Customer Reviews

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 4th Edition

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you're already an experienced programmer, it can be frustrating trying to find a good book on JavaScript (aka JScript, aka ECMAScript, aka ECMA-262). A lot of books out there are aimed at HTML developers, maybe even graphic designers. Many such users have little or no real programming experience, and maybe no real interest. Books for that audience are user-friendly, filled with useful examples, and low on scary-sounding technical terms. In other words, almost useless.

Flanagan has good credentials as a technical writer, and as a highly technical writer. He really knows what software engineers look for - trust me, it's not what a graphic designer looks for.

This starts with a clear, methodical description of the language. Flanagan goes through all the language basics, pointing out where JavaScript differs form languages like Java, C#, or C++. The differences are numerous. For example, JavaScript has typed data, but not typed variables. It's object oriented, but doesn't have classes. It's an interpreted language, not compiled, and that opens up generative programming possibilities that reflection APIs can't approach.

After the language itself, Flanagan presents it in the client-side HTML context, where it appears most often. That's about 20% of the book. It goes over all the common HTML features, and shows how JavaScript can add dynamics or configurability to most HTML features. The last part of this section discusses XML and the DOM model. It does not yet discuss the E4X standard, ECMAScript for XML, the new ECMA-357 standard. As of this writing, the standard has only been out for three months, though. I'm sure Flanagan will catch up to it soon.

The book's remaining three sections cover the language's basic APIs, the APIs needed in the client-side HTML context, and the DOM model. The first two are fundamental to any non-trivial use of the language, the last is the programming model that gives access to XML or XHTML in a rational, predictable way.

JavaScript has a number of very different user communities, with different needs when it comes to language documentation. This isn't a cut&paster's book, and is nothing at all like a training guide. It's a reference manual. If you're a serious techie, then this is the book for you.

//wiredweird

Having recently shipped an open source JavaScript application framework comprising 125,000 lines of JavaScript (TIBET) I can say it would have been impossible without Version 3 of this book -- and impossible with only Version 4 of this book.

Where Version 3 focused on documenting the *reality* of the browsers, covering the various bugs and inconsistencies in detail, Version 4 abandons that approach in favor of documenting the *dream* embodied in the standards. While that's "a good thing", what's really needed, and what was provided by Version 3, is a volume that also covers how the browers vary from the standards. That's what made V3 the best JavaScript book on the market. Much of that content has been removed from V4 however.

V4 is a solid effort. Don't get me wrong. You should have a copy. The coverage is for the most part accurate and accessible. The new content on Mozilla and the DOM/CSS standards is solid. But the missing material means you can't toss all your other JS books and just settle down with JSTDG V4 :(.

With V3 you rarely needed to go anywhere else. With V4 I find myself looking back at V3 to check accuracy or going to the net to search for bug reports. The book just isn't as functional in the real world of web development. So buy V4, but don't get rid of that well-used copy of V3 just yet ;).

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I have had this book for years. I really like this book a lot.

It teaches you the language. It is a good reference for the syntax of Javascript 1.5. It also does a decent job of teaching DHTML. Some foreknowledge of HTML is going to be helpful. That can easily be gained from other books, reading the spec, or going through some of the HTML tutorials on the web. This book tells you how to access the structure of an HTML document - and change it.

Amazingly, it really did not start to become obsolete for almost half a decade. For a computer book on a heavily used computer language, that is great.

In late 2005, Mozilla released Firefox 1.5 which included a new version of Javascript: Javascript 1.6. Unlike some updates, this one was a doozy.

Javascript 1.6 introduced a feature called E4X - Ecmascript for Java. This powerful feature actually upgrades the language, making XML fragments a first class data type.

What this means is two things:

First, you can put XML fragments in your program. Just as quoted strings are interpreted as string literals, these fragments are treated as XML literals. No quoting or anything is required: the parser just sees them and knows what they are.

Second, you can evaluate XPath-like expressions to find things in an XML fragment value. Those things would be attribute values, text content, and elements that are in it.

Today, XML is much more important to organizations and much more useful to programmers than it was in 2001. It is a given that easier, more powerful ways for programmers to work with XML are going to grab programmers' interest.

Another thing has changed since 2001. AJAX programming has become white-hot. Website users like it because the system seems more responsive. Programmers like it because it lets them create web sites that seem more fun and are more impressive to a generation numbed-out by constant fill-in-form/Submit cycle of web pages. Companies like it because it AJAX is "in" and having it on their site can draw people to it by word of mouth or as marketable feature.

AJAX programming relies on the XMLHttpRequest object. That is not described in this book. Consequently AJAX programming is not explained in it.

A lot of AJAX components & effects libraries; e.g. Prototype.js, scriptaculous (script.aculo.us if you are looking for it on the web), etc., were in high gear by 2005. Since the book came out years before that, it does not mention any of these, tell what they can do, or explain how to write programs that use them.

Two other standards got added to Firefox 1.5 when it was released in 2005: SVG content and the CANVAS element. While CANVAS is a new invention, it is already supported by Apple's Safari 2 web browser that came with Tiger, released in early 2005. SVG is a very mature standard, invented in the late 1990s - but not really included in a widely distributed piece of software until Firefox included it. From watching what is going on in Apple's Safari development site, it seems likely Safari will gain SVG support sometime in 2006.

These 2 graphics capabilities are both important.

The CANVAS element is perfect for realtime and/or interactive graphics. For instance, it would be great for a "paint" program or a constantly-updated graph/chart display.

The SVG content is XML. The elements describe how to draw some shapes and text, fill them in, draw the borders, and perform transformations on them - as well as fancy effects like "shear". The power of SVG is huge. It can be used to draw all of the things described, plus more advanced things like "quadratic bezier curves". This makes it also suited to render art objects or sophisticated two-dimensional visualizations.

Now, go back to what is in the 4th edition of the book. The coverage of the different types of objects is covered in different sections - based on what the objects are used for. This is fine, but then there needs to be a special alphabetized index as well as detailed table of contents that shows you where to find each one - and what is in each section. Reading the whole book is not an option when you are in a hurry. When you are doing stuff on the web, you are always in a hurry. So, ways to find things quickly and survey quickly what is there - that is crucial.

I think a 5th edition of this book could be phenomenal, if it takes care of the omissions I have cited. Even in its present form, it does a good job of teaching the language - with the exception of the missing items I have noted.

I own the third edition of this book, and bought it when I was starting to write a web-based decision support system for a very large beverage company. I can safely say that this book, and the HTML Definitive Guide (also by O'Reilly) were critical to the success of the system.

I have seldom had a question about JavaScript for which I could not find the answer in this book. I referred to it so frequently during the development of our system that it is now the most dog-eared book in my collection. I'm going to order the fourth edition simply because this baby is ready for retirement.

If you are learning client-side JavaScript, by all means purchase this book. The first half of the book is a guided introduction to the language and does a wonderful job of explaining the syntax of the language, the underlying object model, and virtually every pertinent feature of the language. The real value, though, is in the reference, which documents every object, method, property and event of standard JavaScript.

Non-conformists who wish to exploit features unique to Internet Explorer will find some reference material here, but the book does try to focus on the "standard" features of the language, which I think is a good thing.

You just can't go wrong with this book.

If your use of Javascript is primarily for DHTML on web pages then get these other 2 O'Reilly books by Goodman first in this order -- "Javascript & DHTML Cookbook" and "Dynamic HTML The Definitive Reference". These books cover not only Javascript, but also style sheets, HTML, and browser object models that are needed to make javascript work in a web page environment.

The first book by Goodman is all examples, with explanations of concepts included within each example, with the examples in order of increasing complexity and building on previous examples. Extremely helpful in accomplishing real work on real web sites, much more than Flanagan's Javascript reference guide, especially since Flanagans guide has very few examples.

The second Goodman book is a condensed tutorial on DHTML concepts (Javascript, style sheets, the browser object model, and HTML) combined with reference sections on these subjects. Javascript is just a piece of the web page puzzle. The Goodman books put all the pieces together while Flanagan just covers Javascript.

If all you need is Javascript get Flanagan. If you need Javascript for working with web pages get Goodman. If I had to choose only one book for using Javascript on web pages I would choose Goodman's "Cookbook".

Once again David Flanagan has created the definitive reference text for JavaScript. The most popular scripting language on the Web, JavaScript is nearly ubiquitous now. The fourth edition has been updated all the way from JavaScript 1.2 in the third edition to cover JavaScript 1.5 (ECMAScript-262 Version 3), the W3C DOM standard (Levels 1 and 2), while retaining the old legacy "Level 0" DOM for backwards compatibility.

Older editions emphasized Netscape over Explorer, as Netscape had more market share. This edition has almost completely purged this emphasis, and instead focused on standards-compliance for cross-browser scripting. With the proliferation of implementations, it is no longer practical for one book to document every quirk and workaround associated with all browsers. Focusing instead on specifications instead of implementations makes this book easier to read with a longer shelf-life, and your scripts more portable and maintainable.

With the release of JavaScript 1.5, better browser support, open source JavaScript interpreters (one in C and one in Java), and its availability on a multitude of platforms, JavaScript has become a mature language. This book reflects that. The fourth edition splits the reference section into three parts. Core JavaScript, which should work anywhere. Client-side JavaScript, which deals with browser-specific language material, and the W3C DOM has a section of its own now. The DOM defines a standard API that is distinct from the legacy API of traditional client-side JavaScript. Flanagan has found that depending on the browser platforms they are targeting, developers typically use one API or the other and usually do not need to switch back and forth.

The book is huge, some 916 pages long. In order to accommodate all the new material Flanagan omitted reference pages for the trivial properties of objects. Everything is covered in the object reference page, just not twice as before. Flanagan has left out some non-cross-platform features, like Netscape's nifty .jar ARCHIVE source file attribute, which is not supported by Internet Explorer.

While not a JavaScript in 24 hours how-to, this book has plenty of illustrative examples and explanatory text. This combination of explanatory material and matching extensive reference sections make this a must-have book for any JavaScript programmer. Highly recommended.

Having bought O'Reilly books before, I should have known better than to pick up this one. It follows the same pattern of giving far too much theoretical information without following up with good examples of the concepts in use.

The Core Javascript language section is great, and I can definitely see that the Core and Client-Side Javascript Reference sections will eventually be of great use to me. However, the Client-Side Javascript section is next to useless for learning how to pull all of the concepts together, and implement javascript on your web pages.

If you're already very familiar with javascript and need a reference book, by all means, buy this book. If you want to learn javascript programming, look for something else.

This is one of the best programming books I have ever read. The author's style is very readable and he mixes in the appropriate amount of code samples to illustrate the concepts. All code samples are very well documented, which is a big help.

This is really two books in one. First is a thorough explanation of the JavaScript language fundamentals and how to use JavaScript in web pages. Then, comes the very complete reference sections which describe all classes and functions of core JavaScript, client-side JavaScript, and DOM programming. As a result, this is the only book you need to both learn and use JavaScript.

The author also does a nice job of pointing out which functionality will or will not work on Netscape or IE. And, he includes useful tips on how to work around some of these issues.

Those with experience in HTML but no programming languages may have a hard time with the level of detail in this book, but experienced programmers will appreciate the serious treatment of the JavaScript language. Beginners who just want to learn how to do simple scripts may want to look elsewhere, but for the serious web programmer, this book is a must have.

If you've been in web programming for a while, you're undoubtedly familiar with JavaScript, but may have dismissed it as a "toy language" for flashy graphics effects without much substance. Although JavaScript is certainly the web professional's tool of choice for flashy graphics effects without much substance, the language itself is surprisingly substantial. I had been meaning to learn more about it for years and tried off and on by looking at example scripts and reading online documentation here and there. I finally decided to break down and buy a book on JavaScript, and I'm glad that it was this one. I can't recommend it highly enough - it's especially targeted at people with programming experience. This book doesn't waste your time with basic constructs or meaningless metaphors; it gets to the point, describes JavaScript, and lets you get on about your business.

As the book itself clarifies, JavaScript itself is just a programming language and doesn't necessarily have anything to do with web browsers per se. However, since virtually all JavaScript programming is done for the purpose of controlling web pages, the author specifically dedicates one third of the book to the core JavaScript language, and another third to a thorough description of the bindings between JavaScript and the browser. (The final third is a well-indexed reference that you'll find indispensable).

Since you're probably most interested in the JavaScript-browser bindings (the core language is fairly well documented online), let me say that this books coverage of it is excellent. It covers the entire history of JavaScript, detailing compatibility issues between Netscape, IE, and Mozilla (all the way back to the very first release of Netscape) and detailing exactly the sorts of uses that JavaScript is typically being put to these days. An example in the section on event handling shows how to implement drag and drop on a web page in JavaScript (bet you didn't know you could do that!) and there's even a lengthy section on the relationship between JavaScript and CSS.

I couldn't be happier with the book - it lived entirely up to my expectations and was well worth the money I spent on it.

I had a VERY basic knowledge of JavaScript coming to this book, (i.e. I could make an alert popup) and no knowledge of other programing languages (well HTML, but that doesn't counts). I found it to be an excelent resource and teaching tool. True, some parts are complicated, but you can skip around chapters with relative ease, and I could always figure things out with some puzzling. It's nice how authoritative it is, and how completely it documents the syntax. It takes a while to get into the programing mood and understand its power though, so it requires some thought to get into the more advanced techniques. I would recommend this book to anyone, with the possible exception of someone without a strong basis in HTML. Also, quite frankly, what you get out of this book depends on your intelligence. If you like to read manuals (like I do), and have a strong basic computer knowledge to back this up, it'll be all you could hope for.