Comment Re:God please... (Score 2) 180
Yeah, fortunately that is being corrected in ES6. You don't really need to use require.js (it is awful!) though. I've been able to avoid it and similar solutions other ways, depending on the project.
As for the object model, it's undeniably superior. Google "classical vs prototypal inheritance" for a bunch of articles and (informed) discussions. Once you get a handle on it, you'll be amazed at how much effort it ultimately saves you. (Believe it or not, it's significantly simpler than the classical approach, and far more flexible.)
Would you recommend any books for learning javascript at a deeper level?
Not really. Crockford's book is okay, but far from perfect -- same with Flanagan's JavaScript: The Definitive Guide. They're probably the best of a bad bunch.
You really do have to toss out pretty much everything you know and start from scratch. If you try to use all those techniques you're used to from Java, you're going to pull your hair out. As an added bonus, you'll want to strangle Brendan Eich if you try to treat it like Lisp!
It's a whole different animal. My advice? Avoid new and constructor functions to shake off some of those old classical OO habits. Spend some time reading about prototype-based programming and event driven design (a good start there is decoupling with events). Your ACM DL subscription will pay for itself in cash saved in therapy.
Also, do you think Java is really hellish?
That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but I really don't care for it. Maybe I've just suffered through too much bad Java code? Still, I find it tedious.