I use it as a reference
Ouch! Most of the reviews seem to trash this book. I've had this book for many years and I use it as a reference source for CSS syntax, and obscure properties. The CD comes with the examples already typed in and they work. Layers are an interesting concept and fun to try. The used book price was at less than $5 as I write this and that would be a great bargain for a reference book.
Total trash!
I'm no expert, but I've got some idea about Javascript. I signed this book out of the library to look up some stuff for a project I'm doing. This book LOOKS good, until you try to do something with it. It's complicated in every way--layout, writing, topic, organization. It covers a lot of ground, starting from the middle (apparently the writer originally planned to concentrate on layer effects). It gives adequate but not great explanations. All of this makes it completely useless for a real novice.
Still, I've got some idea of the code. I should be able to puzzle out what's going on by comparing what the writer says to the code and pictures in the examples, right? Well, the examples are in black and white, which makes that a bit disorienting. But then I notice there's a CD, so I figure I'll load 'em up and compare on my computer.
Turns out, the Javascript in the CD examples is totally buggy. From what I can tell, it's all written specifically for Netscape. Since I'm using Internet Explorer, I may as well not HAVE a computer. It's not like this was necessary. You can usually write Javascript so it's compatible with multiple browsers. But not a SINGLE ONE of his examples that I tried worked.
You know what? I'm dropping my rating of this book. I was going to give it 2 stars, but now I think about it, that kind of carelessness doesn't deserve it. There's no excuse for a writer to pull that kind of narrow-minded garbage these days. Code that only works for one program is code that should be scrapped.
I Don't like this book much
This book does serve for a decent reference for seeing how to use code, but the theory is nonexistent. It basically says here is some code and this is what its doing. There are very few paragraphs that are not explaining code. It doesn't tell why to do things nor what is and isn't bad code. Other reviewers were right when they called this book bizarre. To the books benefit I did learn quit a bit from reading it. If you have object programming experience or are familiar with object programming "JavaScript The Definitive Guide" from O'Reilly publishing is a much better book.
Thank god I didn't buy it
I didn't actually buy this book, thank god; I got it from the local public library. This has to be one of the most disorienting books I've ever tried to read. The first chapter dives right into syntax, with no explanation of what the stuff being talked about actually *means*. I've only made it a few pages in, and am just going to return it, because flipping through it makes me realize that the rest of it is like this as well.This may be an excellent book for the experienced user of this technology who needs a reference; unfortunately, that is not what I wanted.
High Hopes
This book has a lot of examples. So many that most people would not use all of them for 5 different webpages. The only problem is it is not user friendly. Good for someone who knows the language, but NOT reccommended for a person trying to learn the language.
