Customer Reviews

JavaScript Pocket Reference (2nd Edition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A very rare O'Reilly book that isn't well written (that's because there is no writing!) An utterly consise book with nothing other than the syntax and VERY brief descriptions programmers will understand immediately. Get it if you need to have that site up and running today.

First off, I'd like to say that I find these pocket reference books absolutely indispensible. They're relatively inexpensive, they contain MOST (if not almost all) of what you need, and they save you the need to carry absolutely HUGE tomes when all you want is just to look something up quickly. If you know HTML and JavaScript, then get this (JavaScript) and the HTML quick references and you'll be able to do almost anything on your own. To nerds, pockets were invented for carrying such useful pocket guides.

The JavaScript pocket ref continues the tradition of indispensible pocket references by O'Reilly. The organisation is good, and the book contains examples and explanations that you wouldn't expect to see in a pocket reference.

Amazingly though, there's no treatment of objects and object oriented programming in JavaScript. Most readers can be expected to know this, but if you're used to programming in C++ and Java, and don't do a lot of JavaScript, it's easy to forget. I think all the missing material on objects could be treated in ONE MORE PAGE. (hint for next edition!)

Otherwise, this is a wonderful book.

A very nice little book with lots of code. Being relatively new to javascript, though, I found it to be a little bit too concise. Why? The descriptions of each part of the syntax were too short. Still, if you know javascript, this book is very worth the price.

Anyone with a mind to program in JavaScript NEEDS this book. I really mean that. It does not waste any time explaining, it gets straight to the rules/syntax of this language. I rate it as top-notch. I lost my first copy so I'm ordering another one. That's how important I think it is.

While I like this reference as a whole, I find it a bit lacking for info that programmers really need. While working with Javascript just today, I found myself struggling because of this book ... it does not indicate whether a returned value from a class property is a string, integer or even a OBJECT!

I found myself trying to perform a "replace" operation on an OBJECT because this book didn't tell me that it returned an OBJECT!

I know it's a little nit-picking and, yes, while someone who has coded in Javascript forever might already know this, for those of us who understand programming and are just looking for a reference book to use its classes, this book is lacking of some important information.

I just hope New Riders comes out with a Javascript reference -- as a Lotus Domino developer, I find their Essential Reference book perfect and invaluable!

I was hoping and expecting that this little book would be the same quick-and-easy reference book that e.g. the "VBScript Pocket Reference" is -- I was sadly disappointed.

Since "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide" is by the same author and publisher, I also expected this book to be a (somewhat) boiled-down version of the very thorough JavaScript Reference from that much larger book. I was even more disappointed there.

In a "pocket reference" such as this I want and need nothing more or less than an alphabetical listing of the JavaScript universe. However, this book is divided into numerous chapters that require you to already know what category the thing you seek belongs to. Since there's no index in these little books, it is useless to me as someone who's still learning this stuff. I've set my copy aside and use the "Definitive Guide" exclusively.

If you already know how to program and just need to learn the JavaScript syntax this is THE book to get. Can't wait until their SQL Pocket Reference is available!

I bought this book because of all the good reviews posted. Unfortunately, I cannot agree. As a good reference tool, I expect it to have at least a good index. So that when I am coding and forget the exact syntax, I can quickly find it. Unfortunately I can't use this book for this purpose. I keep on having to go back to the bulky JavaScript Bible, which has an excellent index.

This book simply does not serve the purpose for me. What good is a concise reference if I can not quickly locate the info I want?

I realize it's a pocket reference, but this is a brief guide to syntax and then the DOM for the rest of the book. It doesn't cover any of the API stuff like the Date class. It'd be nice to have more information at the price of needing slightly larger pockets.

The book is really good as a quick review of JavaScript and the topics are well-explained, but not having an index, if even a computer-generated one, is unforgivable! It is hard to find certain functions if you are not sure what object it belongs to.