Customer Reviews

JavaScript and HTML 4.0 User's Resource

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

 

 

If this book was software it wouldn't even be Alpha. Mispellings galore... Examples without explainations... You name it... It is done poorly.. The first book I purchased without doing my homework and boy did I pay for it... Do yourself a favor review before you buy...

Here's a copy of the email I wrote to Prentice Hall: Dear Sirs, I have
purchased this book (Javascript & HTML 4.0 User's Reference)
because I am a web developer and I wish to learn Javascript. I have to
say that I am disappointed with the book for the following
reasons:

***The book is entirely too heavy on HTML 4.0. The preface
states that the book is designed for people who are actively writing
web pages and want to incorporate a programming language into their
web pages. However, the presentation of the first 8 chapters leads me
to believe that the book was really written for a beginning html
developer. The title of the book is Javascript and HTML 4.0, but the
entire 1st half of the book is dedicated to HTML and the new HTML 4.0
features (many of which didn't work when I tried them). I think this
effort would have been better served had the javascript section been a
majority and the html section included as an appendix. ***There are
TONS of errors! Half of the time I spent reading chapter 8, I was
thinking there were two different types of cascading style sheets
called CCS and CSS. And the errors aren't just in chapter 8, they're
all through the book. In chapter 3, page 78, figure 3.6 shows the
output of the example coded previously (Example of FONT FACES), but
the code is incomplete and only shows the title tag! Spelling errors,
coding errors, and ommissions everywhere! Doesn't anyone there have a
SPELLCHECKER! Or a "find/replace"? I am halfway through the
book and it's barely even mentioned Javascript. I am very disappointed
and I wish there was a way I could get my money back! This book is a
waste of time. This book should be renamed: HTML 4.0 (and a little
javascript)...!

Although the book certainly has some potential, there are mistakes on almost every page, many of which would be terribly frustrating for inexperienced users.

Example: Syntax for paragraph alignment is given as

ALIGN="right">

Example: The chapter on functions is called "Finctions"

Besides being called "finctions", there are only a couple of pages about functions - which is a very important topic for any good programming.

Maybe if the publishers would take a little time to actually edit, instead of greedily just getting it on the shelf as quickly as possible, we wouldn't have such a difficult time finding the quality in all the dross.

I cannot recommend this book in its present condition.

I found this book to be incredibly confusing and lacking any real presentation of HTML or JavaScript. The book had way too many errors and typos that any decent Editor should have caught. However, the real problem with this book is the lack of presentation. Most topics are given a cursory presentation at best. Attributes and properties are listed instead of explained. An experienced programmer might be able to decipher this book, but a novice has no chance. Since the book really doesn't proide attributes or properties in a consice catalogued manner, I really don't see any use for this book in any context. I returned it!

I am not sure who would find this book useful... the explanations are very thin in most places and often it just has lists of types or attributes etc. with little or no explanation. The examples are few and far between (and poor). On each occasion I went to look up answers to questions re: HTML or JavaScript I ended up having to resort to other materials. The explanations and answers were not to be found here.

I am basically a C++ programmer and have used other books by these authors. I got the JavaScript book because I needed to learn something about WEB languages.

The cover of the book claims a step by step approach to JavaScript and HTML. That is exactly what I found. For someone who knew nothing about the language, the authors had me writing programs with text, images, lists, image maps, forms, stylesheets and more in a very short time.

They also included a chapter on CGI.

I liked their chaptes on Events and Arrays. You know this stuff is very similar to C++ object oriented code.

If it weren't for the outrageous amount of typos in the examples presented in this book I might not give this book a bad review. It's relatively quick reading, not a bad book if your looking for something to familiarize yourself with HTML and Javascript enough to have a base of reference and to get started. However the code examples seem not to have been proofread. For example on page 139 the example for an anchor that this is repeated in each example on the page, 6 times!

On the next don't care if these guys don't know how to spell present, but I feel that 6 incorrect closing tags on one page should have been noticed! This book is consistently sloppy. I'm a little shocked this was allowed to go the press the way it is. The graphic design is a bit hard on the eyes, too.

I bought this Javascript and HTML book about a year ago. I have used it many times to help me understand HTML problems I have had with code I am writing.

I think the book is pretty good. The Javascript section has some neat example code. This also helped me.

I'm just a beginner at this stuff.