Skip the "Book Of Dojo" and go straight to this
I haven't read the other Dojo books so I can't compare them. They may be very good too. This book is well orgainsed and well written. My advise to anyone starting from scratch is not to bother with the free online documentation, "The Book of Dojo", which is a spotty and unsystematic and start with this.
A very good advanced Dojo book
To fully utilize this book, I suggest you read the Book of Dojo first. Then, for some few topics you still don't get, you need to read the blog of the authors. Compared to Using the Dojo JavaScript Library, I think this is more advanced. Of the 3 currently available Dojo books, this is the only book that discussed the Grid, devoting entirely one chapter in Chapter 14. It is also the only book that has an example of handling XML (handleAs: "xml").
Currently the best book on Dojo
One line conclusion: Recommended for serious developers using Dojo.
Comparing this book with the other two Dojo books (one published by O'Reilly and one by Addison-Wesley Professional), I feel the title of this book is justified. The contents of the other two are greatly overlapped with the free online documentation of Dojo [...]. If all you wanted is a Dojo book that resembles a print copy of the free on line book, then you can buy the other two. If you are asking for something more, like how Dojo actually works and how to customize Dojo build (a pivotal step to speed up your product) then this is the one you need. You will not find such detailed documentation from either the Dojo documentation or the other two books.
I take one star out because the contents of the book does not fully cover the functionality of Dojo, which is somewhat understandable as Dojo itself keeps evolving.
The "how" and "why" straight from the horse's mouth
Often when you're learning a new toolkit, you see an implementation detail and wonder, "Why does it work this way?" This book answers a lot of those "why" questions as it shows you the "how" of Dojo.
I liked the way the examples were accompanied by lots of context and analogy to other programming languages. The high level of detail was helpful, too -- the fact that the authors are key Dojo contributors shows in the writing.
(4 reviews)
