JavaScript for the World Wide Web, Fourth Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

by Tom Negrino (Author), Dori Smith (Author)
Key Phrases: user interface design, power windows, simple rollover, Internet Explorer, World Wide Web, Car Picker (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
When Peachpit Press released the debut edition of JavaScript for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide, it immediately became one of the most useful tools for busy Web developers. Now in its fourth edition, this book has been improved, expanded, and more finely tuned.

Written for Web coders who have at least some familiarity with HTML, the book doesn't necessarily require you to have knowledge of JavaScript programming or scripting. The presentation is illustrative and productive, and concepts are introduced via practical examples, explained briefly, presented in code, and then explained line by line. Using judicious screen shots and new code highlighted in red, the authors have made JavaScript for the World Wide Web quite intuitive. In this new edition, they point out features compatible with only certain Web browsers using new IE and Netscape icons.

Along with its core content, the text includes an excellent genealogy of the various flavors of JavaScript, complete with an extensive object flowchart that is colorcoded by browser version. It also steps outside the base language with a chapter on visual development tools that use JavaScript, like Dreamweaver, GoLive, and Fireworks.

There are tons of useful scripts in the book, and the publisher provides a companion Web site where you can get each script, as well as an interface for viewing the code in action. You can download all of the scripts in a single Zip file. This is simply a must-have guide to JavaScript. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:

• Browser detection
• Rollovers
• Cycling banners
• Frames
• Windows
• Form validations
• Regular expressions
• Date and time display
• Event handling
• Cookies
• Cascading style sheets (CSS)
• DHTML
• User interface design
• Bookmarklets
• Visual development tools
• Debugging
• Genealogy and reference

From Library Journal
These are updates of titles that continue to sell; all are very visual and practical.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Peachpit Press; 4 edition (May 6, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201735172
• ISBN-13: 978-0201735178
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (232 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #726,801 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Invaluable reference and great for the beginner., January 26, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: JavaScript for the World Wide Web, Second Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

I've just started using this one myself, and so far, it's proven to be an invaluable reference. I used to think JavaScript was a difficult and laborious language to learn, especially since the only coding I know is HTML, a little BASIC and some MUSH code (I'm not a programmer, can you tell? *grin*) After paging through the first few chapters of this book, and even jumping around a bit, it's not so much of a mystery anymore, and I now have a correct perception of this popular scripting language, as well as a decent working knowledge. Following the excellent path forged by other titles in the series, this guide is written in a candid, easy to understand manner. Best of all, just like the VQS Guide to HTML4, another of my favorites recommended elsewhere on this site, it's got a companion web site with all of the samples as well as further exercises. Don't waste your time reading thick books full of information you'll never use. Try this one and get to work writing JavaScript immediately. Once you get started and become better versed in the language, you'll want to keep the book nearby as an easy to use reference source.

44 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More Like A Phrase Book Than A Complete Grammar, March 10, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: JavaScript for the World Wide Web, Third Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide) (Paperback)

I have found this book *extremely* helpful in integrating certain JavaScript elements into web pages (using the authors' web site which supplements the material in the book is essential, however.)I would highly recommend it to someone with little or no JavaScript knowledge. I think most of the negative reviews (the ones that rate it a star or two because it's "not for serious programmers") are missing the point. If you want to go on a trip to Mexico and need to learn some Spanish quickly to help you survive, you pick up a phrase book by Berlitz or some such publisher. Learning the entire grammar of the Spanish language would be a waste of time for this purpose. Likewise, if you want to read Cervantes in the original, memorizing how order a meal in a restaurant isn't going to help you much. I think the analogy holds true for this book - if you want to journey into the land of JavaScript, this is a good phrase book to help you get along (the authors themselves even encourage you to copy-and-paste many of the commands from their web site so you don't even have to do the typing.) If you want to delve into the grammar of the language, this book would be limited for that purpose.

43 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just when you thought editions can't get better, November 6, 2002

By	Meryl K. Evans "Content Maven behind meryl.net" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Try as you might to take a class in JavaScript or implement scripts by using online resources, it remains on your to do list. You search the Internet for the scripts and can never find the exact one you want or even close enough to do tweaking. Perhaps, it's time to try an alternative and just buy a book on the subject and dive in.

This book is for beginners and intermediates who are comfortable with HTML and lack the time to learn how to implement JavaScript from scratch or without resources. Negrino and Smith set up the book by the "things" you want your Web site to do rather than walk you through all the definitions, objects, operators, syntax, and all that stuff that would make the non-programmer's eyes glaze over. There are other books that serve that purpose.

Open the book and go to the table of contents, find what you need, and start adding it to your Web pages. Screenshots and lines of code are on every page of the book with step-by-step guidelines of how to use and implement the script. You don't even have to type the code from scratch. Instead, go to the book's companion Web site to get the code and fix it up to meet your needs - a great time saver.

If you own an earlier edition of the book, this one has 100 more pages of new material including new chapters on 7 - Forms and Regular Expressions, 11 - CSS, 13 - User Interface Design with JavaScript, 14 - Applied JavaScript, and 15 - Bookmarklets. Furthermore, the scripts in the older editions have been revised to ensure compliance with current Web standards.

Chapter 7 - Forms and Regular Expressions show how to validate email addresses, file names, and URLs. It gives you a gentle introduction to regexes (regular expressions). Don't panic at the thought of them especially with the handy table of expressions and associated characters. Once you try them out, you'll wonder what you ever did without them.

Chapter 13 - User Interface Design with JavaScript gives you the opportunity to create pull-down and sliding menus. Chapter 14 - Applied JavaScript has directions for creating a slideshow with captions and generating bar graphs.

Colorful additions to the book are the Object Flowchart and Object Table printed in color to show you which objects are compatible with which browsers. The flowchart may be a challenge for beginners, but the table makes up for it by listing the object along with its properties, methods and event handlers.

If you're looking to get cooking with JavaScript, look no further than this cookbook with easily modifiable recipes. It belongs on the Web designer's reference shelf.