syntax. I got all of the syntax help I needed directly from he CoffeeScript web page. I mostly needed help with the platform (cake, development environments, testing, etc.) which is covered quite well on the CoffeeScript web page, and what else I needed I got from a couple of other books. My favorite teaching book is The Little Book on CoffeeScript (read in an hour) and my favorite reference is Trevor Burnham's Pragmatic Bookshelf book on CoffeeScript which taught me jQuery from the CoffeeScript perspective.

Another thing that helped me ramp up quickly was to fork/upgrade a few of my own tools in CoffeeScript. I forked the CoffeeDoc repository on github to create my own version and I eventually re-wrote it to create CoffeeDocTest which is like Python's DocTest except for CoffeeScript. My upgrades to the Coda syntax mode for CoffeeScript were accepted back into the master branch via github's pull-request mechanism... after a code review and some cleanup. Looking at someone else's code really helps you learn the idioms. Getting a code review from someone in the know helps even more.