JavaScript Bible, 4th Edition (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: scriptable browsers, document object hierarchy, text input object, Related Items, Internet Explorer, Properties Methods Event Handlers (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Aimed at the HTML designer with or without previous programming experience, the JavaScript Bible, Fourth Edition, brings a popular text up to date with a full tour of using JavaScript with all of today's Web browsers. Smart, very approachable, and filled with many useful tips, this book can put JavaScript development into the reach of just about anyone.

After presenting a solid tour of basic programming in JavaScript, the book centers in on the issues of developing JavaScript applications for real browsers. This means truly comprehensive coverage of the document object model (DOM), HTML, window and frame objects, forms, and style sheets that are available today. In about 1,000 pages (and almost 30 chapters), you learn what's available in today's JavaScript standard with a reference listing every object, API, and property, plus tips on how to use each feature. All this material makes this text an extremely worthwhile desktop reference for everyday JavaScript development. In particular, we liked that support (or lack thereof) for every feature is clearly documented across the full range of today's browsers from Netscape Navigator 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 to Internet Explorer 3 through 5.5.

Later chapters move toward the JavaScript language itself, with material on strings, math functions, and dates. The author discusses techniques for adapting JavaScript to particular browsers as well as providing cross-browser support where appropriate. Short exercises end each chapter, and the book presents sample solutions in an appendix. Additional CD-ROM chapters move beyond the whopping 1,200 pages of printed material.

In all, the author's patient, clear writing style and real-world advice for creating great-looking Web pages with JavaScript make this title a winner. Readers of previous editions of the JavaScript Bible will appreciate the updated focus on current browsers. For anyone who wants to learn JavaScript for the first time, this edition is arguably an unbeatable choice. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Introduction to JavaScript and HTML
• Targeting different browsers (with DHTML, style sheets, and other features)
• Basic JavaScript language tutorial (including variables, operators, expressions, flow control, forms, and built-in APIs)
• Script tags
• Error handling
• Arrays
• Window and document objects
• Form processing with JavaScript
• Tutorial and reference for the String, Math, and Date classes
• Frames
• Images (including rollover support)
• Comprehensive JavaScript reference
• ECMAScript
• Detecting different browsers
• Document object model (DOM) for Netscape 2 through 6 and IE 3 through 5
• Generic HTML objects
• Window and frame objects
• Location and history objects
• Document and body objects
• Body text objects
• HTML directives
• Link and anchor objects
• Image and map objects
• Form and form control objects
• Working with buttons and text in HTML forms
• Select and option elements
• Table and list objects
• Netscape Navigator and environment objects
• Event objects
• Style sheet reference
• Positioned objects
• JavaScript operators
• Functions and custom objects
• Sample programming exercises and answers

Product Description

Greatly enhanced and updated from the third edition, this is the title any JavaScripter cannot afford to be without! JavaScript Bible, 4th Edition covers the new powerful functionality JavaScript will gain with the release of new revs of Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator. This book features essential new JS information, additional ready-to-use JavaScript applications, and scores of additional JavaScripts and Web page routines. As with the last edition, this book will bring non-technical professionals, including casual programmers and scripters, painlessly up to speed on all aspects of mastering JavaScript, including programming fundamentals, JavaScript language elements, and how to use them effectively, and how to easily and efficiently add powerful new functionality to HTML documents and Java applets.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 1200 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; Book & CD-ROM, 4th edition (April 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764533428
• ISBN-13: 978-0764533426
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #381,557 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of breed ... BY FAR...not "...For Dummies", March 30, 2001

By	hokiefootball (Herndon, VA USA) - See all my reviews

If you are a beginner, you should probably read a "...For Dummies" book or a "Learn Javascript in 24 hours" book. But if you want to get passed the basics, and need a good reference companion this book is for you.

It seems many people who havce written bad reviews for this book note that "...they do not work" however I did not have problems. you have to realize Goodman is an advocate of Netscape (but I won't hold that against him),so many examples are based on Netscape browsers. (But they also signify that "It won't work for IE). If you go to his website, he has working examples there for both browsers, so don't complain about examples not working...

I design websites for fortune 500 companies, and found this book invaluable. The index is very complete, and I can look up javascript functions,operators,and keyworks in no-time and find examples of use, and a full listing of all arugments, accessibility (whether you can get or set the values) and browser compatibility.(Much more complete than the Oreilly book)

VERDICT: Great book, and a must have for serious programmers designing production quality websites. NOT for beginners

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 4th Edition could have been put together much better., April 20, 2001

By	Doc (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This is an overhaul of Goodmans JavaScript 3rd ed. IE5+, NN6 and W3C DOM browser topics are covered in detail with lots of practical examples. Unfortunately, you may need to use your CD to see a lot of them.

One really big downside is that eight chapters are only on the CD. They are: Ch.19: Body Text Object, Ch.20: HTML Directive Object, Ch.27: Table and List Object, Ch.28: The Navigator & Other Environment Objects, Ch.31: Position Objects, Ch.32: Embedded Objects, Ch.33: XML Objects and Ch.38: The Regular Expression and RegExp Object. Three hundred pages in all!

I guess the book was already getting thick at 1200 pages but what an inconvenience to have the other 300 on the computer. It's to bad a smaller font size and margin style wasn't used to get everything on paper.

Another problem is the dismal coverage on scripting XML. What little there is works only in IE5+ with nothing written for NN6 or Mozilla. You'll need to surf the web to get at that information.

Lastly, core JavaScript language concepts like scope, OOP programing topics, etc., get weak discussion and one would have to go to David Flanagans, "JavaScript the Definitive Guide" for helpful material.

The JS Bible 4th ed. is basically cookbook in style but a good one for most of the material covered. It's worth getting and would compliment anyone's JavaScript library.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the time, April 6, 2002

By	Philip Spradling (Colorado Springs, CO USA) - See all my reviews

I have two major problems with this book:
1) The author has a very wordy, labored writing style. In contrast to some of the other reviewers, I found his descriptions of at least many of the examples quite long and thorough, but still not really clear. I think this must be what JavaScript for Dummies must read like. He spends vast amounts of words covering the obvious things and then neglects the interesting and less obvious stuff. I would suggest this book if you like the easiest things really really spelled out.

2) Despite having a copywrite in 2001, I am pretty sure the original version was first written around 1995. It is a bit disconcerting when he acts like you must be really on top of things if you have an operating system more recent then Windows 3.1. The Windows 3.1 htm suffixes are also a bit disconcerting.
But more to the point, he spends an awful lot of time warning you that certain features aren't available until NN2 or IE2, and what to do to accomodate older browsers. Does anyone still write web pages accommodating NN1? The book needs a major rewrite to bring it up to date, not just piling new stuff on top of the old text.

Laboring through the tedious descriptions and antiquated techniques is not worth most peoples time.