Customer Reviews

JavaScript Objects

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

 

 

I had hoped to learn how to jazz up my Domino Web-pages from a JavaScript book. When I got it home, I found something completely different inside.

This is a book about how to implement serious data handling with a serious object oriented programming language.

The authors cover all the basic JavaScript language and browser connections in the first 75 pages. They leave out a lot of glitzy tricks that you really need, but you can get those off any web-based tutorial after you really understand the language.

Once they leave the basics, they cover genuine oo programming in a serious and educational way. They explain what they are doing, and they explain *WHY* brilliantly. It is an excellently written book and a lot of fun to read.

If you are hoping to create a snazzy web-site without much work, you will find this book frustrating. If you want to understand JavaScript to the bone, and learn how to extend it as far as the eye can see, you WILL be able to outdo all the snazzy web-sites when you are done.

The book is incredible.

This book is a welcome addition for someone who wants to get the most out of JavaScript. It goes beyond cranking out cool applets, and goes into the fundamentals of object oriented programming using JS. If you know and use JavaScript, be prepared to re-learn and considerably extend what you know. Those coming from an O-O background such as C++ should should find a relatively simple transition -- getting used to the quirks of JavaScript and its relationship to HTML will be the main challenge. There is nothing silly about this book even though it is written with wit and style. Also, it's written by a couple of guys who really know what they're talking about and don't have anything to prove to anyone. [e.g., I'm smarter than you (the reader or some other author.)] Essentially, they lay on a major course in object oriented programming using JavaScript for Big Programs -- not little applets. So, if you just want to learn JavaScript for cranking in some cool applets into your HTML, pass on this book, or at least wait until you want to do something more, do it better, and do it with style. A couple of things bothered me about this book, and both could be improved -- but not necessarily by the authors. In part, I should have seen it coming since the book is suggested for a graduate course in computer programming. Being a 'learn-it-on-my-own' programmer, they skipped over a lot of the baby steps. Getting through Chapter 2 took weeks rather than hours. I believe they put too much into Chapter 2 -- Programming with Objects. That chapter needed a better transition for those coming from HTML and/or simple JavaScript. Breezing through a global function that replaced a literal, and then showing how to do it better using a method took me a long time to fully grasp.(And I'm still gasping and grasping.) For a book that is to be in the Trade Market and not the university bookstore (or technical bookstore) needs more examples. Chapter 9 takes the reader 'Beyond JavaScript' and that's all good, but rather than devoting about a third of the book to going beyond anything, I wish there had been more and clearer examples using object oriented programming and JavaScript. A variety of stand-alone examples rather than developing a giant program. A second issue that bothered me is the fact that this book is written for IE (Internet Explorer) only. This is not the authors' fault--it's Netscape's. Since I prefer Netscape Communicator over IE (and a Mac over a Windows PC), I was miffed that I had to use IE 4.5 and not IE 5. If Netscape and AOL adopt the Object Oriented model in their next (Number 5?) version of Navigator, I'll be delighted. Otherwise, I and others will be forced into using IE -- not a fate worse than death, but uncomfortable for those of us who like Net Nav. The appendices are thorough not only in their content but in their Object Oriented arrangement. This is a 5 star quality book with a 1 star ease-of-learning curve. I would recommend it serious only to those who are seriously contemplating spending some serious head time with it or for the pros who know Object Oriented programming and crank out code like candy. It is not a starting point for learning JavaScript. Before picking up this book, really learn JavaScript. Then when you get this book, you learn how little you really know and add humility to your array of sterling qualities. It did for me.

Your code can benefit from object-oriented programming even if your language doesn't support it directly. Javascript provides more support for O-O programming than (say) C, although much less than Java.

JSO shows you how to write client-side applications in object-oriented Javascript. It leads you through useful examples using the technique, demonstrating that you can do many sophisticated and useful things with this 'scripting' language.

For very experienced programmers, this will at times be a slow, but most developers will benefit from the close attention to the code.

JSO doubles as a concise introduction and reference to Javascript, covering it better in 80 pages than those bricks in the bookstore do in 1200.

The strength of this book is also its weakness. Since it focusses on client-side functionality, its example of client/server Web programming is unrealistically tilted towards providing all functionality on the client. But, given the current state of the art, I can't think of a better way of doing this without spending too much time on server-side issues. Along the same lines, the current incompatibilities among implementations force it to be browser-specific (Internet Explorer).

Overall, this is probably the best book on client-side Javascript programming -- as long as you don't care about cross-browser compatibility.

Very good book. If your just looking for a JavaScript reference or a source for scripts, this is not the book. The authors take a serious approach to client-side applications using JavaScript and object-oriented code.

Others have complained about the examples being too academic but I found them very appropriate for the kinds of things I'd do such as using regular expressions for form validation, binding of html elements to objects, etc., using tree and stack data structures for document parsing... Even if you already use these techniques I found it an effective way to teach the language.

This is an important book, that takes the object-oriented aspects of Javascript seriously and will take you there, if you are prepared to think long and hard. I found the reading is slow going because there is an incrediable amount of material here. Buy this book and then find lots of time to work the code and think about OO and how javascript does OO. Wow

Indeed, the book does a great job of presenting and using the OO features of JavaScript. Where it fails, though, is in clarity. The authors cram too much info into some of the chapters. I've seen 1200-page books that don't contain this much info. The cost? Clarity! To read their source code you have to have a JS parser installed in your brain: they're fond of putting entire funtions on one line. Some of the code could be candidate for an Obfuscated JS contest. So get another book (like The JavaScript Bible) and learn JavaScript, then get this book and take your time with it. It teaches valuable stuff . . . if you have the will power.

This is a great book, and the only one that I've seen that takes the object-oriented aspects of Javascript seriously. As you read the book, you will not only learn Javascript, but many O-O concepts as well. In fact, you'll learn quite a few programming techniques. The reading is slow going (as the previous reviewer pointed out) not because the writing is poor (it's great) but because there is a lot of good material here. In my view there are three kinds of Javascript books: this one, Flanagan's, and all the others. Just buy this one and Flanagan's and you'll be all set!

A book on Javascript objects would seem a challenge, especially when it presumes no prior Javascript knowledge. To do that while also providing meaningful info to interest those experienced in objects, but perhaps new to JS, would be a feat indeed. I feel the authors met both challenges.

Where most Javascript books focus more on the use of JS to manipulate web documents, this book gives serious consideration to Javascript as a programming language--and it's strengths as an object-oriented one--first, and as a tool for extending HTML and web pages second. It's an interesting approach, and one that for the most part works.

It's a dense book. While 60 pages of a Javascript Dummies book would go by in about an hour, expect to spend a few hours or more reaching the same point here.

How much one learns will certainly depend on your background, but I can speak as someone with both mild JS and object knowledge that I learned an awful lot.

Not up to par with the normal writings of Wrox Press. This book talks a lot and gives ideas but fails to properly explain the code or the objects. Chapter 6 is an introduction and discussion on a database application but fails to be anything other than an expanded users guide for the app. More time could have been spent explaining how the object structure in the applications is being used. In my opinion the title miss leads you into something that the book really is not. It should be called "Ideas for what to do with JavaScript".

The main point that the authors attempt to make is that JavaScript can be a powerful and flexible object-oriented programming language. This book is better suited for the classroom than for real-world web development. Out of its 450+ pages, a single 30-page chapter deals with JavaScript in the browser.

Since I have several years of C/C++ experience, I bought this book primarily for the object reference table in the appendix. As I began writing real JavaScript applications, however, it became clear that this book was more of a hinderance than a help -- that even the object reference was a watered down version of the Netscape documentation. For instance, the book makes no distinction between read/write and read-only properties. The programmer is left guessing whether his program is failing or the property is not writable.

I found that "JavaScript - The Definitive Guide" by O'Reilly & Associates (ISBN 1-56592-392-8) covers browser objects much more thoroughy.