JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan
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Book Reviews of JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
Book Review: This is the Definitive Guide
Summary: 5 Stars
We are in 2008 and this is the Rhino book 5th ed. Try to google the terms "javascript variable names", you'll have a bunch of articles and tutorials giving you the javascript naming rules. Count how many articles you hit before one of them mentions that the ($) dollar sign is a perfectly valid character in identifiers (it's been so since javascript 1.1). This Rhino book already mentioned this back in 1998 when in its 3rd edition and possibly in previous editions. It is not to say that this is a life changing information, it's simply to illustrate a point. By knowing what is or isn't possible with the language you can put it to better use. You should own this book, even if you want to buy other JS books or even if you've read tutorials around the web and you think you know what you're doing. This book clearly details the language and its intricacies. If you're a programmer, you'll appreciate that you actually understand how javascript works. The bugs will seem a lot less obscure and some esoteric constructs found in various scripts and frameworks will look less like voodoo. You will certainly need other Javascript books that deal more with advanced practice, architecture and development techniques, but you need a solid foundation to build all that knowledge on.Book Review: a truly definitive guide
Summary: 5 Stars
I knew next to nothing about javascript when I bought this book. I am not a professional programmer.
After twice reading the theoretical section (the first half of the book) attentively, I was able to program some pretty interesting things with javascript. The book provided sufficient grounding for me to fly solo and use my imagination. The reference section has been valuable for this.
I have read some of the negative reviews, and while I understand reviews that say this book could be more direct, practical and concise, I disagree with them as I found the author provided a very comprehensive narrative description of javascript including its nuances.
The author is in command of the topic, he provides solid targeted examples, and alerts you the salient points in those examples. He is teacher.
I have several other javascript books, but I return to this one regularly. Finding that the others are too cookbook oriented and do not give a sufficient grounding to solve complex problems.
The only thing that worries me is the quality of the cover and binding... while holding up.. my book is already looking tatty after just a couple of months. The book is an accessible javascript companion.
Book Review: An excellent book about JavaScript and DOM
Summary: 5 Stars
Both an excellent tutorial and an excellent reference. I've read this bulky volume almost from cover to cover - even the reference chapters - and enjoyed every word.
It covers both the JavaScript language and DOM scripting via JavaScript. It clarifies the differences between the various DOM APIs implemented by the major browsers.
The author is somewhat judgmental (and with good reason, in this reviewer's opinion) to Internet Explorer's non-standards-compliant implementation, but nontheless, he does an excellent and thorough job describing this very popular API, as well as the W3C standard (implemented by FireFox and Opera, for instance).
The book also covers interoperability between JavaScript and Java, and between JavaScript and Flash (i've only skimmed through these chapters, though, so i won't vouch to their quality...).
I recommend complementing this book with Crawford's slim and exquisite "JavaScript: The Good Parts" (read Flanagan first).
Prerequisites for reading Flanagan: an aquaintance (really, a mere aquaintance is good enough) with HTML, CSS, Structured Programming and the Object Oriented paradigm. A knowledge of Java is assumed in a couple specialized chapters.
Book Review: What more could you want?
Summary: 5 Stars
I ordinarily like to say that JavaScript is the worst programming language known to man, but I just read "Programming in Lua" and don't think I can continue in this practice. Nevertheless, it's pretty bad. From its lack of anything remotely resembling an "include" statement to its closures-over-classes OOP implementation, there is nothing pleasant about working in JavaScript, and that's why we need this book--to explain all the bizarre, counterintuitive nuances of scope resolution, interpreter variations and whatever all else the Netscape crackheads who forced this travesty on the world came up with.
Some people seem to think that any book that has the word "JavaScript" in its title should be packed full of code they can simply copy and paste until they have a bangin' new social networking startup site that's going to revolutionize the way we think about horrible photography, and those people are the ones who are disappointed with what they got. While AJAX and DOM scripting are discussed at considerable length here, this is not a book about making flashy, annoying websites.
Book Review: Excellent Book
Summary: 5 Stars
The great thing about it being a 5th edition, most of the issues, errors, oversights, and omitted content found in 1st editions are not a problem. This book is thorough, well written, and filled with examples. I also greatly appreciate how it ramps up the reader without overwhelming them. Too many of these types of books go from a useless overview of the language to moderate or advanced concepts with little explanation as to how you got there. I don't see this in this book. Personally, I purchased this just as a reference book, and it's great for that. You can look up almost anything in a few seconds, making it the kind of book you keep on your shelf for a long time. I highly recommend this book as a way to become familiar with the power of Javascript, and in learning it, you'll also gain a little insight into all of the C based languages for web programming as well. I'm bummed I ordered version 5 when version 6 is coming out in a month... but it's still a great book.