Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Good textbook, great reference
Comment: This refers to the 5th edition.
Ten years ago, JavaScript support was so different among various web browsers, I gave up trying to do any logical processing in JavaScript, and went into server-side programming.
Today, you still have to do a select few things two or three times in JavaScript to get them to work in all web browsers. But with much better standardization across browsers -- including broad support for Ajax, or remote scripting -- it's become worthwhile again to spend time on JavaScript development.
So, I took an online JavaScript class at the local community college. I bought this book as my reading text.
This "bible" of JavaScript skimps at times on simple examples, but provides several lengthy general-purpose code samples that show how to abstract out the client-specific or case-specific handling from an underlying set of routines.
Only the first part of this book is instructional. Then, there is the wonderful second half of the book, which is all reference. Divided into the core language reference and the client-side JavaScript reference, it's an essential quick lookup tool.
If you are new to JavaScript or (like me) brushing up on it after a long time away, choose this book as your in-depth background information and your ongoing reference text. Choose something like Dori Smith's JavaScript and Ajax for the Web, Sixth Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide) for your smaller, quick-start examples to play with.
Unfortunately, as long as browsers don't all support all the same JavaScript and CSS, there is still too much tedious hacking needed to provide a useful interface on the client side. Neither this book nor any other will get you past that little problem.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent guidebook
Comment: Well written and concise language description. Especially good for programmers who want to learn the language.
Customer Rating:
Summary: a truly definitive guide
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: What more could you want?
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: So good I've worn it out.
Comment: I've had this book for a few years now and I think I've about worn it out and need to get another copy. I took it to work and my whole department borrows it on a weekly basis. It's very handy and covers almost everything you would need to know (from a professional level) about javascript. It's the "definitive guide" though, so you probably don't want to read this one cover to cover unless you're a robot. For anyone looking for a technical reference this is great.
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