Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:  
Summary: Foundations of the DOM
Comment: This was my first introduction to the DOM. The book explains concepts very well and builds a nice foundation to work off. I did find the book a bit tedious in some parts, but this is mostly due to the fact that I am not an advanced JS developer yet.
Don't expect to use this as a reference book. Jeremy Keith is quick to point this out in one of the first paragraphs. It is more about driving home these concepts: graceful degradation, progressive enhancement, Web standards, and separation of structure, presentation, and behavior through easily understandable examples.
I would highly recommend this book if you looking to lay down a firm foundation before jumping into the DOM. For a topic that has been scarcely covered thus far, Jeremy Keith does a good job getting us out of the gate.
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Summary: An Incredible Explanation of How to Use JavaScript Correctly
Comment: I've been working with and writing JavaScript for several years now. Additionally, I've been following the practices that this book espouses for the last year or so. I didn't expect to learn an incredible amount from this book, but I was wrong. While I already understood most of the concepts, Mr. Keith explained them with unrivaled clarity.
This book is nothing short of a revolution in educating developers about the true potential of DOM Scripting (JavaScript). Mr. Keith does an excellent job setting the stage, explaining the landscape, and showing how and why the old ways are no longer acceptable.
At the same time, he clearly illustrates that client-side scripting can be both advanced and accessible at the same time by deftly explaining the concepts of progressive enhancement and graceful degradation in parallel with concise and easy to understand code samples.
This book is an absolute must for anyone that wishes to take JavaScript seriously. A definitive reference guide may make you aware of the tools you have at your disposal, but this book will show you how to really use those tools and achieve the best possible results.
Whether you're just get started with scripting or have been using it for years, this is a book that should be in your library.
Customer Rating:
Summary: DOM for Designers
Comment: Over Thanksgiving break, I was able to set aside some time to get reading done that I have been putting off for awhile. I have just finished reading the tome of knowledge entitled DOM Scripting, and have to say that I was very pleased with this book. It is written by Jeremy Keith, who is one of, if not the leading expert in JavaScript and the Document Object Model. The forward to the book is done by Dave Shea, curator of the popular site CSS Zen Garden.
In the case of highly technical subjects, documentation is usually quite widespread. Most programming textbooks will tell you what you need to know, in some way or another. The thing I like about this one is the way in which Jeremy presents the information. He uses everyday, practical examples of JavaScript, such as making an interactive photo gallery.
I also like how he does not tout JavaScript as the end-all solution for web design. In several cases, he will show how to do something with JavaScript, and then gives a more simple example of how it would work with CSS. He makes mention of how simple image roll-overs need not be handled by JS anymore, because of the CSS a:hover handles it better and with less code.
This book relates to the reader in a manner that assumes a shared basic knowledge of XHTML and CSS. It is full of examples of selecting nodes via the getElementByTag method, not unlike the way CSS interacts with the DOM. For instance, with CSS every H1 in a document can be given a certain style.
By using JavaScript, you can affect these by changing color, margin or padding directly. Jeremy gives examples of how instead of re-defining these types of things with JS, you can simple assign a different class name to them, and control the styles via CSS, the way you normally would.
He also shows how to impliment current-page indicators in a navigation system, but conceeds that things like this are better handled with server-side scripting. It is refereshing to see an author who is humble about his area of expertise, presenting it as a piece of a larger system, and showing areas in which it might not be the best fit for the task at hand.
I could go on and on, but I think that if I give away too much, that might be giving you the book for free. So, take my advice: If you are wondering what all this DOM / AJAX buzz is, then go get this book. It will give you a solid handle on the underlying principles of the DOM, and show you how to use a combination of JavaScript and CSS to best manipulate behavior within your webpages.
Customer Rating:
Summary: DOM Scripting is aimed at designers, not programmers
Comment: ...And Jeremy says so himself. However to the casual looker, a programmer who already has a healthy grasp on JavaScript is still very likely to pick up this book. In that case I rated it down from 5 stars to 4.
It is in fact an excellent book, but I would keep in mind that this highly geared toward those wanting to get their feet wet with JavaScript for the first time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Comment: Brilliant code examples and incredibly lucid, level-headed and technically sound explanations. The author dogedly sticks to modern coding conventions and standards, which is enlightening and refreshing. Amazingly, this is one of only a very few books on this extremely important subject (I own all the others) and it is far and away the best. I've been looking for a book on DOM scripting like this for over 3 years now - thank you Jermey Keith for writing it!
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