Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Ready for Level 2?
Comment: After writing disorganized (yet effective) JavaScript functions for seven years, I really wanted to get more out of the language. I wanted to code more efficiently. As each new project started, I found myself scurrying to find old functions strewn across different computers or servers. Even when I found this code, I would often need to make some significant changes to it.
So, I did what any self-taught front-end developer would do: I hit the online tutorials. Online tutorials didn't really do it for me, though. The good tutorials seemed too short, and I kept reverting back to sloppy coding after a few days.
Then I came across this book.
The examples are excellent in demonstrating how the language can really work for you if you're willing to put the time into it. That being said, this book is not for beginners. This book is probably best for three groups of people:
1) Intermediate JavaScript developers who are ready to finally adopt code reuse and reap the nice things a loosely typed, object-based language can give you.
2) Java/C++ programmers who need to pick up JavaScript for a project. These people are already familiar with OO concepts and will probably have an easier time learning the language from a book like this.
3) Ambitious beginners with a lot of patience.
After only 3 chapters, I started to think about JavaScript in a different way. For the first time ever, I found myself reusing code with little to no change required. My code was easier to read, too.
I'm a big proponent of activities that give back the time you invest. Bad books don't do this. Good ones, like this book, do.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Pro Javascript - the title says it all
Comment: How refreshing to finally get a book written by a pro for pros, one that does not spend the first half trying to teach one how to program. Instead, it is assumed you know your stuff, know languages in general, but need a deep reference for what makes Javascript different, and where its power lies. Even the introduction taught me stuff I needed to know, about Javascript, and not about how to write a program.
If you are an experienced pro, but in classical languages (C/C++/C# etc), but are moving into AJAX, this is the book to get. And use Firebug in Firefox to follow along. The debug environment that provides is an eye-opener in itself.
Customer Rating:
Summary: John Resig is brilliant and so is Pro JavaScript Techniques
Comment: Let me begin this review by mentioning, I've never had the desire to write a review for any of my 100+ owned technical literature pieces. John Resig's
Pro JavaScript Techniques (Pro) has inspired me to login and give three thumbs up for this phenomenal book.
Getting into John Resig's brain, author of the innovative library jQuery (www.jquery.com), has been nothing short of an exciting ride. The author makes Object Orientated JavaScript surprisingly simple to understand, as well as thorough understanding of the DOM, Events models, Ajax and many other contemporary styles of JavaScript as its written by professionals today.
I no longer reference any of my other JavaScript books. Instead opening up John's piece proves valuable over and over when in need of a refresher or a utility function for my web applications.
For any web developer who's serious about writing clean, powerful, unobtrusive JavaScript code -- look no further than John Resig's Pro JavaScript Techniques.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, but some annoying points.
Comment: This book is not too bad as far as it goes, but the layout of the book does not lead to a natural understanding of the subject matter. This book is a nice adjunct to more comprehensive works.
One very annoying point is the way the author continually uses the phrase "A couple ..." as in "A couple things". The phrae is "A couple OF things" not a "A couple things". I know this is a small thing, but it is repeated over an over in this book, and it becomes quite annoying.
I would still recommend this book, but please fix your idiomatic expressions in future works.
Customer Rating:
Summary: very well written
Comment: This book will surely take your javascript skills to the next level. Every chapter is worth reading.
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