Customer Reviews

JavaScript Bible

5 star:		(75)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This book is not for someone who is an absolute beginner to scripting or programming. I would only recommend it for someone who has some experience with scripting and programming - you don't need much, but you do need some in order to fully enjoy this book.

When I bought this book, I had already read a slimmer, truly beginner JavaScript book, "Teach Yourself JavaScript 1.3 in 24 Hours" by SAMS. The SAMS book taught me the basic concepts of JavaScript and gave me a good foundation in Document Object Model, syntax, scripting logic, etc. With that knowledge already, the Goodman, JavaScript Bible was fully appreciated.

The JavaScript Bible is the best book around on the subject for an intermediate beginner - I mean someone who is still a beginner to JavaScript, but not an absolute beginner. When you are at this stage, buy this book. It is the best learning tutorial at that stage. After reading this I intend to buy the O'Reilly JavaScript book for reference and comparison. I would not recommend the O'Reilly book as the proper learning tutorial for the intermediate beginner, because unlike the JavaScript Bible, the O'Reilly book is written for those who are quite programming and scripting saavy. The O'Reilly book is worth purchasing for reference after reading the JavaScript Bible. The O'Reilly book is also worth buying later in order to find any points that The JavaScript Bible may have not included (and points that the O'Reilly book may have not included but are found in the JavaScript Bible). The JavaScript Bible is a good teacher and a very good reference book. The O'Reilly book is a OK teacher and an excellent reference book.

When I was first learning JavaScript a year or so ago, I bought a couple of different books, all of which wasted half their space explaining HTML and the world wide web. Then the things they explained about JavaScript were either cryptic, badly written, or just plain wrong.

Then, thankfully, the third time was the charm. I had bought the 2nd edition of this book, and it was everything I could have hoped for. The 3rd edition has only improved on the previous one.

Now I can look up any element of JavaScript and know which browsers it will and won't work with. I get lots of concrete examples that I can take, combine, mutate, and play around with until I get what I'm looking for in my scripts. And any time I need to double-check how something works, it's a quick page flip away.

If you only have the money to buy one book about this language, and you're not already a heavy-duty programmer, then buy this book! It's worth every penny.

I work for a company that finished a multimillion project on the WEB in 5 months. Most of it front end manipulations were done with the help of this book. Remote Scripting and this book will help you make big bucks.

I think this is a wonderful book, but feel that Danny Goodman needs to remember the beginners who are just getting their feet wet in OOP. I have read the first five chapters, and now think I have a grasp on event handlers, objects and the like. It would be nice if he could include a complete script at the beginning to reference to while trying to explain what an object, event or method looks like.

I still stand in awe at the immense size of this book. Who better than the original Netscape apostles to write a book on Javascript? All objects and language are covered with code snippets and examples - the sort of thing a professional will come back to over and over. Ever wondered about the use of the void operator? Do you know its precedence? If you like true scholar style this is the book for you. If you're a beginner buy the JavaScript CookBook by Yosef Cohen - you'll get through that one. Otherwise this is it. Warning: If you want flashy demos grab your design team and do it yourself..

First off let me tell you my background reading this book. I have no "real world" programming experence. I have however, taken several college programming courses (C++, Java, COBOL, etc).

With that background, I found this book to be wonderful! Before I read it, I didn't have the first clue about javascript. I would try doing something and get frustrated and give up. I got 10 chapters into this book and I was already adding cool stuff to my personal homepage.

Now if you've never programmed in your life, you may get a little confused with this book. However, you will probably get confused with ANY book. I honestly believe that the fundamentals of programming need to be taught to you. You just can't learn programming for the first time from a book. You will have questions and you will get confused and things will need to be explained to you. You will also need to ask questions. So I would suggest taking some sort of course or getting some training first, then pick up this book if you're new to programming in general.

I was overwhelmed by the selection of books on JavaScript, each 1,000+ pages and supposedly "the complete. . ." "the comprehensive. . .", etc. I looked at the various choices in bookstores, and eventually threw in my lot with Goodman's "Bible". I didn't regret it. Not only is the book great for learning JavaScript step by step, but it's well organized enough to use purely as a reference once you have a handle on the language. There may be more complete manuals, but I'm convinced that this is the best compromise between tutorial and reference. At this point, however, the time is definitely ripe for a 4th edition.

I am currently webmaster for an Educational Institution. I thought that this book had everything anyone would need to write javascript for their website. I liked the way that each chapter broke down all of the properties and methods in a logical manner. I also thought that the document object model was explained well. I particularly found the chapter on integrating Javascript for both Netscape and IE very useful. The only negative I found was that some of the examples on the CD were buggy.

Of all the reference books I have on HTML, XML, Notes, etc, this is the only book I won't loan out to people because I'm afraid I might not get it back. Book is very well organized--each chapter corresponds to a specific Javascript object. All properties and methods are spelled out for each object. Especially useful is the table for each property/method that shows what versions of IE/Netscape the property/method is available in. Very helpful for designing web applications that must be viewed in a multi-browser environment!

Sure, Goodman's JS bible contains a lot of great information, but the presentation is sorely lacking. Being a professional programmer of 12 years, I've read a lot of technical manuals and found books that were treasure troves of useful information; however, what good is such a book if you can't easily find the information you're looking for?

The JS Bible is poorly formatted and lacks concise object heirarchy diagrams with object property trees; something I find essential for drilling down into objects to inspect their properties/methods/events. I also don't think Goodman spends enough effort in cross-correlating Netscape only features with Internet Explorer features.

Having said all that, I realize that JavaScript is a large and messy subject to approach, with inherit assumptions made about your knowledge of HTML and programming paradigms, so I'll cut Goodman a little slack.

On the whole though, I think your money would be better spent on O'Reilly's "JavaScript in a Nutshell".