Customer Reviews

Professional JavaScript 2nd Edition

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I am your typical Web architect. Not really a pro, but knowledgeable enough to make me one of the best people in my company to work with consultants and do a certain amount of pre-visualization and early prototyping.

My project is to get an Intranet/Extranet completed using either Microsoft or alternative products. I have to research and oversee (with others) implementation of both visual design and user functionality, for client (Intranet and Extranet clients) and server ends (including administrative tools).

I know the tools I "want" to use and the strategy I want to take, but I need some hard facts and intermediate to advanced descriptions of implementations.

This book has what I need.

Facts. Loads of example scripts. Analysis of using Java and Javascript. Analysis of extending application functionality through standalone script interpreters. Security issues. Client issues (for all relevant browsers) Server issues (for all relevant servers).

Awesome. Definitely the fruit of an enormous (there's that word again) amount of expertise and trial and error development.

If you have a little bit of knowledge about Web technologies (graphics, databases, servers, browsers and plug-ins), and have some familiarity with programming principles (best if you've taken a programming course or studied on your own for a few months) this book will be the glue that ties it all together for you.

Part reference guide, part bible, and all relevant.

I came back here to get Harry Yeh's email to thank him for his recommendation of this book, but felt I had to respond to the anonymous reviewer's comments. This is by far and away the most definitive reference on any scripting technology I've ever come across! I'd recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Of course "Clib.puts()" isn't discussed on page 22. Use of the C library is discussed much later (as it should be). And as for the side effects of the Comma Operator, an example follows directly after it's mentioned!

Its clear that the reviewer hasn't read the book. I've been reading this book for the past three weeks and have discovered and learnt more than I did in the previous 2 years.

Chapters 10 and 14 in this book are excellant case studies. The 'Family Tree Photo Album' is a great real-life example of how to use JavaScript practically and ties up what has been taught in the book.

But then chapter 14 which is "Building an e-commerce shop front" goes beyond that to create a functioning online shop. It's brilliant! I have "borrowed" it for our company site.

Thanks Wrox, this book surpasses even ASP2.0 in quality and depth. Keep up the good work.

I am your typical Web architect. Not really a pro, but knowledgeable enough to make me one of the best people in my company to work with consultants and do a certain amount of pre-visualization and early prototyping. My project is to get an Intranet/Extranet completed using either Microsoft or alternative products. I have to research and oversee (with others) implementation of both visual design and user functionality, for client (Intranet and Extranet clients) and server ends (including administrative tools).

I know the tools I "want" to use and the strategy I want to take, but I need some hard facts and intermediate to advanced descriptions of implementations.

This book has what I need.

Facts. Loads of example scripts. Analysis of using Java and Javascript. Analysis of extending application functionality through standalone script interpreters. Security issues. Client issues (for all relevant browsers) Server issues (for all relevant servers).

Awesome. Definitely the fruit of an enormous (there's that word again) amount of expertise and trial and error development.

If you have a little bit of knowledge about Web technologies (graphics, databases, servers, browsers and plug-ins), and have some familiarity with programming principles (best if you've taken a programming course or studied on your own for a few months) this book will be the glue that ties it all together for you.

Part reference guide, part bible, and all relevant.

As a web developer, I've been using this book for the better part of a year now. That, coupled with the fact that it's getting a little worn, should be a testament to its overall usefulness. I haven't yet found a professional application for the advanced material presented -- I mainly work in DHTML -- but I like knowing that if I had to do server-side JavaScript, for instance, I could.

However, the reference chapters -- always the most important part of a computer text -- are fairly useless. The IE DOM is hardly explained -- it could warrant a book of its own, but this book's sketchy outline is useless. The way the appendixes are laid out is inconsistent and not visual enough -- you have to dig for the information you need (for instance, which browser supports which core object).

Finally, and worst of all, the methods reference doesn't give you any clue as to the parameters of the methods! I often find myself looking up the object description here, then going to MSDN to se what the parameters are. How silly.

3 of 5, because it *could* have been truly the only JavaScript book any serious programmer needs. As is, I'm off to the store to finally get a decent reference book. (Problem there is that all of them pre-date IE5. Where's the update, O'Reilly?)

This Book and the O'Reily Book Javascript : The Definitive Guide are the best books for Javascript in my mind. This Book teaches you all the useful techniques, and I use the O'Reily as a reference. They have a really good section on the OOP with Javascript.

If you are a beginner, this book is pretty good as well. This is definately a book you will pick up time and time again! For the professional Web Developer, this book will teach you techniques that you would have had to scour the internet to figure out. There aren't that many Javascript books out there that were really good in my mind but this is definately one of the best! Like other Wrox books, You DEFINATELY CAN'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER!

Bryan Bertrand is right about anonymous reviewers!

This is a great book! Lots of technical stuff explained clearly with a good dose of "when to" advice as well! I found it very clear in its explainations, especially in all the chapters that deal with Web browsers. Thats what I wanted.

This book plus the O'Reilly one is all you need.

If you've got big confidence problems, buy JavaScript Goodies first and come back for this book after trying a script or two. But I think most people can learn everything they need just from this book. 5 stars.

It really looks like production team was under orders to produce pre-set number of pages no matter what. Almost 300pg reference section would comfortably fit in 100pg and would be of some use then- after major rework, and reference is important part of a book calling itself professional. For example, no information on object method arguments is included, not even a list. Tables are at least twice as large then what would be reasonable for the content - almost like they went printing Web tables from and old browser. What was supposed to be Netscape and IE specific reference really looks like a verbatim copy of some web intro page.

Proliferation of subtitles, many times just for one paragraph. Index with at least one level larger font size then what even Wrox itself used in ASP 3.0 book. Table of contents stretched out to 30 pages with big font sizes which rendered it almost useless.

Way to many "buy this further Wrox book" nagging in the text up to a point where you have to start suspecting that not things are not present on purpose just to make you purchase one more.

DHTML section is way too IE biased, even with no mention of some cross browser techniques you can see working on web. Client side JavaScript case study just goes presenting IE exclusive code, then some rambling how "Netscape can't do this" and then - a miracle - cross browser JavaScript library from the net :-) FI development of cross browser code was too much for authors they why not simply presenting several good libraries and explaining their inner workings?

Authors of at least half chapters seem to be at loss about their intended audience. If this was written for web developer then one would expect to see things like events and document object model covered in one place and not scattered (as some tutorials have to do). I can't blame for this so much authors but project manager and editors (6 of them :-) Book with many authors scattered all over the planet lever or dies by good or bad project management to provide coherence.

Chapters on server side, wsh and client configuration are fine but that is no more then several hundred pages. This book really needs major rework and split into two smaller volumes of which one would really be professional (with good reference section this time) and the other would be intro review volume. Then professional part would probably get 5 stars - and wouldn't break your wrist while you try to wade through to find something.

Professional JavaScript is great as a reference and one can find some good nuggets in some of the non-reference chapters. However, if you do not already have formal programming training, and possibly some good familiarity with JavaScript itself, the book may do you better just as a reference tool. Also, because it was written by so many people (each one responsible for a different chapter) the text reads more like a disjointed collection of essays.

The first 750 pages or so of the book comprises the main content of the book. It is divided into 20 chapters, covering just about every aspect of the language. Some of the more advanced chapters, which I did not get a chance to read, are integrating JavaScript with Java, Server-side JavaScript, and stand-alone JavaScript via Windows Script Host. There are also chapters on integrating JavaScript with ASP, and detailed looks at a couple of fairly complex JavaScript systems including a family tree and an ecommerce tool. The problem is that there's little ramp-up. There are lots of code examples throughout the text, but they are primarily small snippets. So it's like shock therapy when you are presented with such major applications of coding without anything in between! But this has to do more with the aforementioned nature of the book in that so many different authors with different styles and topics wrote it. Some of the chapters are great; they have some really good information that any level of programmer can use. The chapters on Forms and Data, Multimedia Plugins, Debugging and Disappearing Data, and Windows and Frames were all extremely helpful. Other chapters for me were completely useless to me - they droned on and on about theoretical issues without getting into practically any coding. I had great hopes for the chapter on Privacy, Security and Cookies, as well as the one on Rapid Application Development, but neither was helpful at all.

The last 300 pages or so comprises the reference section. The reference section is great, it goes into every aspect of the language, including the core language attributes, objects and methods, and there are a ton of JavaScript/browser comparison charts that give you a great idea of what functions and features will be available to you in Netscape and IE from the earliest version to the latest.

Ultimately what you get out Professional JavaScript really depends on your level of expertise when it comes to programming. I do not personally have any formal training - it's all been self-taught, so some of the more advanced stuff, though I'm sure I could learn it given the need, was not presented in a way that instructs people who do not have a familiarity with advanced programming techniques. There seems to be a lingo that some programmers use when talking about programming and for people who don't have formal programming training (or haven't been programming since they were nine) is just completely baffling. Most O'Reilly books seem to be full of this, but then they are written for the professional programmer. Professional JavaScript, as the name implies, probably is as well, however, there is enough great information here for any kind of programmer, and you just have to be selective as to which chapters you try to tackle.

It's basically trying to put JavaScript everywhere without any details or real-life actions.

All exemples are very briefly explained and have provides NO BONUSES to anyone that have at least a small experience of JavaScript.

My goal when purchasing this book was to learn new tricks with JavaScript since I'm coming from VB and VBScript so I wanted to learn the special things about JavaScript. LOOK ELSEWHERE IN THAT CASE.

BUT, if you are looking at WHAT IS JAVASCRIPT AND WHERE CAN I USE IT? it might be an 'okay' start.