Not only was Stoyan Stefanov nice enough to submit an excerpt of his book, JavaScript Patterns, to Nettuts+, but we also have ten digital copies available to give away to our community! Personally, I'm roughly 75% finished with the book, and it's fantastic. Similar to his previous book, "Object-Oriented JavaScript," Stoyan has an uncanny ability to make high level techniques and concepts as easy as possible to understand. Even if you don't win a copy, "JavaScript Patterns" receives my highest recommendation.

Update: Winners Announced!

Congratulations to the following Tweeters for winning a copy of JavaScript Patterns!

• Dine: Always specify the second param (radix) to parseInt(string, radix) #jsEdu
• javascr1pt: Put your JavaScript code right before the tag for optimal loading. As @souders says, Render first. JS second. #JSedu #JavaScript
• ripter001: Instead of if( i % 2 ) to detect even/odd, use if( i & 1 ) It's faster because of the bit operator. #jsEdu
• josephs: ensure your page is functional before applying JavaScript. JavaScript should be then used to enhance the page - progress. enhancemnt #jsEdu
• Fcalderan: before writing a single line of javascript, seriously think if you can reach the same result in newest browser with only CSS =) -- #jsEdu
• zoraslapen: RT @acazsouza: Stop using "return false" to all and learn about "event.preventDefault" and "event.stopPropagation": http://bit.ly/aGJsxe (expand) #jsEdu
• tamtamchik: Good way to minimize the use of global variables is to create a single global variable for your application: var app = {}; #jsEdu
• garbrand: Quick js tip: set up your editor to validate your JS on each save with JSlint. Saves me multiple times per day. #jsEdu
• jwmcpeak: Objects can be used as hash tables. obj["myMethod"](); is the same as obj.myMethod(). #jsEdu
• ColmBritton: Comment, comment, comment. Your code is only a view source away from anyone so educate and help them understand your mind. #jsEdu

How to Win a Copy

Leaving a comment to enter is old-fashioned; let's help educate the TwitterVerse. In 140 characters or less, tweet a JavaScript best practice, and then hash, "#jsEdu," like so:

On October 14th (US EST), I'll choose ten helpful tweets that contain the #jsEdu hash, and update this posting to announce the winners!

Buy the Book

What's the best approach for developing an application with JavaScript? This book helps you answer that question with numerous JavaScript coding patterns and best practices. If you're an experienced developer looking to solve problems related to objects, functions, inheritance, and other language-specific categories, the abstractions and code templates in this guide are ideal -- whether you're writing a client-side, server-side, or desktop application with JavaScript.

Written by JavaScript expert Stoyan Stefanov -- Senior Yahoo! Technical and architect of YSlow 2.0, the web page performance optimization tool -- JavaScript Patterns includes practical advice for implementing each pattern discussed, along with several hands-on examples. You'll also learn about anti-patterns: common programming approaches that cause more problems than they solve.

• Explore useful habits for writing high-quality JavaScript code, such as avoiding globals, using single var declarations, and more
• Learn why literal notation patterns are simpler alternatives to constructor functions
• Discover different ways to define a function in JavaScript
• Create objects that go beyond the basic patterns of using object literals and constructor functions
• Learn the options available for code reuse and inheritance in JavaScript
• Study sample JavaScript approaches to common design patterns such as Singleton, Factory, Decorator, and more
• Examine patterns that apply specifically to the client-side browser environment

About the Author

Stoyan Stefanov is a Yahoo! web developer and an author, contributor, and tech reviewer of various O'Reilly books. He speaks regularly about web development topics at conferences and on his blog at www.phpied.com. Stoyan is the creator of the smush.it image optimization tool, YUI contributor and architect of Yahoo's performance optimization tool YSlow 2.0.