Customer Rating: 
Summary: Superb!
Comment: I have not found anything to criticize in this book! This newer edition reorganizes the content, separating JavaScript "core" from client-side or server-side JavaScript. While this means that you occasionally have to look in more than one place to find something, I can't think of any way to organize the information that would provide an improvement.Not only is this book comprehensive and complete, but it also gives very valuable information on browser compatibility. It's a staple in my daily web-app diet.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not for beginners
Comment: You'd better know what javascript is and how it works before buying this book...... this is not a beginners book. It's written with "code lingo" and it all sounds greek to me. Thank goodness I didn't pay full price because this book was no help at all. I just finished two courses in HTML and got A's in both. I then decided to explore Javascript but this was not the book to buy. I don't know how the reviews I read couldn't have warned us of the complexity of the book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Best Yet - Guide and Reference to JavaScript
Comment: If you can't learn JavaScript with this book you may as well give it up. I have an extensive library of programming books covering a variety of languages and this is easily the best I have ever seen. If you are an inexperienced programmer trying to learn JavaScript this is THE book. If you are experienced and want more depth of understanding, this is your book.As each new concept is introduced, the usual questions which occur to any programmer are answered clearly and concisely. Browser specific issues are addressed. Material is organized well so you can always find what you need. Nuances of the different Document Object Models are covered. This volume is uniquely qualified to be both a reference and a text book. My profession requires that I read extensively, but I almost never write a review. I am compelled to make an exception in this case. This book is so good it simply must receive it's due. "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide" should be required reading for anyone aspiring to write a book on any language. This is the standard by which all other books on the subject could be judged. Four adjetives say it all; readable, clear, accurate and thorough. By all means buy it. It's the best on the planet.
Customer Rating:
Summary: The Bible
Comment: If you write JavaScript, you need this book. If nothing else, it's worth having for the Refence Section (III). It explains everything you need to know for each object, property, constant, event, etc.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A thorough introduction for experienced programmers
Comment: Usually putting a subtitle such as "The Definitive Guide" on a book is a setup for a joke, but Flanagan's "JavaScript" neatly avoids this trap by being truly definitive. JavaScript should be familiar as the implementation of ECMAScript found on most web browsers. I actually picked the book up when I needed to embed ECMAScript into a speech recognition grammar formalism for work, a rather daunting task for someone who'd never read a line of JavaScript. JavaScript is designed for embedding; unlike Perl, Python or Tcl, it's completely isolated from the operating system.The ECMAScript specification is dense, but more readable than the specs from the W3C. "ECMA" used to be an acronym for the European Computer Manufacturers Association; now it's just a name for yet another standards body. Flanagan's book is the perfect bridge for a programmer who knows nothing to the spec. Flanagan assumes a reader who is an experienced programmer; this is not JavaScript for novices. Basically, this is the Kernighan and Ritchie of JavaScript. As such, the book is classically organized, taking the reader from syntax and control through the object model. Most usefully, Flanagan clearly describes how the JavaScript object model works, which is no mean feat given the double inheritance chain along with the overloading of members, methods and constructors. For those who prefer source code, Mozilla distributes their reference JavaScript implementations: the Rhino implementation in Java, and the SpiderMonkey implementation in C. The code is quite well organized and the Mozilla message boards are closely monitored by the coders. You'll also find the latest information on known bugs through their Bugzilla trackers. Note: Because I was using JavaScript for an embedded application, I thoroughly studied the first half of the book, but never even cracked the DOM sections in the back, which describe JavaScript's integration with web browsers.
|
|
