Sure, but the guy freely admits that he is not yet very experienced with Javascript. My own personal experience with it was definitely love/hate for the first 6 months or so, but once I started figuring out what idiomatic Javascript looks like, it started seducing me. My current project is a roughly 50/50 split of Javascript and C - at the start I preferred to do things in C if possible, and avoid Javascript, but now the reverse is true.
My JavaScript experience was similar. I blame it on the name, stupid as that sounds, because the first thought of a newbie is likely to be 'Oh, this is like Java'.
As JavaScript syntax is similar to Java at a glance, this leads one to try and write Java-like programs, which end up being a hideous mess, because of course JavaScript is nothing like Java. Once you get the light bulb moment when you realise 'hey, this is Lisp!' (though an extremely limited Lisp), your approach to the language changes instantly, and it actually becomes quite elegant in its own way.
Also, JQuery. JQuery, JQuery, JQuery. Removes entirely all the browser-dependent annoyances and all the DOM annoyances. Don't even think of writing JavaScript in web pages without it!
> My JavaScript experience was similar. I blame it on the name, stupid as that sounds, because the first thought of a newbie is likely to be 'Oh, this is like Java'.
Even worse, because JavaScript is one of the few languages that people think they can use without actually learning it, because it was somehow designed to be that way: an easy to use scripting language. Copying and pasting small snippets from the Web adds insult to injury, so that someone might claim to know JavaScript after working out some issue with the help of a JQuery plugin (Not that I'm against JQuery, I use it and love it, I'm talking about people not learning JavaScript at all, due to the easiness of JQuery possibly.)
The thing to realize is, as you mentioned, and as Crockford says, JavaScript is Lisp in C's clothing; I'm not sure where Eckel got the idea that JavaScript is an abomination, reading Crockford's book should make someone think that JavaScript is an elegant language.
