Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself Javascript 1.3 in 24 Hours (Teach Yourself in 24 Hours)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

With many years of programming experience in VB, I needed a simple discussion of the basic syntax of JavaScript, and I needed it fast. This book hit the spot. There are errors in the sample code, as there are in every IT book I've ever read (including a few rare errors in the Wrox books!). This one is not too bad on that account. The text is tight and readable, and the examples clear and fairly well focused. It naturally lacks the depth required to build complex JavaScript applications, but that's not its goal.

If you already understand programming structures, and just need to learn how JavaScript goes about it, this is the perfect book. If you're just starting out, this book will get you started on the right foot, but you'll need more than 24 hours to master the art of programming. I was actually pleased with the author's restraint in limiting the discussion and examples to essentials. By avoiding the temptation to include "cool tricks" in the examples, the focus on core concepts is strengthened. This is a well done book for its declared purpose.

This book is excellent for introducing the reader to JavaScript. It starts off by explaning some of the differences between Java and JavaScript, along with the origins. The first two parts (or sections) of the book are really spent introducing the user to JavaScript and definately should be read by beginners.

The book is divided into 24 quick 1 hour segments, which is perfect for intermediate to advanced programmers as they can skip ahead to the sections that really talk about using JavaScript. But this book will be most appealing to those still new to developing web sites and are wanting to add in JavaScript functions. The examples are good and demonstrate how you can go about achieving want you want JavaScript to do.

Ultimately you should get this book if you are new to JavaScript and need to learn it fairly quickly. However, you will probably want to pick up a more detailed book later on as a reference guide if you plan on doing much coding in JavaScript.

I'm a Javascript newbie and wanted something which would give me a solid introduction to it and make me confident enough to write a basic "real world" program. Although it started well, by the end, I felt this book was no better than the on-line javascript tutorial pages where they go into what can be done but don't explain why or how. It was very frustrating - (but the good thing is that maybe I under-rated myself to begin with and that I'm not really as big a newbie as I thought I was!) It's an okay book if you don't know how to surf your way to these sites. But if you want something that actually gives you a good grounding and leaves you "knowing" things you can take further with practice and deeper books, stay away from this one! It would have been better if they had made a "Teach Yourself in 21 days" book about Javascript instead. ( I do like the Sams series - their Visual Basic 5 in 21 days is excellent) - I have not used a "24 hour" book before and to be honest, after this one - I don't think I will again.

I'm a professional web developer, who knows HTML like the back of my hand, but not much JavaScript, until, that is I picked up this book.

It starts with the basics, and works up from there, unlike many of the other reviewers, I had no problems getting my scripts to work and many of the applications made can be used on my sites (with a few word changes).

Sure, there were and are a few things a still find confusing, but overall, if you keep the book next to you as a refrence guide, its a great investment.

There are a few gramatical errors, and there could be more examples, and it would be great to get into more depth and explain how this code works sometimes, but I think its a great book.

This book is great for beginners. I started with Goodman's JavaScript Bible and was very confused. After reading this book I started to understand the language faster. Great workshops and has questions at the end of each hour.

Although not the most detailed, this book I felt did its job. It gave me a solid foundation in the basics of JavaScript and in a very short time. I recommend supplementing this book with a more advanced JavaScript book like O'Reilly's "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide".

If you are looking for a book that will take you through JavaScript step-by-step starting at ground-zero this is the book for you. There are plenty of exercises and the answers are provided. Each chapter is maneageble with good explanations. You start a point zero and progress up to some fairly complex concepts by the time you finish the book. Perfect for people with little or no prior experience in web programming. Probably not the book for you if you are fairly experienced or are looking for a complete reference. I would recommend visiting the book's website prior to beginning to make corrections. There aren't many, but it may save you some frustration.

This book is a good tool for people who want to delve into Javascript and have little or no programming experience. For those that are familiar with any type of high level language I would recommend a different text. The book needs an appendix with a reference for Javascript and the last two chapters have to be revamped. I found the last two chapters to be more of a "this is what you can do with javascript" instead of a lesson.

I come from a strong VB/VBScript background and wanted to find a book that would go over the basics of Javascript quickly. I found the first 8 "hours" to be a bit of a waste. The book did not even mention objects until hour nine. I went through the first third of the book in about three hours. I'm now shopping for a better reference book.

However, if you have little or no programming experience this might be a good choice. I have not yet found any errors (although I'm sure at least one exists) and the book is overall well organized. The only issue that might be a problem would be a lack of code samples.

Also, if you don't know any HTML that could also be a problem. The book doesn't go into that at all.

This book is a great book for the begginner who is learning javascript, and covers many topics and provides examples to back it up. This book is good as a beginners tutorial, but you may want to follow up with a more advanced book.