Not what I thought it would be.
The book doesn't go in-depth in it's explainations. It is written more for the seasoned script writer and not the beginner. I found it very confusing and not enough detail to be of any use to me. I preferred "Javascript, Demystified".
A Good Book to Learn The Basics
Like most web developers, I typically will reach for one of the many JS libraries when it comes time to add client-side enhancements to my web applications. This is usually the obvious choice for the sake of saving time on projects, and keeping costs down... but quite often, many libraries are simply overkill for a simple little js/dhtml enhancement.
As such, that is what lead me to this book. I was hoping the cookbook format would give me some fresh ideas on doing some simple js/dhtml work and it most definitively delivered.
Perhaps the most valuable parts of this book for me were the aspects of working on the DOM. Additionally, I always enjoy reading different techniques for dealing with client-side form validation.
To me the coverage on loading dynamic data/ajax was good, but I still think that when entering into that realm of JS, it is usually time to deploy one of the libraries I mentioned earlier.
All in all this has become a valuable resource that I often refer to during my daily work.
Great book
I really like this book. The format of each technique demonstrated is
Problem- Solution- Discussion
The nice thing is that you can get a quick explanation from the solution, and a more in depth response in the discussion. The author presents complete code which is easily built upon and customized.
I knew a bit of Javascript when I started, but I think this would be an excellent book even for a complete beginner.
This is a good book for general purposes
I wouldn't buy this book if you are going for aesthetics for you website. I wouldn't buy it if you are a heavy programmer either. Its a good "middle" book for just general roll overs, browser detections, and other javascript functions for form validation. Its a little small.
excellent reference
I still have the first edition of this book but other than perhaps missing the chapters on ajax it's not outdated at all. This book has saved my life several times already. Almost every time I am looking to solve a tricky problem in javascript, I find that this book contains a well explained chapter with the exact solution that I was looking for. The authors often make a point of going through multiple iterations of a solution, to demonstrate what needs to be modified to support certain browsers, and at the same time ensure that the reader actually understands the code too.
This is a great book for experienced javascript developers who want to save time by using tried and tested code to solve common problems, but at the same time understand that code too.
(27 reviews)
