49 of 56 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
New things happening with JavaScript, June 10, 2005
This review is from: DHTML Utopia Modern Web Design Using JavaScript & DOM (Paperback)
In the past year I have seen some impressive yet close to incomprehensible scripts that show a new direction in JavaScript. We can find syntax and approaches so different from the standard practice most of us implement. Unfortunately, the scripters who have grasped the new techniques have shown little interest in explaining the new approach. Their examples published on the Web have a "show-offy" character that do little to communicate or proselytize.
For that reason, I was eager to study this book since it promised to deal with some of the new approaches, including the syntax. I have learned a lot from the author who early on made pains to keep me running apace. Regretfully, the author seemed to be less and less concerned with keeping me with him as the book progressed. The first 4 chapters were the clearest.
Part of the problem was mine. Since the book did not seem to be organized in a linear fashion, I skipped Ch. 5 on animation. I design Web applications so I associate animation with script kiddies and popup ad makers. Ch. 6, on form validation, was up my alley but following the author was painful because he kept referring to a variable "fV" that was defined with a self-referential, bizarrely nested syntax. Only at the end of the chapter did he mention that Ch. 5 first used this syntax. I had to go back to the previous chapter to get a clue. But only a clue because that chapter never really tried to explain why this extremely unconventional approach was used.
The author early on tries to make the case that his approach is better than the conventional one. I *think* I agree but as the chapters progressed, he made less and less effort to prove anything at all. I was very disappointed in this. I also did not like the odd way the braces in the scripts were handled. Because he did not line them up well, it was difficult to tell when a section of a script began or ended. The author recognized this in some cases by putting in comments:
} /* end 'if' */
} /* end 'for' */
It would have been better to match braces visibly. Yes, code alignment is a matter of taste so I cannot really hold that against him.
Some examples did not work quite as advertised. The type-ahead dropdown script did not work at all in Windows Firefox and worked only erratically in IE.
I liked the way the author oriented his examples to user-centered design. Ultimately, the key to the best implementations of JavaScripting is not the syntactical approach but how the functionality fits into the usability of what you are doing.
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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Avoid this like the plague, February 20, 2006
This review is from: DHTML Utopia Modern Web Design Using JavaScript & DOM (Paperback)
This is without doubt the worst book on DHTML/Javascript that I've ever read. The author tries to be cute, funny and authorative but ends up just plain painful. The examples are over-long and artificial, and would be difficult to incorporate into a real world application. The author peppers the book with snazzy shots like "It's the modern way!" but rarely explains the benefits of the methodology he's pushing, and glosses over any shortcomings.
For instance, in discussing regular expressions he provides a simple expression for a telephone number, then points out that it's seriously flawed. But it's "suitable for our discussion" so onward we press, and a correct solution is never provided. Bad luck if you were after such a beast. (Footnotes abound - often just URLs to now broken links - so you have to wonder why he couldn't have provided the solution at the bottom of the page.) The part on Ajax is a joke - he just plugs in an out-of-date version of the Sarissa library and never scratches below the surface.
Beware.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Advanced, but terse, June 23, 2005
This review is from: DHTML Utopia Modern Web Design Using JavaScript & DOM (Paperback)
There is some great cutting edge stuff in here. If you know what you are doing already and want to get a jump start into Ajax then this is a good book for you. My problem with it is that the text relies too heavily on the code to convey the message. Which means that the book is better for advanced readers. I also would have appreciated some more emphasis on what works cross browser and how to handle older browsers.
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