Customer Reviews

The Art & Science of JavaScript

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a very interesting book for anyone who is interested in going to the 'next level' of JavaScript. It's not a book for absolute beginners, but everything is very well explained without wasting time on trivia.

The chapter on metaprogramming (self-modifying code) is my favourite. Not only because it presents some very useful ideas, but also because it finally made me understand how JavaScript does certain things under the bonnet.

James Edward's Maze game is nothing short of a-maze-ing. It's a fine example of what you can do if you have the ability to think outside the box. (Way outside, in this case!)

The only negative part is the first chapter. Not because it's not useful -- it is! -- and not because it's badly written -- it isn't. The reason is that the code samples use XHTML markup but the JavaScript code will not work if that markup is served as real XHTML. The JavaScript relies on the HTML DOM, e.g., that nodeName properties are returned in uppercase. The use of character entity references is also ill-advised for XHTML.

Unfortunately, there isn't any informtion about this in the text. Someone who isn't well-versed in the fundamental differences between HTML and XHTML would learn some harmful practices.

The sad part is that it would have been so easy to write the JavaScript in a way that would have worked in both the HTML DOM and the XML DOM.

The remainder of the book contains good code examples which don't sacrifice accessibility.

Having said that, I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who wants to learn how to use JavaScript for something other than validating form input.

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I saw a bunch of things I *wanted* to criticize about this book but ended up being more positive as I began to see the educational value of the chapters. This book is not for absolute beginners by any means, however the material is presented in a smooth way as each script addition is explained separately.

Do NOT expect to come away from the book's chapters with code that can be immediately applied to a typical professional application or Web site. Things like a JavaScripted maze game can be great for learning some cool things but that is all.

Even the practical-sounding features like table column sorting and table column dragging could not be applied to a production situation without considerable modification. For instance, the column dragging scenario depends on all columns having similar width. If not, then the result is pretty messy. And we all know that data tables can be messy in the best of cases!

The index is miserable, but that is pretty much the rule for computer tech books.

The ensemble of authors is top-notch and some, like Christian Heilmann, (Beginning JavaScript with DOM Scripting and Ajax: From Novice to Professional) have written excellent books you may want to check out. You really can't go wrong with this book for a solid advance in your script education.

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I just received my latest book in the SitePoint collection, The Art & Science of JavaScript.

As always SitePoint has gathered some of the greatest minds in modern JavaScript to collaborate on an amazingly easy to follow book.

The Art & Science covers some great topics including Google Maps and Flickr mashups, building your own fully accessible 3D maze, draggable and sortable table columns, and much more!

SitePoint has always amazed me with the beautiful layout and design of their books. Code is easily readable in a fixed-width font with a blue background. The book also displays Tips, Notes, and Warning icons to help expand upon certain points.

This book is geared towards anyone who is familiar with JavaScript and wants to take their skills to the next level.

As identified by the previous reviewers as one of those people wanting to take my Javascript to the next level, I am finding this book just right.

Just enough code to help me along (note: Not all code is in the book, no CD, but can be downloaded), with enough explanations that leave me space to think, i.e. not all spoon fed. The style is free and easy to read, put down, and come back to later after having thought about it for a while.

I originally bought it because of the Google Maps mashup in the last chapter, but have avidly read the others too. Although some rely on information in previous chapters, most can be read as stand-alone projects.

Are you an intermediate JavaScript developer who wants to take their JavaScript skills to the next level without sacrificing web accessibility or best practices? If you are, then this book is for you! Authors Cameron Adams, James Edwards, Christian Heilmann, Michael Mahemoff, Ara Pehlivanian, Dan Webb and Simon Willison, have done an outstanding job of writing a book that helps you take your JavaScript skills to the next level.

Authors Adams, Edwards, Heilmann, Mahemoff, Pehlivanian, Webb and Willison, begin by proving that not only are properly used tables not boring, but they can, in fact, be a lot of fun. Next, they walk us through the task of creating client-side badges for your own site from scratch, using JSON and allowing for a plan B if the connection to the third-party server dies. Then, the authors introduce the canvas element, and shows you how you can use it to create vector graphics that work across all modern browsers. They continue by revealing tons of pro-level tips and hidden treasures to give you new insight into this indispensable development tool. Next, the authors explore the mechanics of the JavaScript language. Then, they show you how to push the technologies of CSS and JavaScript to their limits, as they create a real game in which the player must navigate around a 3D maze. Finally, the authors show you how to utilize the power of JavaScript APIs, thus creating a mashup from two third-party web sites.

This most excellent book contains a team of experts in their respective fields. More importantly, by the time you come to the end of the book, you will have developed the skills that are needed to create impressive mashups and stunning dynamic graphics to more subtle user-experience enhancements.

Each of the seven chapters in this book was written by a different author who provides you with an example project where they demonstrate some of the more advanced tasks that JavaScript can perform. Some of these projects are useful in themselves while others serve more to illustrate particular coding techniques but in all seven chapters you are presented with ways of using JavaScript that are not all that obvious to most JavaScript programmers.

This book doesn't present JavaScript the way most people use it, it presents JavaScript the way that it could (and to some extent probably should) be used. While some of the example tasks are not all that useful in themselves, the code used to achieve those tasks demonstrates what can be achieved with a proper understanding of JavaScript. While JavaScript gives the appearance of being fairly similar to a number of other languages, the way that it really works is quite different and the examples in this book make it really clear what some of these differences are.

I do not necessarily agree with the ways that some of the examples have been coded (there are some parts I would have written differently) but then as the first author indicates, there are multiple ways of coding many of the things that can be done with JavaScript. There are also some coding examples included that have me wondering why I didn't think of doing it that way.

For anyone with a moderate level of programming experience this book will provide the opportunity to raise your JavaScript programming skills to the next level.

Book is well written and easy to read. Support from Sitepoint for their books is also good. I was able to apply my learning from this book quickly into my own web development.