Customer Reviews

Jumping JavaScript (Prentice Hall PTR Java)

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

 

 

This is a boggling book for the beginner...

From the first page, it bombards the reader with a stream of terms and jargon, and only a vague explanation of what it all means, and how it fits into writing code. i.e: "The for...in statement is a special form of loop that loops through the properties of a particular object from first to last." Until that point, I never heard of a loop, so I certainly harbor minimal interest in learning about "special kinds" of loops. And what does it do with the properties while it loops through them?

I like books that start you off quickly, but this just puts you in a cannon and fires you into the fray without any help whatsoever. It's structured more like a mystery novel than a reference guide. Don't let the cute froggies all over the place fool you -- Avoid this book, unless you already have good programming background.

This book was my first introduction to general scripting on the web as well as Javascript in particular. I found it hard to learn from specifically because much of the text is filled with long pages of code that are redundant. The code is redundant mainly because the included cdrom already contains the html sourcecode.

However, the book is my best resource for Javascript when I want to find syntax or forget the purpose / implementation of a method or object. It's the best reference for Javascript that I have, and I have used it regularly for over a year.

This book is ideal for people who are already familiar with scripting (such as VBscript) and need to learn / use Javascript specifically.

When I first looked at this book, I thought it looked well thought out, and pretty complete. Unfortunately, I never find what I need in it. Everytime I need to find something, I end up looking elsewhere.

An impressive and helpful book. This one stands out in a field of quickly-written regurgitations of the manuals. I was able to browse and find code that did what I needed to do without reading everything. Lots of carefully-written samples and real-world tips.

You get the impression these authors have actually explained this material to real, live users--so they know what needs emphasis and how to get the information across.

I'm writing JavaScript provided by Windows servers (IIS with ASP) to Windows clients. But I am glad I took a look at this book from the Sun/Macintosh side of technology.

The book is desribed as being for "web authors," but as a full-time developer I found it went well into the depths of the language.

Caveat: I have browsed other JavaScript books on shelves, but have not purchased or read them.

This is my textbook. but i don't like it very much. i am the beginner of the JavaScript, this book even doesn't help me at all. there are a lot of things had not talked about it before it pop up, it just suddenly appear before your eyes. I always get lost because of that.

It is very user-friendly to read.
Extremely correct.
The SunSoft Press / Java Series !
The pace is middle/low.
Simply surprising good !!!

Definitely not for ANYONE. This book is the definition of redundancy. Repetitive examples, pages of unncessary code and TOO MANY SCREENSHOTS! Not only that, but even though it says "examples for UNIX, Win95 and Macintosh" the screenshots are 99% Macintosh. What gives?

The information in this book is slightly useful *if you know what you are looking for*. Even so, it is hard to find anything in this hefty tome that can't be found in a scripting tutorial. I expected more from the company that co-developed this language with Netscape.

This book is... Well, it's big. It's 1100 pages or so, but if the author had spent less time explaining the same things again and again, it could have been 400 pages. The examples are useless and simple and so is most of the explanations.

This big (1100+ pages) book somehow manages to talk about every aspect of the JavaScript Language but still leaves me searching for answers.

It contains lots of examples, but it is mainly toy code illustrating only the point being discussed. If you need JavaScript in real life, this book does not really help you.

BTW, the impressive page count is achieved by first explaining something, then listing the source of a complete web page explaining everything again and then reproducing a screen shot of the web page explaining everything once more...
While a massive book like this looks good on a shelf, trying to find information in it is hard on your thumbs!