5 comments about JavaScript Pocket Reference (2nd Edition).

1. The copy I have contained printing errors. the first 66 pages was the beginning section to "vi editor pocket reference" then it picks up on page 73 with what seems to be the rest of the javascript pocket reference.
   
   I'm new to javascript and programming in general.. and took me couple of days of trying to understand it before someone pointed out to me that i was trying to make sence of the wrong content.
   
   This is the first time I have seen errors of this sort from a major publisher.
   
   thanks o'reilly, for wasting hours out of my life.



2. If you are new to JavaScript and looking for a helper title, this isn't it. If you're already familiar with JavaScript, and need specific information, you probably need more than an extremely condensed pocket reference is going to provide. There really isn't anything wrong with the pocket reference - it has correct information, formatted pretty well, and contains the most common parts of the core language as well as the common DHTML references one needs for general use. What it doesn't have, and shouldn't for a pocket reference, are complete explanations for the components, or any usage examples - two things needed by people who are turning to a reference book. JavaScript is really too complex to be summarized along with DHTML elements in 127 half-sized pages. If you're looking for a JavaScript reference, purchase the authors full-sized reference guide, "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide" (ISBN: 0596000480) instead.



3. I am not a big fan of these 'Pocket Reference' books by O'Reilly. Although I have 8 of them, I find them too brief to be very helpful as a reference. Usually they come up short on many parts of the language.
   
   Recently I needed a refresher in JavaScript, and turned to Flanagan. I read the first part of the book to the API Reference on page 52. This seemed like a concentrated and intense refresher. For that one purpose, I think I received good value for my time. I would never use it as a real reference because each subject is just barely mentioned, not covered in any kind of detail. There is no index, plus examples are too few and short to learn from it. So for my limited purpose, I liked it, but would never consider it as a learning tool or actual reference. If this meets your need, fine. Otherwise do not expect too much from this book.
   
   This is an un-paid real opinion. Not all ratings and opinions are honest or unbiased. Some are bought and paid for. Follow the 'See all my ...' and judge for yourself. Learn the industry secret when you see many such high score opinions from one person particularly right after the dates of publication. Educate yourself before you rely on someone who has been paid to deceive you.



4. I realize it's a pocket reference, but this is a brief guide to syntax and then the DOM for the rest of the book. It doesn't cover any of the API stuff like the Date class. It'd be nice to have more information at the price of needing slightly larger pockets.



5. I've been learning JavaScript off and on, with some success, for three months. In doing so, I've skimmed about a half-dozen books and tried the following three, so far, "graded" below:
   
   Learning JavaScript (Powers B-)
   VQS JavaScript and Ajax (Negrino & Smith C+)
   O'Reilly JavaScript Pocket Reference (Flanagan B)
   
   It's hard to find good books on JavaScript and no one should expect a pocket reference to be an instructional book. Despite that, I found this reference guide to be surprisingly helpful at times as I searched for clear explanations of the underlying concepts in learning JavaScript.

5 comments about Professional JavaScript for Web Developers (Wrox Professional Guides).

1. JavaScript has progressed from a nice little scripting language for some neat effects to a widely used programming language that is used in internal and external web applications. Not that it happened over night, but it eventually did happen and knowing and learning JavaScript is a desired skill in the web community.
   
   This book by Nicholas Zakas goes language concepts such as ECMAScript basics, using objects, inheritance, the DOM, regular expressions and events. Basically everything you need to know about JavaScript to get a good handle on practical implementation such as form validation, browser detection, image roll-overs, sorting tables, drag and drop, error handling and XML handling, and flash embedding. This is a very complete book on almost every topic you can think of when dealing with JavaScript and current uses.
   
   Chapter 1 - JavaScript History
   Chapter 2 - ECMAScript Basics - Variables, Reference types, Operators, Statements, and Functions. ECMAScript - The core language JavaScript is based on.
   Chapter 3 - Object basics - Working with objects, Creating objects, and Practical examples
   Chapter 4 - Inheritance - Foundation of an object oriented language
   Chapter 5 - Using JavaScript in the browser; basic JavaScript objects: window, document, location, navigator, screen
   Chapter 6 - DOM basics
   Chapter 7 - Regular expressions - Simple and complex patterns, understanding the RegExp object
   Chapter 8 - Browser and Object detection
   Chapter 9 - Events - Event flow, listeners, types of events, and cross browser events
   Chapter 10 - Advanced DOM techniques
   Chapter 11 - Forms and Data Integrity
   Chapter 12 - Sorting tables
   Chapter 13 - Drag and Drop - Learn how to simulate Ajax techniques
   Chapter 14 - Error Handling - Try/Catch/Finally
   Chapter 15 - XML in JavaScript - XPath, XSLT and support in browsers
   Chapter 16 - Client-Server Communications - Cookies, HTTP requests, hidden frames, GET/POST differences
   Chapter 17 - Web Services - SOAP, WSDL, practical examples
   Chapter 18 - Interacting with Plugins - Embedding ActiveX, Flash, Applets and plugin detection
   Chapter 19 - Deployment issues - Security and international concerns
   Chapter 20 - Future of JavaScript
   
   I've never seen a more complete book on JavaScript to date. If you are new to JavaScript or need a great reference or need to learn some advanced techniques (DOM, drag and drop, XML, web services) this is the book for you.



2. This book is perfect! I have been needing a book that gives a complete study of Javascript as a programming language and this is it. Where most books discuss how to make a popup window, this book explains objects and inheritance and other concepts that take Javascript from being a basic dynamic script into a full featured one that is capable of doing practically anything you want.
   
   The book is well written with both hypothetical and real-world examples. For each example there is a discussion about what is going to happen, the example that is notated for what is going on, and a post-example where it explains what basically happened.
   
   If you are trying to learn on your own instead of taking a class, you may want to buy this book as it will probably meet/exceed your needs.



3. I have enormous problems with this dated, confused and 'gappy' book, and advise would be readers to exercise _extreme_ caution with it, particularly with the examples, a great number of which are a long, long way from currently accepted best practice.
   
   I don't believe that "Programmer to Programmer" describes this book well. The author's confusing and patchy descriptions of language fundamentals are not useful to those readers who are highly experienced in other programming languages such as C or C++. Neither does it seem that the author has clearly identified the target reader, as I imagine that the book will bewilder some beginners too. For example, for reasons unknown the author seemed to feel the need to embark on a "fundamentals of OOP" tutorial, a subject quite inappropriate for a "programmer-to-programmer" text as it should be taken as read, and one which is in any case too large to be adequately covered in a few pages. I imagine this may merely succeed in confusing novice programmers, who really do need to consult a proper introduction elsewhere. And why on earth did the author feel that a quick descent into UML was appropriate at the start of the third chapter? Another short section is devoted to explaining bit pattern operations, a subject that is arguably best left to real textbooks on programming fundamentals for beginners. At the same time, in many, many cases discussions of basic topics that experienced programmers would expect to find are simply absent. Javascript is in many ways highly unusual as a programming language, and because of the familiar syntax, C, C++ or Java programmers may be initially led to believe that its behaviour will be close to their expectations, yet this is not the case. For this reason it is crucial for a reference text to take care to tick off these crucial language-conversion issues properly.
   
   Returning to the code examples, I have many problems with their poor quality. A sizeable number do not conform to current "unobtrusive" best practise. I can understand why this might have been done for reasons of brevity, but that doesn't excuse the poor example this sets. There is no discussion of accessibility, which is unforgiveable. And some of examples feature outdated, broken or deprecated techniques. The discussion of hacks to bolster up browser support for addEventListener, for example. Browser-sniffing, a deprecated technique features far too much, indeed a worrying number of examples rely on it. The author of this review is nowhere near competent to comment in detail on the quality of every code example, but the poor techniques clearly visible in some have the effect of casting doubt on the whole.
   
   Despite being published in 2005, the book is simply too old to cover the recent tidal wave of high quality libraries which are now available, and which properly deal with some of the most difficult issues in basic javascript development, issues which this book simply does not acknowledge. The book deserves criticism for being yet one more contributor to the vast amount of poor quality javascript code on the web, yet of course it has to be said that any paper book will inevitable be vulnerable to the problem of obsolescence, since javascript support in browsers is so poor currently and techniques are changing rapidly right now.
   
   This review is unapologetically harsh, yet I am not going to say "do not buy this book" outright. Although dated and harmful for beginners, there is a lot of material in this book, and for very experienced programmers in other programming languages who are forewarned about the book's unreliability it will at least give some idea of the issues and will provide a starting point for gathering a list of topics to be researched. But many readers may be simply better off consulting the blogs of the various acknowledged javascript gurus instead. Reading Brendan Eich's own articles would be a start.



4. Want to really lean Javascript? this is the book for you, an indepth coverage, once you know what's under the hood, all the rest becomes a piece of cake, this what Nicholas did in this amazing book, first things first folks, this is the one you start with!!!!!



5. A lot of books I see maintain a single focus (Firefox or IE JS) this book does a good job of providing a large array of knowledge with proper labels as to what will and will not work with the browser your programming for (or tips to program for all of them ;) )

5 comments about Learning JavaScript (Learning).

1. As a n00b to web development, this book was not appropriate for me, and in retrospect, I realize I must not have been the intended audience. As a person who has taught and practiced technical writing and composition in the past, I would say that this book was intended for someone who was already familiar with other scripting languages and was looking for a quick entrance into Javascript. For my part, I was hoping for more explanation of the basic mechanics of Javascript and the DOM than this text offers. I haven't gotten past the initial chapter on defining variables and DOM, as both chapters used unfamiliar technical terms and concepts without explaining them. Why have an introductory chapter on DOM without explaining, step-by-step, what the explanatory terms mean? In other words, each concept could and should be further disaggregated and explained. This is NOT a book for the beginner!!
   
   However, beginners take heart! I'm happy to report that I have found a truly helpful line of books with which to compare this book (and the O'Reily line of books, in general). After purchasing and reading through a couple of books from this aforementioned line (including one on CSS and XHTML), which ARE suited for the beginner, I can say with confidence that a beginner's book can be written and is available. I won't name the line (as I don't intend for this review to be an advertisement), but I will say that it is associated with a popular on-line development website and forum, and one can find it by looking around the developer forums. (One can even download free chapters of these books for personal review!!) If the books give you hangups -- which I doubt -- then one can easily go to the forum (which is quite hospitable to n00bs!!) and tune in to some truly "open-source" learning. Ask an intelligent, thoughtful question and the forum will respond.
   
   As far as _Learning Javascript_, I would say that perhaps someone already initiated into the developer scene could benefit from this book. But, then, why bother when more comprehensive references are available? For my part, I'll reread the book when I have a basic working knowledge of Javascript and see what I can pick up. After all, I do own it, now. It will make an alright back-up reference. Best wishes, fellow n00bs!!



2. I am an experienced software engineer who has worked in many languages and is trying to get up to speed with JavaScript(JS). I am a novice when it comes to JS but I have used it in a commercial environment before.
   
   I have returned this book since the number of errors in the examples and question sections are far too many. These sections are the important part of the book that one learns from. I got halfway through Chapter 3 and gave up since almost half of all the examples are incorrect. For example an alert("some string") call was listed with three different strings in the example, a reference to it in the text and the expected outcome.
   
   Also for anyone who is not a developer or has little knowledge of common terms in development this book is NOT for you. Shelly assumes you know what a strongly/loosely typed language is and other such concepts.



3. I've been learning JavaScript off and on, with some success, for three months. In doing so, I've skimmed about a half-dozen books and tried the following three, so far, "graded" below:
   
   Learning JavaScript (Powers B-)
   VQS JavaScript and Ajax (Negrino & Smith C+)
   O'Reilly JavaScript Pocket Reference (Flanagan B)
   
   Very good first draft. Powers either over-powered her editor (my guess) or perhaps they couldn't find an editor technically aware enough for this particular task. Hence, it's full of typos, "meant to says," and interesting logic puzzles to teach something that an outsider would have told her she needs to define clearly first with a simple example. Despite this, Powers clearly knows her stuff, has a love for the subject matter and goes farther than many other authors to convey concepts and vocabulary to teach and mentally structure the material. Like most JavaScript authors she rarely lowers herself to actually explain how web-page items and forms pass JavaScript function calls and data to JavaScript in the first place (so what's the point?). Despite the ill-considered examples of the concepts she's trying to convey, she has a good instinct for keeping the writing succinct and she won't waste your time. If you don't understand something, it'll be clear which part you need to restudy. Topics are well indicated by well-chosen headers. Despite the hurried editing, and occasionally self-centered style, this book has the gift of being up-to-date and conscious of changes in the field. This book won't be enough by itself and you'll have to hunt the web heavily to find complete examples showing how the web-page talks to the JavaScript she's writing about. It's still the best JavaScript book I've found to date. With a well-considered rewrite this could be a great book.
   
   Oh, yeah ... she really wants you to know she prefers a Mac over a PC.



4. Really hard reading, goes all over subject matter in first chapters, assumes reader has already read much better book on subject. If you are new to JavaScript skip this book. It will make you hate Learning JavaScript which I suggest the title be changed to, "Learning to Hate JavaScript". I will watch out for author and never buy a book by her again.



5. Beginning with the first example, the book is filled with errors (function `hello()' is called without being defined in example 1-1). Some (not all) are enumerated on the book's errata page. Since the first half of the book discusses syntax, a CS background can allow a reader to read around the errors. The second half discusses BOM, DOM, and Ajax making it's impossible to spot the errors without being a JavaScript expert, which makes the book worthless.
   
   The last third of the book is written as a first person narrative. The book should be about JavaScript, not the author.
   
   Bad writing takes place everyday. How a book like this made it past the editors at a reputable publisher like O'Reilly makes one wonder about their process.
   
   Avoid this book.

5 comments about Simply JavaScript.

1. Any computer library or general-interest collection strong in Javascript needs SIMPLY JAVASCRIPT: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO LEARN JAVASCRIPT FROM SCRATCH. Color examples accompany a step-by-step introduction to Java programming which teaches how to use JavaScript to solve real-world problems, track user events, and even design animations. From using Jax and the DOM to blending Java into an existing website, SIMPLY JAVASCRIPT is packed with plenty of easy details perfect for newcomers.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



2. I've been exposed to very little JavaScript, so I was very happy to get a review copy of this sent to me. First off, I'm a big fan of SitePoint's other books, and secondly I was looking forward to a book which would hopefully give me some good ground-up fundamentals. I'm not completely through the book yet, but I'm very impressed with it so far.
   
   The book starts out with some good software design tenets by emphasizing the need to keep content, style, and behavior separated out, then moves into some very basic steps for programming in JavaScript. The programming intro chapter starts out completely for beginners by laying out what variables are, what conditions and loops are, etc. Later chapters hit the DOM, JavaScript libraries, events, debugging, Ajax, and a few other topics.
   
   The authors do a very good job of laying out their topics, and I enjoyed their clear, enjoyable writing style. I think they do a pretty good job of discussing good development, and they're all over things like browser compatibility issues and other "Gotcha!" type issues. They've got a nice set of sidebars for tricks and tips as well as things to look out for.
   
   I also like that it's another SitePoint book with loads of color throughout. I'm not sure how SitePoint does it, but their continuing journey with all the color books is absolutely great to behold.
   
   On the downside, I'm not a fan of some of the example code I saw, which in several cases was more convoluted than good design would dictate (multiple nested for loops, return statements from other method calls being used as return values themselves, etc.). I also would have liked to see some discussion of testing via tools like Selenium or JsUnit.
   
   Overall I really like the book a lot. They talk standards, they talk cool tools like FireBug, they make some headway with good decisions about separation of code, content, and style.



3. I love the fact that the book is easy to read and understand, particularly for a newbie to Javascript.



4. The Sitepoint guys have great articles on their site and emails but I found this book very difficult to read. It didnt seem that the examples made sense, or flowed together to make sense.
   
   As Im pretty new to JS, adding that to my php work, I really had a difficult time understanding all the syntax - and that is made more difficult by now having clear, easy to follow examples.
   
   I cant and wont say that I wouldnt recommend this book because its not a bad book, I just feel that if you are as new to JS as I am, this might not be the best book to start with.



5. When i bought the book i had read from overviews of the book that all i needed to know was html/xhtml but so far, after 2 chapters, i havent been able to understand anything. i feel like im reading jiberish. im not sure and it maybe just my understanding but i have NO idea what its saying. try the book and maybe u may understand what its saying and whats going on. but if you do i would REALLY appreciate it if you can email me letting me know whats up with the book and if its really JUST my understanding. i was looking really forward to the book but unfortunatly it isnt as exciting as i was hopin it to be. :(

5 comments about JavaScript: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition.

1. After all the great reviews I thought this book was going to be outstanding, so maybe that's why I was kind of let down. To be honest, I have not finished the book yet. At chapter 8 (which is where I think maybe he's starting to get into the meat of things) I was just so bored with the examples my enthusiasm for learning Javascript was starting to diminish. I want a little more variety than learning how to make EVERYTHING create a popup window. After reading several other more engaging programming books in the dummies and headfirst series, I think maybe I should've gone to them for my Javascript needs as well.



2. I bought this book because even though I have knowledge about programming, I had no concept about JavaScript and needed to learn it. It gave me and introduction to JavaScript, but it also gave me a full recap about functions, constructors, etc. what they are, what they do, which I did not need. So if you are a programmer, I do NOT recommend this book. Instead buy "Simply JavaScript". If you are a newbie and don't know much about programming in general, I definitely recommend this book.



3. Concise descriptions of what happens inside the scripts. The author adresses JS matters without assuming previous knowledge on this subject, but he clearly makes you progress by invoking some math background (i.e. to explain functions ) and also involving the reader in logical deductions to make you think. Some hints of humour and lightweight prose are present along the book, without leaning too much towards the "for dummies" series. As an absolute beginner, it's more than enough.



4. This book was required reading material for a course I'm taking. That being said, the book is good for anyone who's a novice. The chapters are easy to read and provide a decent review section at their conclusion so you can quiz yourself if you like. If you already know the basics of JavaScript -- look elsewhere.



5. This book is great for beginning javascript programmers who have a clue how to program. It is definitely not great for someone to learn the skill of computer programming. Additionally the excersices are not very challenging(I've only gotten up to the chapter on arrays, but the other chapter excersices leave little room for creativity).
   
   The good thing about this book is that it is a great way to learn the syntax of javascript. It does not have a lot of information and it has about three excersices per chapter(of what I have read so far. Overall it is worth the price though.

5 comments about JavaScript Demystified.

1. I recently attended a JavaScript course where the instruct have a difficult time explaining JavaScript in clear Englishing. I'm not a programmer, so I needed someone to explain this in simple English. This book make JavaScript clear enough so that I passed the course.



2. I you ever wondered how the professional web page developers dress up their web pages, then take a look at this book. Every trick that I've seen on commercial web pages are revealed in this book. I easily copied code from the book into my web pages and made mine work like a pro web page. Good book.



3. This is a great book to start with for those who want to learn JavaScript. It has excellent discussion of the basics of the language with plenty of examples to follow along with. Most of the example scripts are small and basic in nature. But, they can still make useful additions to any website that might need image rollovers, cookies or pop-up windows. In the later chapters there are a few larger and slightly more complicated scripts like an image slide show. The book also has thorough coverage of basic programming concepts like variables, arrays, loops and such. Therefore, any prior programming or scripting knowledge is not an absolute requirement. All the code in this book worked smoothly with errors found only in the HTML code. The minor, and somewhat strange, errors in the HTML code really didn't create any problems. The multiple choice final exam did provide a descent review of the material at the end of the book. However, I would have preferred answers with a little explanation rather than just the correct letter.
   
   The only issue I had with this book is the final chapters. I did expect a little more exposure to advanced scripts and concepts. There were only a few examples and most were scripts from dynamicdrive.com with little or no discussion of new concepts. Much of the final two chapters were just descriptions with URL's of sophisticated scripts that can be downloaded from Dynamic Drive. This was a bit disappointing since most designers/developers probably know how to find and install scripts from the many code libraries on the web.
   
   Overall, JavaScript Demystified is a great book for a true beginner with no prior experience with scripting or programming. This is not the best book for those who just want to copy scripts or who are expecting advanced topics. This is a book for those who want to actually learn JavaScript. I definitely would look forward to a new book by the same author in the same format that covers advanced JavaScript.



4. I felt that this book was very good for beginners as well as a good reference for those that have a strong background in html and JavaScript.



5. Clear and concise, done with not one wit of 'speaking down' to you, and the explanations are straightforward. The material is introduced a piece at a time, and with reasonable review questions that are surprisingly thorough.
   I would suggest it to anyone who wants a good reference to JavaScript as well. Buy it you won't be disappointed.

1 comments about Dojo: Using the Dojo JavaScript Library to Build Ajax Applications (Developer's Library).

1. I was a little disappointed in this book, but before I go on to the reasons let me explain what I am looking for. I am not new to programming, web development, or writing fairly complicated applications with Javascript. I am already fairly familiar with toolkit such as Ext and Dojo before the version jump. I was hoping this book would be a good reference and guide to working with the features of Dojo. I am not as interested in "dojoifying" web pages as I am in creating Javascript applications that heavily integrate with Dojo. This book may be decent for a web developer that wants an introduction to adding Dojo to web pages, but for a software engineer that wants to really get in depth in Dojo this book seems fairly week to me.
   
   The book has 316 pages and is broken down into 3 sections.
   
   Section I is called "Dojo a Tutorial." This walks the reader through a standard web form implemented without Dojo and then the process of switching to Dojo Widgets and simple client/server communication. (63 pages)
   
   Section II is "Dojo Widgets." This section is a decent reference to many widgets including the layout widgets which get their own chapter. It includes HTML Markup Examples and Javascript constructor examples. I really like these, but they usually seem to be very basic. It also has nice pictures of many of the widgets and layouts to help you understand what they are. I like this section, but unfortunately it is limited to the core features of each widget. The examples are pretty bare, and many of the non-essential features are left out. I do see this being one of the more useful parts of the book, but I really wish there was more depth to it. (121 pages)
   
   Section III is "Dojo in Detail."
   This contains a lot more of the meat of the book, but everything remains pretty lightweight. Some examples and references are given to the Dojo API and various helper function included in Dojo. There is some talk of JSON, event handling, XMLHttpRequests, and testing. This is all good stuff, but it really lacks depth. Everything just seems to brush against the surface. It still is essential and will help someone get started, but I don't think it will take you very far beyond that. (112 pages)
   
   
   I have only had this book a few days now. I am really glad that books on Dojo are starting to come out. I haven't yet received any of the other new Dojo books, so I can't compare them. This book is alright for getting started and for a light reference to common features. My big complaint is the lack of depth.
   
   I wish there were more examples and more details of the features and internals of Dojo. A chapters on making your own widgets instead of a 3/4 page mostly irrelevant section would have been nice. More details on customizing and overriding Dojo's CSS to make your application look the way you want it to would have been great. I think Dojo's grid feature deserves a chapter since it is something that so many applications can take advantage of. There are many things of this sort that the book either left out or just lightly touched.
   
   Overall I'm giving this 2 stars. It's alright, but it's not what I need. I don't think this book contains nearly enough depth to help people far along into building Ajax Applications. It is a good intro and a reference to basic features. It can be helpful to a web developer looking to add some Dojo functionality to a site. For the serious user though this book really doesn't have enough content to take you very far into using Dojo.

5 comments about Beginning JavaScript, 3rd Edition (Programmer to Programmer).

1. I was required to purchase this book for a class that I was taking. It works well for the class, and I feel that the content has been thorough. The explanations have been very good.



2. this book is a total waste of money. The things you learn are made for very old browsers. So if you want a book to learn js don't get this one, you would learn things as they where done 10 years ago.



3. With this up-to-date guide, you'll find everything you need to know in order to develop interactive, robust, and personalized pages using JavaScript. It takes you step by step through this powerful scripting language so you can begin enhancing your site right away and increase visits. You'll learn how to take advantage of native JavaScript objects, manipulate objects that are available to you in the latest browsers, use cookies, and jazz up your web pages with Dynamic HTML. Great Update!!!
   Table of Contents
   
   Chapter 1. Introduction to JavaScript and the Web.
   Chapter 2. Data Types and Variables.
   Chapter 3. Decisions, Loops, and Functions.
   Chapter 4. JavaScript--An Object-Based Language.
   Chapter 5. Programming the Browser.
   Chapter 6. HTML Forms--Interacting with the User.
   Chapter 7. Windows and Frames.
   Chapter 8. String Manipulation.
   Chapter 9. Date, Time, and Timers.
   Chapter 10. Common Mistakes, Debugging, and Error Handling.
   Chapter 11. Storing Information. Cookies.
   Chapter 12. Introduction to Dynamic HTML.
   Chapter 13. Dynamic HTML in Modern Browsers.
   Chapter 14. JavaScript and XML.
   Chapter 15. Using ActiveX and Plug-Ins with JavaScript.
   Chapter 16. Ajax and Remote Scripting



4. Can't say enough about this book. Really outstanding in explaining the how-to of Javascript, especially for the beginner. Truly an outstanding book! Thnak you.



5. Extremely huge book. Great for a blank introduction to the language. Very extremely thorough. Not so much of a quick reference book, but great for learning the basic and advanced commands of JavaScript. It is so big I've had it for a while and still have not finished reading it.. You create a JavaScript quiz throughout the book that tells you how many you got wrong and your score. Great introduction book, it does have advanced stuff at the end of it.

5 comments about JavaScript and Ajax for the Web, Sixth Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide).

1. This book gives some nice examples of usable code for a few common uses but doesnt give a very good explanation of what is being done and why. if you have great programming experience and a excellent knowledge of the DOM this book would be good way to get some javascript going, but for the average person looking to learn how javascript works and apply it in other ways than those shown in the book you are better off elsewhere.



2. I'm an experienced procedural php, xhtml and css developer with litter foundational knowledge about javascript. I purchased this book to fill that gap and was a little disappointed. It's not a bad book but it assumes a lot and has little instructional flow. The book scrolls though one example after another without much explanation for the actual language constructs behind javascript.
   
   The author states that this book is not for beginners and I don't consider myself to be one, however, I'd advise anyone looking to buy this book to have a solid understanding of object oriented programming principals before they do so.
   
   Overall it's not a bad book for a certain audience but it lacks foundational, and in my opinion vital, information about javascript.



3. I've been learning JavaScript off and on, with some success, for three months. In doing so, I've skimmed about a half-dozen books and tried the following three, so far, "graded" below:
   
   Learning JavaScript (Powers B-)
   VQS JavaScript and Ajax (Negrino & Smith C+)
   O'Reilly JavaScript Pocket Reference (Flanagan B)
   
   It's hard to find good books on this because the subject matter is new and the books are often dashed off quickly. VQS JavaScript and Ajax is essentially a collection of well-explained examples of well-organized code. It's written more to fill pages than flesh out the subject, however. The explanations are unnecessarily wordy and the broader coverage of concepts, context and how to, you would want to include in a teaching book are missing.
   
   Strangest of all perhaps is the author's choice of leaving out how html talks to Javascript or the details of how they link. Since JavaScript's purpose is to interact with html and pass things back and forth, it's sort of like doing marriage counseling and only focusing on what the woman's thinking to herself. Unfortunately, they're not the only authors that make this oversight.
   
   The VQS format is great and they do a good job of using color to highlight the portions of code they're referring to. The is a good, annotated collection of code examples. It's something I've found to be only marginally helpful in getting started.



4. The book arrived quickly. I is new quality. I intend to increase my knowledge of DOM, JavaScrip anf AJAX.



5. This is my first QSG book. I assume the layout is "feature" of the series, if so this will be my last.
   
   Bottom line first: the title is a lie, this is a book about javascript with a chapter on AJAX; this book has good content, but the presentation will drive you insane while you read it.
   
   Layout:
   The book has a good concept but doesn't execute it well. Each page is divided into two columns, the example code is in one column, the text describing that code is in the other. This really is a great concept. It's used in analytic copies of a number of Shakespeare's plays and works well there. It works because they are conscientious about pagination, include line references, and use facing pages not columns.
   Columns are a problem because each line has about three words before wrapping. The dot syntax of javascript is particularly hard to read with such short lines.
   The pagination / line reference is really the biggest problem in the QSG's execution. They let the text and code flow through the columns across pages without much attention. This means you are constantly flipping forwards and backwards to see the code as you read. Without line references the flipping is not just annoying it's really more of a search.
   They make two attempts to address the pagination problem: first, the code being talked about is highlighted in red; second, they reprint the code block being talked about in the text column. Neither of these is helpful. Half of the code ends up being highlighted red - at most you can scan the red blocks to figure out what that code is an example of, and what is just there to support the example. If they are going to reprint the code anyway why not just go over to a normal layout? My suggestion: use facing pages for the next edition!
   
   AJAX:
   This is not a book on AJAX. This is an introduction to javascript that includes a buzz word in its title to jump off the shelf at people. It's not even an introduction to javascript from an AJAX prospective. In fact AJAX isn't covered well in the book. For example there is very little discussion of how to navigate returned XML using javascript. AJAX is mentioned in the intro and then 'taught' in chapters 15 and 16. (Chapter 16 is just a discussion of available libraries!) You can't give AJAX top billing and then devote 10% of the actual book to it.
   
   So why 2 stars?
   
   I was looking for a book that assumed very little or no knowledge of javascript. I was hoping for something that would address canonical javascripting, best practices, and a bit theory behind the topics being covered. I'm self taught and wanted to see how things should be done instead of how they can be done. This book would be a darn good intro for a beginner. The theory and best practices parts were not explicitly addressed as often as I would have liked; however, they were demonstrated and covered at times.
   
   4 star content, less 1 for layout, less 1 for title.

5 comments about JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook (2nd edition).

1. This is a great book for beginners and experts. For beginners, he offers clear examples on how to get started in solving real world problems with Javascript. For experts, this offers a great refresher on how to do things right.



2. I still have the first edition of this book but other than perhaps missing the chapters on ajax it's not outdated at all. This book has saved my life several times already. Almost every time I am looking to solve a tricky problem in javascript, I find that this book contains a well explained chapter with the exact solution that I was looking for. The authors often make a point of going through multiple iterations of a solution, to demonstrate what needs to be modified to support certain browsers, and at the same time ensure that the reader actually understands the code too.
   
   This is a great book for experienced javascript developers who want to save time by using tried and tested code to solve common problems, but at the same time understand that code too.



3. I wouldn't buy this book if you are going for aesthetics for you website. I wouldn't buy it if you are a heavy programmer either. Its a good "middle" book for just general roll overs, browser detections, and other javascript functions for form validation. Its a little small.



4. I really like this book. The format of each technique demonstrated is
   
   Problem- Solution- Discussion
   
   The nice thing is that you can get a quick explanation from the solution, and a more in depth response in the discussion. The author presents complete code which is easily built upon and customized.
   
   I knew a bit of Javascript when I started, but I think this would be an excellent book even for a complete beginner.



5. Like most web developers, I typically will reach for one of the many JS libraries when it comes time to add client-side enhancements to my web applications. This is usually the obvious choice for the sake of saving time on projects, and keeping costs down... but quite often, many libraries are simply overkill for a simple little js/dhtml enhancement.
   
   As such, that is what lead me to this book. I was hoping the cookbook format would give me some fresh ideas on doing some simple js/dhtml work and it most definitively delivered.
   
   Perhaps the most valuable parts of this book for me were the aspects of working on the DOM. Additionally, I always enjoy reading different techniques for dealing with client-side form validation.
   
   To me the coverage on loading dynamic data/ajax was good, but I still think that when entering into that realm of JS, it is usually time to deploy one of the libraries I mentioned earlier.
   
   All in all this has become a valuable resource that I often refer to during my daily work.