Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours (4th Edition)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

As a junior level computer science major at the University of New Orleans, I would like to inform everybody who is thinking about buying this book or any other programming-related book that computer programming, along with other logical subjects, such as mathematics, involves a lot of practice. If you were to read the chapters in this book as if you were reading a John Grisham novel, you will not understand anything. I am telling you all this first because, as you have noticed, this book is receiving very low ratings from a majority of the reviewers because these reviewers claim that the book's format and content are rather cryptic in nature. As a computer science major, I've read my share of programming books. This book is, in my opinion, the second best book on programming I have ever read. Reviewers who have given this book a low rating must not have taken the time necessary to try and comprehend each chapter or, in some cases, each sentence written.

Moncur dwells a good deal into the techniques of Javascript. For example, he shows how one can solve a problem that involves evaluating given information by using "if" statements. Let's say we ask a user to choose a number from a menu screen provided. If the user chooses "1," then something will happen. If the user chooses "2," then something else will happen, and so on. Moncur teaches another way of implementing such problems by using "case" statements. Buy this book and find out for yourself what a "case" statement is.

Moncur also gives at least two complete examples in every chapter that deals with new techniques in Javascript. He tediously documents everything he does in such examples.

Overall, this is a good book and Michael Moncur is a good author!

If someone asks me where to start when they want to learn programming, my standard response is to tell them to learn HTML. If they also want to be able to make money from their knowledge, my response is to tell them to learn HTML and JavaScript. HTML is certainly the most widely used "programming language" in the world today, and JavaScript cannot be far behind. Furthermore, neither requires a great deal of overhead in the form of costly compilers or interpreters.
However, finding material that makes learning them easy and enjoyable is difficult. This book satisfies both criteria at about an eight on a scale of one to ten where ten is the best. The examples are clear, very precise in their coverage and in combination cover the features of the language that you need to know. Furthermore, the coverage includes JavaScript 1.5, which does have some significant new features. While reading this book for review, I learned a few things that I had not been aware of.
If you are interested in learning JavaScript, this book will help you do that, independent of whether you are experienced in programming. I would have no reservations recommending it to anyone who falls into either category.

Some people are saying this book TOO heavy for new programmers while others are saying it is NOT ENOUGH technical information. As someone who relies on technical books for the purpose of teaching myself new technologies, I should point out that most people have to buy more than one book to quickly master a new programming language. And I definitely recommend this book for persons new to javascript only or new to programming in general.

After this book, I had that really good feeling I get when a good base has been established in a new area of technical knowledge -- when the first stuff that came in got laid down right, and then, everything that comes in after that builds easily on top of that good foundation. I am remembering things I read the first time, and everything else I have been learning since sticks, too. There are a lot of browser variation and version differences issues in javascript, and that is a problem. This author copes with it well, which is tough in the chaotic world of fast-changing www standards.

I have the last version of book and the Javascript Bible, Gold (essential desk reference with 1400 pages of excruciating detail), and I definitely recommend buying THIS book as the first one. To those who wanted to find MORE information in an introductory language text, I would say that if you have the ability to read a detailed programming language book, remember all its info and methods, and start programming in the same amount of time that I can read this book and start programming while using the longer, detailed book as my desk reference, by all means do so and enjoy your photographic memory. To new programmers who wanted an EASIER book, it doesn't get clearer this, or at a sharper level of just-enough detail.

Not to discourage people from speaking up, but readers should remember that a "review" is supposed to be a sharing of informed of opinions -- actually, advice -- to help other people make purchasing decisions. Readers should probably not use this review system as a message board, a readership chat, or otherwise to discuss their own issues under the impression that having any opinion at all, and posting it as a "review" helps anyone.

For example, for this book, one reviewer states that the author explains the "&&" operator and then - amazingly - expects the reader to remember it later in the book. It sounds like that reader is looking for a book that performs the added function of making him pay attention, like a book that repeats and reinforces (There are books like that out there. But the handholding you want would make this book too long and too cluttered for an "in 24 hours" title). There is another "reviewer" who stated that he wanted more examples with more context, not just code snippets. Hello, do you know there are about a million downloadble javascript scripts on the WWW, in archives, articles, javascript websites, and so on, including embedded in almost every commercial web page you visit, like this one (for which you can "view source")?

Almost every programming book's review section is full of people saying "not enough", while others say "this is too hard", and people who say "there are typos in the examples." None of these reviews are helping others, unless the review is an informed one and states exactly how and why that opinion is meaningful.

I'm learning how to read into the newbie-bad-book posts to find the good books, and I feel bad for this very good author that he has been jumped on like this. I think that this introductory javascript book has attracted a greater proportion of liberal-arts web-developer wanna-bes, who have posted these inappropriate reviews on a great introductory programming book. Any programming book would be too hard or not right somehow. No, it won't be a fun read, it won't be easy, and you do have to remember symbols and other facts you read, such as the "&&" operator. There's a reason why the technical studies students were missing campus football parties so they could pass their classes while you were getting trashed and why they are making a lot of money now.

I agree with the computer science student. I have read programming books for introductory and advanced college courses and for teaching myself new things. This author is exceptionally good at writing an introductory programming text at a great level of detail with just the right amount of stuff explained very clearly. I am actually waiting, which I hardly ever do, for this author's DHTML book due out in December, for more info about javascript and advanced web page production.

This is perhaps the first 'in 24 hours' book I have actually read within that time. This book is really concise, which is good for someone who already knows a programming similar to JavaScript such as C, C++, or Java. This book wasn't cryptic for me at all because I already knew C++, and was great for learning the specifics for the JavaScript language. Unfortunatly, I can see why few could understand this book. It quickly skims over complex topics such as looping structures, arrays, and functions. This book is perfect for someone who has some knowledge in programming who wants to learn how to use it on the web with Javascript. On the other hand, if you don't know programming, you might want to go with one of the 'thicker' javascript books.

Man, I have really struggled finding a book that I could learn from. I wanted a book that gave me structure, the same way I would imagine it would work in a classroom. After reading the "Javascript Bible" and "DHTML Utopia", I was still baffled and very, very frustrated.

Then I picked up "Teach yourself Javascript in 24 Hours". After reading this through the first time, I feel comfortable with the syntax, and various other parts of Javascript and even wrote a few rudimentary scripts myself.

I am reading this through a second time to make sure I didn't miss anything important.

Overall, this book is a great learning tool if you are new to Javascript and Object Oriented Programming. It does omit at least one major bit of Javascript knowledge, the Object Literal, which is apparently the best thing since sliced bread, but overall, this is a good book.

This is perhaps the first 'in 24 hours' book I have actually read within that time. This book is really concise, which is good for someone who already knows a programming similar to JavaScript such as C, C++, or Java. This book wasn't cryptic for me at all because I already knew C++, and was great for learning the specifics for the JavaScript language. Unfortunatly, I can see why few could understand this book. It quickly skims over complex topics such as looping structures, arrays, and functions. This book is perfect for someone who has some knowledge in programming who wants to learn how to use it on the web with Javascript. On the other hand, if you don't know programming, you might want to go with one of the 'thicker' javascript books. ~geohunter

This review applies to the fourth edition

The good:

1. Good introductory chapters on basic javascript.
2. I've always wanted to know how to do those neat drop-down menus. Now I can.

The bad:

1. Exercises at the end of the chapters have no answers. As in, if you can't figure it out, you're out of luck. (or maybe it's on the website -- see below)
2. The neat Virtual Fish Tank screen shown on the front of the book? You don't do that. (You do have some hover buttons, but that's better done in CSS now.)
3. By the last chapters, it seems to be a bit of a reach. Not sure I really care about creating a poker game. (Especially since I'd have to type several pages of code in -- see below)
4. Being that this was released in 2006, the HTML examples really ought to have been XHTML 1.0 Strict or XHTML 1.1. There were more than a few things that would not pass validation in either of those types.

The UGLY:

The website is supposed to have the example code. It does, but having tried on two different computers, the downloaded zip file is corrupted. I've sent two emails to the publisher and heard nothing. So a lot of time can be spent doing typing instead of learning. No thanks.

Great book for beginners - certainly no complaints as to the examples offered. Can be misinterpretted though as too much of a reference manual, when in fact, it is missing a number of important details.

No technical errors as far as I know.

I used this book in conjunction with their web site and found it very good. The book by itself was rather insufficient however the web site proved to be the saving grace in my opinion. This book paved the way for me to move on the the JavaScript Bible (a bit more complex).

This book is a Good Start for a beginner - just make sure to use the web site.

I read the reviews after I bought the book (dumb!). As a programmer, this book is easy (boring) to follow but I can see how non-programmers would have a hard time following it. I didn't get too much out of it.
However, the examples were so trivial as to be non-interesting to pursue. I bought the book as a follow-up to the SAMS "Teach yourself HTML and XHTML in 24 Hours" so was disappointed to find that this author didn't provide examples that were XHTML compliant. And the few explanations and samples in that book were better than this whole 2nd book.