Examples hard to read and hard to understand
As someone else noted, the examples are in tiny type.
More seriously, I found the examples to be hard to follow because of overly-similar variable names and unnecessary complexity. Often tries to show several concepts combined in one long example instead of one short example for each.
Good concept but trying to cram too much material into too few pages.
Probably better as a reference then a beginner's guide.
This is a decent book on JavaScript. The format consists of a detailed explanation of a concept or technique then example code. It's filled with many useful examples both large and small. This book has a lot of good information and probably could have benefited from being a bit longer. Many areas were covered including event handling, debugging and objects. There was also a great chapter on cascading style sheets (Probably just a setup for the next chapter on DHTML).
The code is displayed using screens shots of the code in a notepad window on the author's computer. At times it was difficult getting the whole picture of the code across multiple screen shots. It was sometimes difficult reading and typing code from these screen shots as well. I had a lot of errors because I couldn't tell the difference between a single and double quote or between a comma and period. This was more of a problem with the lengthier scripts. Also, the order of the chapters wasn't very helpful either since many concepts were used in early chapters but not explained until a later chapter.
This book is definitely more of a reference than a book on actually teaching the fundamentals of the language. Though as a reference it has far fewer pages compared to a code bible or cookbook. It's probably better for someone who wants to cut and paste code or is already fairly fluent in another programming/scripting language.
From the Publisher
Please note that the printing issue has been fixed in all available product. Any future books shipped will have correct text and code.
Thank you.
Publisher fixed problem
I bought this book and it had some printing errors, but I contacted the publisher and got a new copy overnight. They have fixed the problem since so I don't believe you will find the same issue. If you like learning step-by-step, this is the book for you. Easy to follow and great for some new to Javascript. The book is well organized and explaines javascript concepts in quick concise explainations. All of the examples are easy to follow and focus on one topic at a time.
Make sure you get second (or greater) printing
Updated:
The publisher has now provided me with a corrected copy so I would like to update on my negative remarks made previously. This an excellent book for beginning JavaScript programmers and it also makes a good reference (or cookbook) for experienced programmers. If you need a jumpstart into the world of clientside scripting this is the book I recommend. Give it 5 stars now.
[Old review: I have just received this book in its first printing of the 2nd edition.
Unfortunately the publishers have let the author down badly.
This book would have rated 5 stars from me if it did not contain bad printing errors which cause most of example code in the diagrams to be invisible.
Hold off on this one until the next corrected printing.]
