New Comer to JS Looking for Guidance

I'm fairly new to JavaScr开发者_Go百科ipt. Can anyone share some good advice on getting started? I have a little experience in ActionScript 3 and have taken a few Java classes toward my CS degree but my background is of a designer transitioning into development. My goal is to become a well rounded front-end developer and I'd like to move beyond the simple slideshow animations and rollover effects. Any guidance/wisdom will be much appreciated!

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I'll recommend some reading materials:

Beginner: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide

Intermediate: JavaScript Patterns

Advanced: JavaScript: The Good Parts

The best way to learn is practice. Write a simple application. When you are done, rewrite it so you learn what you did wrong last time. Perhaps, rewrite it again. Then, take on a new project. Repeat :).

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Watch the Crockford lectures:

Part 1: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=111593
Part 2: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=111594
Part 3: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=111595
Part 4: http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=111596

Search for other JavaScript lectures at http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/

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Make sure to recognize the ECMA follows prototypal inheritance, not classical inheritance. Also, JS is a dynamic language, so be sure to understand how you can modify objects at runtime. Knowledge of good design patterns (MVC) are essential to writing concise and effective clients. Finally, in order to be a good client side developer, it doesn't hurt to understand server side development principles and how the back-ends to the applications work. By that I mean you don't need to understand the details of how requests are handled at a technical level, but rather you need to understand the implications of how tools like AJAX can put strain on your server resources. Or why your colleagues working on the server will be concerned with things like 'transactions' -- it doesn't hurt to have knowledge of server side implementations.