JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
by David Flanagan
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Book Reviews of JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
Book Review: [5th Edition] Excellent JavaScript reference
Summary: 5 Stars
As should be obvious from the large number of positive reviews, this is a great book. I've got a well worn 3rd edition laying around somewhere as well as an abused 4th edition I just replaced with the 5th edition. In short, if you're a new developer trying to get a grasp on serious JavaScript or otherwise looking for a quality JavaScript book, you can't go wrong with this book.
If you're debating whether or not to "upgrade" to the 5th edition, I guess I'd throw out a few thoughts:
1) If you have the 3rd edition or earlier - it's a no brainer, this book is worth the upgrade.
2) If you primarily use the Core and Client-Side Reference portions of the 4th edition (the last 1/3 of the book) - I'd say its a coin toss. The layout is a little cleaner and the information is a little easier to find, but the content hasn't changed significantly (as the APIs haven't changed). Flipping through this section, I did notice the addition of the FlashPlayer object, though.
3) If you used the first 2/3 of the 4th edition - the content and layout has changed and new stuff has been added around cookies, client side graphics, and (everybody's favorite buzzword) Ajax. Enough new stuff to warrant and upgrade, in my opinion.
For details on the changes, it would be worthwhile to read the comments from the author.
Book Review: The one JavaScript book to rule them all...
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a technical trainer, and we've decided to distribute this book as part of our Ajax courseware. We've reviewed many other JavaScript books, but we keep coming back to this one.
Suffice to say - its an excellent Core javaScript coursebook by itself (the first 220 pages). But the latest 5th edition is also a great resource for other Web 2.0 relevant topics: Ajax/Remote Scripting, CSS, Event handling, DOM scripting, ... The fifth edition also includes comments related to the just-release Internet Explorer 7.
Add in another 100+ page Core JavaScript reference section
Plus another 240+ page Client-Side JavaScript Object reference section (classes, methods, properties, and event handlers...such as XMLHttpRequest, Document, Window, Event)
And it all adds up to one thick/heavy book that deserves to be on your bookshelf...
My only complaint - the reference section has changed. Previous editions would tell you specifically which browser versions are applicable. In this edition, the author chose to tell us what standard provides the specification. Ex: "ECMAScript v1". IMHO - I wish the reference section consistently showed both bits of information ALL the time: the specification standard, and the browsers which support it.
Book Review: This is the Definitive Guide
Summary: 5 Stars
We are in 2008 and this is the Rhino book 5th ed. Try to google the terms "javascript variable names", you'll have a bunch of articles and tutorials giving you the javascript naming rules. Count how many articles you hit before one of them mentions that the ($) dollar sign is a perfectly valid character in identifiers (it's been so since javascript 1.1). This Rhino book already mentioned this back in 1998 when in its 3rd edition and possibly in previous editions. It is not to say that this is a life changing information, it's simply to illustrate a point. By knowing what is or isn't possible with the language you can put it to better use. You should own this book, even if you want to buy other JS books or even if you've read tutorials around the web and you think you know what you're doing. This book clearly details the language and its intricacies. If you're a programmer, you'll appreciate that you actually understand how javascript works. The bugs will seem a lot less obscure and some esoteric constructs found in various scripts and frameworks will look less like voodoo. You will certainly need other Javascript books that deal more with advanced practice, architecture and development techniques, but you need a solid foundation to build all that knowledge on.Book Review: a truly definitive guide
Summary: 5 Stars
I knew next to nothing about javascript when I bought this book. I am not a professional programmer.
After twice reading the theoretical section (the first half of the book) attentively, I was able to program some pretty interesting things with javascript. The book provided sufficient grounding for me to fly solo and use my imagination. The reference section has been valuable for this.
I have read some of the negative reviews, and while I understand reviews that say this book could be more direct, practical and concise, I disagree with them as I found the author provided a very comprehensive narrative description of javascript including its nuances.
The author is in command of the topic, he provides solid targeted examples, and alerts you the salient points in those examples. He is teacher.
I have several other javascript books, but I return to this one regularly. Finding that the others are too cookbook oriented and do not give a sufficient grounding to solve complex problems.
The only thing that worries me is the quality of the cover and binding... while holding up.. my book is already looking tatty after just a couple of months. The book is an accessible javascript companion.
Book Review: An excellent book about JavaScript and DOM
Summary: 5 Stars
Both an excellent tutorial and an excellent reference. I've read this bulky volume almost from cover to cover - even the reference chapters - and enjoyed every word.
It covers both the JavaScript language and DOM scripting via JavaScript. It clarifies the differences between the various DOM APIs implemented by the major browsers.
The author is somewhat judgmental (and with good reason, in this reviewer's opinion) to Internet Explorer's non-standards-compliant implementation, but nontheless, he does an excellent and thorough job describing this very popular API, as well as the W3C standard (implemented by FireFox and Opera, for instance).
The book also covers interoperability between JavaScript and Java, and between JavaScript and Flash (i've only skimmed through these chapters, though, so i won't vouch to their quality...).
I recommend complementing this book with Crawford's slim and exquisite "JavaScript: The Good Parts" (read Flanagan first).
Prerequisites for reading Flanagan: an aquaintance (really, a mere aquaintance is good enough) with HTML, CSS, Structured Programming and the Object Oriented paradigm. A knowledge of Java is assumed in a couple specialized chapters.