JavaScript Bible (Paperback)

~ (Author), Brendan Eich (Foreword), (Contributor)
Key Phrases: core language reference, image rollovers, ker object, Related Items, Document Objects Reference, Internet Explorer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"exhaustive update to the Bible series." (.net, August 2007)

Product Description

Make your Web pages stand out above the noise with JavaScript and the expert instruction in this much-anticipated update to the bestselling JavaScript Bible. With renowned JavaScript expert Danny Goodman at your side, you’ll get a thorough grounding in JavaScript basics, see how it fits with current Web browsers, and find all the soup-to-nuts detail you’ll need. Whether you’re a veteran programmer or just starting out, this is the JavaScript book Web developers turn to again and again.

Note: CD-ROM/DVD and other supplementary materials are not included as part of eBook file.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1200 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 6 edition (April 9, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470069163
• ISBN-13: 978-0470069165
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 2.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #63,051 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

51 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This book is not up to date, June 29, 2007

By	Mark Yieh "the one" (san francisco, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have a few javascript books already, but they are out of date. I bought this book, which claims to be published in 2007, to learn to be more DOM and W3C compliant. However, from reading this book so far, I find that the material in it are as outdated as my older books. For example, the book still encourages the use of the "innerHTML" method, which is neither a W3C recommendation, nor is it encouraged anymore. Furthermore, the book shows you to convert a "number" type to a string by doing this:

var num = 100;
num = "" + num;

That's just silly. What happened to the toString() method? How about doing this?

var num = 100;
num = num.toString();

Also the book doesn't encourage separation of structure from functionality. The book's examples have javascript all mixed together with the markup. This is clearly not the modern, correct, and recommended way to script a web page.

So far, these are the gripes I have about this book... and I'm only on chapter 6. It makes me feel like I don't want to finish this book, because I might adopt these outdated methods of scripting.

I do not recommend this book.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best javascript book available, November 27, 2007

By	Mike (CA) - See all my reviews

books on changing technologies are always out of date by 6 months to a year (a book this size is probably closer to a year). i Google when i need the latest info, just like the rest of the planet apparently.

i understand other reviewer gripes about this book, but it is still the best printed resource available. the book weighs in at a hefty 35 chapters and 5 Appendices in about 1200 pages (and yes the print is small). i found the information well organized, with a decent layout and a useable contents and index. this book tries to serve both the novice and the professional, and frankly does a pretty good job. a book this size obviously has errors, but nothing i would categorize as lethal (it's not a cookbook but has some decent template scripts to get you going). no one could write a book this size and comprehensive from scratch, this book is clearly an evolution and uses "revised" content from previous editions. i got the feeling reading this book that the authors write real code for real world apps. i thought about docking a star because it is has so much information. i seem to have got conditioned over the years to have a slight sense of dread when i have to open a large book to look something up. However, IMHO, the real value is searchable CD version of the book, hence back to 5 stars. this has 23 Bonus chapters! yes that's 23 bonus chapters which add over 500 pages. a nice touch was having references to the CD version (marked with a BC prefix) in the index of the print edition.

from a purist point of view some of the recommendations are wrong, but from a pragmatic point of view no one is going to be impressed with your W3C compliant script that runs 10-20x slower than the non-compliant one (and that's not just in IE).

inevitably a little dated but still the most comprehensive javascript book available.

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, April 16, 2007

By	Kevin (Bradenton, Fl United States) - See all my reviews

The content of this book is Excellent, the wait was worth it. I'm glad someone finally consolidated all the JavaScript information into a publication, which brings me to a criticism, not about the content. The print is too small. I believe it would have been better to turn this into a two book publication and make the print bigger (and blacker), the paper could also be whiter for better contrast and a heavier weight. Yes it would have been more expensive, but you wouldn't go blind trying to read it.