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David Flanagan

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Activate Your Web Pages (Definitive Guides) Paperback – May 13, 2011

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JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Master the World's Most-Used Programming Language
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Since 1996, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide has been the bible for JavaScript programmers—a programmer's guide and comprehensive reference to the core language and to the client side JavaScript APIs defined by web browsers.

The 6th edition covers HTML5 and ECMAScript 5. Many chapters have been completely rewritten to bring them in line with today's best web development practices. New chapters in this edition document jQuery and server side JavaScript. It's recommended for experienced programmers who want to learn the programming language of the Web, and for current JavaScript programmers who want to master it.

"A must have reference for expert JavaScript programmers...well organized and detailed."

—Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript, CTO of Mozilla

"I made a career of what I learned from JavaScript: The Definitive Guide.”

—Andrew Hedges, Tapulous

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1096 pages
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English
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O'Reilly Media
Publication date

May 13, 2011
Dimensions

7 x 2.4 x 9.19 inches
ISBN-10

0596805527
ISBN-13

978-0596805524
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Editorial Reviews

From the Author

My 10 Favorite Examples from this Book
The 6th edition of JavaScript: The Definitive Guide includes 125 examples that you can view and download from from examples.oreilly.com/9780596805531/ or from github.com/davidflanagan/javascript6_examples
These are ten of my favorites from the book. Note that many of these use new features of ES5 or of HTML5, and will only work in the newest browsers:
1) Example 1-1 is is an extended example in the first chapter of the book, intended to show readers a simple but non-trivial example of JavaScript. This is the loan calculator example from the last edition, but made much more interesting with the addition of client-side graphics, localStorage, and Ajax.
2) Example 9-7 emulates Java-style enumerated types in JavaScript. It demonstrates that JavaScript's prototype-based inheritance is so flexible that factory methods can be normal object factories or even class factories. That example is a little clearer if you look at the code in Example 9-8.
3) Example 9-16 defines a class hierarchy of abstract and concrete Set classes. This one is a favorite because it involves data types and API design. Chapter 9 includes a number of other Set examples, too.
4) Example 9-23 demonstrates the ES5 Object.defineProperty() method and defines a convenient way to inspect and modify the attributes of the properties of an object. It may not be practical, but I think it is a beautiful hack.
5) Example 15-10 is a simple stream-like API wrapped around the innerHTML property of an element. When you're generating text (a table, for example) for display it is sometimes easier to pass each chunk that you compute to a write() method than it is to concatenate it all together and set it on innerHTML.
6) Example 21-03 is an analog clock implemented as an SVG graphic with scriptable hands. I love client-side graphics, and this is a favorite of mine because making the hands rotate is so simple with SVG transforms.
7) Example 21-06 draws a fractal Koch snowflake using the <canvas> tag. I like it because it draws the same line over and over again, but uses transformations to make the line appear at different locations, orientations and sizes.
8) Example 21-13 is another graphical example: it draws sparklines (edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=0001OR). This one is a favorite just because sparklines are so cool.
9) Example 22-1 uses the HTML5 geolocation API to find out where you are then uses the Google Maps API to obtain a static map of your location. I like it because geolocation (via wifi networks) is just pure magic!
10) Example 22-15 is a long example that demonstrates the IndexedDB API. I like it because the idea of a client-side database in a web browser is crazy and cool. This one is really cutting-edge, but if you're running Firefox 4, you can try it out here: davidflanagan.com/demos/zipcodes.html

From the Back Cover

Since 1996, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide has been the bible for JavaScript programmers. With more than 500,000 copies in print, web developers are still raving about it:

"A must-have reference for expert JavaScript programmers...well-organized and detailed" -- Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript, CTO of Mozilla
"I made a career of what I learned from JavaScript:The Definitive Guide"--Andrew Hedges, Tapulous
"The Definitive Guide taught me JavaScript"--Tom Robinson, cofounder of 280 North, cocreator of Cappuccino
"I know which parts of JavaScript matter, based on how crinkled the spine of my copy of The Definitive Guide is in that section"--J. Chris Anderson, cofounder of CoucheBase, Apache CouchDB committer, and author of CouchDB:The Definitive Guide
"...an indispensable reference for all JavaScript developers. If there's something I need to know about JavaScript, I trust The Definitive Guide will have the right answer for me. It's that good."--Rey Bango, Microsoft Client-Web Community Program Manager and jQuery Team member.

Publisher : O'Reilly Media; 6th edition (May 13, 2011)
Language: : English
Paperback : 1096 pages
ISBN-10 : 0596805527
ISBN-13 : 978-0596805524
Item Weight : 3.7 pounds
Dimensions : 7 x 2.4 x 9.19 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #94,667 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #31 in JavaScript Programming (Books)
- #66 in Object-Oriented Design
- #80 in Web Design (Books)

Customer Reviews:
463 ratings

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2 star		4%
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Peter Schaeffer

A great book, for 2011

Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2018

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This is a good Javascript book for ES5. However, ES5 is years out of date. ES6 is from 2015. This book was written back in 2011. A lot has changed in the Javascript world since then. Just one example. This book was written before promises.

The author is a good writer, perhaps even a great writer. In addition, the author certainly knows JavaScript quite well. However, I am writing this review in 2018. The book reflects the state of the art in 2011. A lot has changed in the JavaScript world since 2011. Of course, ES6 (or later) is now the standard. However, JavaScript frameworks have come to dominate the JavaScript world. The author does provide some information about jQuery. However, even the jQuery information is from 2011. These days, React, Boostrap, Ember, Vue, Angular, etc. are highly influential.

If the author, published a new version of this book, updated to ES6/7/8 and with more information about JavaScript frameworks, I would recommend it. At this point I can not recommend a book from 2011.

108 people found this helpful

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Charlie

For those doubting a book is better than what can be found online

Reviewed in the United States on April 25, 2012

Verified Purchase

I simply wanted to say how much David's book has meant to my learning and understanding of Javascript, and programming in general. I had initially tried learning through many free sources online, and while most were very good in tackling specific issues or illustrating solutions to esoteric problems, none gave me the confidence that I was getting a solid foundation in the language, or programming in general.

In search of something better, I looked to stackoverflow which constantly recommended David's book. To be honest, I pirated it first. But after the first 3 chapters I went straight to Amazon and bought it, as well as Javascript Patters from Stoyan and Douglas's Crockford book Javascript: the good parts (another big hit on the stackoverflow forums). I was dumbfounded at how easy and clear his book made the language. For the first time, ideas were presented in a logical order, with concepts obviously introduced to build on previous ones. Concepts I've been told are essential (hoisting, closures, etc) but were intimidating because I'd never seen them in a cohesive narrative, shocked me in how intuitive they actually were when written well and paired with succinct examples.

I know this all seems overzealous enough to border on the insincere, but for someone who always had a passion for technology and wanted to create his own, but was beginning to be deterred from it all because I thought it was simply above my grasp, I want to say thank you to David and O'Reilly.

They very may well have single-handedly created a new developer, and have dramatically changed my life in the process.

Thanks again.

106 people found this helpful

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KWKelly

My Choice For The Best JavaScript Book Available

Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2014

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I've been a professional web developer for 18 years and have always read every JavaScript book, blog, post and ebook I could find. A junior web developer on staff asked me if I could recommend a good JavaScript book. I recommended Maintainable JavaScript by Nicholas Zakas, JavaScript Patterns by Stoyan Stefanov and this David Flanagan gem as the first priority and gave it as a welcome aboard gift. I don't care how good at Googling JavaScript questions you are, if you read this book cover to cover, you'll keep thinking, "I didn't know you could do that!" I highly recommend it to web devs of any level.

17 people found this helpful

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Chuzymatics

JavaScript book for old hands and greenhorns

Reviewed in the United States on November 15, 2018

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This book didn't teach me the power of JavaScript closures , its functional idiom nor did it demystify the elusive "THIS" object. But there's something that makes it very close to my heart. Like Peter, I was washing my fishing net, ready to quit JavaScript for good when a simple statement in chapter 13 turned things around: I did not know where to embed DOM- manipulating scripts in a web page. I usually mistakenly placed them inside the head tag, so they always misfired before the document was ready. Don't laugh, this was the greatest speed bump I experienced in JS. Now, I can place my program anywhere in the page. Many will agree with me that chapter 15 is the holy of hollies in this book. Master it and you can query any node in the page, inject and delete nodes on the fly. And that is javascript's destiny. Here and there, the author draws attention to how to write cross-browser codes, skill that is a matter of life or death in production. For reference, this is arguably the JavaScript book you will consult first before heading to the stackoverflow. As dynamic as javascript's evolution is, the author keeps good record of its reincarnations, birthmarks and scars inflicted by the holy wars among browsers.

2 people found this helpful

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P. Thompson

As noted, it's sadly out of date

Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

I needed to learn about the new Map object so I said, what better way than to sit down with the bible and dig into it. Sad to discover that the book has no coverage of the Map or Set objects. Sigh. Back to the web.

Also, I was among the first buyers of this book when it initially appeared. That first edition had a lot of mistakes. I contacted Amazon and they sent a newer printing. The only difference between numbers is that one of them has "[2011-08-12]" on the frontpiece. Now I can't remember if that was the original error-ridden version of the updated version.

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Arya

Great level of detail, but lacks clear explanations and concise code examples

Reviewed in the United States on December 15, 2019

Verified Purchase

Lots of details, but lacks a simple, crucial, explanations. Some of the examples include worthless/detrimental/meaningless code, which can cause the newbie reader to go on a tangent of activity trying to figure it out, only to eventually realize that it should not exist (after testing the code and referring to other texts). This reader needed to refer to other texts in multiple instances. I am on page 197 and I have about 24 unanswered questions, and I've made a few whiteouts and lineouts.
In hindsight, this book is not for newbies. A newbie can read it, but may need to do extra work to make sense of it This would be a good 2nd or 3rd book, by then you can more quickly recognize the errors and step over the gaps.

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Top reviews from other countries

Gary Woodfine

Probably the best programming book you'll ever buy!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 1, 2014

Verified Purchase

I bought this book, along with 2 other titles "JavaScript: The Good Parts" & "Javascript Patterns", and all I can say is that this Trilogy is essential reading for any programmer.

These 3 books never leave my desktop! I have read them all cover to cover, Something I have never done with any other programming books I have ever bought. My bookshelf is littered with Half read, flicked through tomes of regret.

I can honestly say, that getting to understand the worlds most misunderstood programming language has probably been the most enjoyable experience of my programming career!

This tome is a lofty read, weighing in at a 1018 pages, it takes some doing to get through, but I can promise you, if you have been working with Javascript for a while, you are going to experience many epiphanies!

I admit as a cover to cover read, it is hard going, but it was the growing interest and the desire to learn more about the language that kept me going. I definitely feel, that after reading all three books my Javascript skills went through the roof!

The authors, style makes this book very approachable, which is a change from a majority of the programming books out there. Most books are either way too academic or far too dumbed down. I feel the author got it just right!

22 people found this helpful

SYED N AUSAF

the least bad book in a very large class of bad books on Javascript

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 8, 2016

Verified Purchase

I agree with Douglas Crockford's assesment: "This is the least bad book in a very large class of bad books on Javascript". It is extremely verbose in places (see the painful one and a quarter page explanation of the && operator on pg 76 for an example) and the order of presentation of material is bit awkward, with material that should be covered in the same place instead being dispersed over several chapters (for example new operator logically should have been covered by chapter 6, having been alluded to several times earlier in the book. Yet it appears in chapter 9). The exposition is quite unclear in many, many places (see the long-winded explanation of prototypes on pg. 118). It struggles to get to the heart of the matter, obfuscating the central points in many sections with peripheral details.

Yet, it is probably the best book I have found on Javascript in 17 years of using the language on and off. In one place, you would find all essential material not just on JavaScript the language, but also on a lot of the most important associated machinery (XMLHttpRequest, jQuery, HTML 5 APIs etc).

It is probably not the best resource for a JavaScript beginner to learn the language from. For that - as long as you have some programming experience and some knowledge of HTML and the DOM - I believe the single best resource is Douglas Cockford's set of three lectures (often referred to as the Douglas Crockford Trilogy). After that you may want to refer to this book whenever you want to explore some area of JavaScript in detail.

6 people found this helpful

Gustav de Damme

The ideal book for mastering JavaScript

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2018

Verified Purchase

After having learned JavaScript, i can do some cool stuff on a website and can class myself as a good JavaScript developer. But there are core theories about the language that need to be understood if one wants to fully master the language in all its facets. That's why i went for this book.

I love JavaScript and wanted to go beyond the basics and really know everything i needed to know, and not just be able to hack stuff. The definitive guide is comprehensive and was the obvious choice. I can say that on reading it (i haven't read it from cover to cover, nor do i think that's how its meant to be studied, unless you are completely new to the language), i was happy with the content and the aha moments. Things i could do in JavaScript but not fully understand why are explained thoroughly. I think every developer serious about learning JavaScript should have this as a reference beside their computer at home :-))

Excellent book, definitely 5 stars without a shadow of a doubt.

2 people found this helpful

Ricky

Very detailed and good value for money

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 31, 2016

Verified Purchase

A very detailed book which covers the subject very thoroughly from the behaviour of the compiler and quirks in the language to full blown exploitation. Some bits might seem a little drawn out and detailed getting in the way of productivity but I didn’t find it difficult skipping such sections with a view to going back to them in a future iteration for a more in-depth understanding. I was put off by lots of complaints about the binding failing but in hindsight the book is quite large and heavy so with rough handling such issues are lightly to occur so I simply recommend a little care. All in all an interesting and well written book that I will most likely read several times in due course while I keep it for reference in the meantime. Good value for money.

One person found this helpful

Terry Gilliver

I would recommend that anyone wishing to understand javascript

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 6, 2017

Verified Purchase

This is quite an old book, although it has been revised to bring it up to latest versions of javascript. I would recommend that anyone wishing to understand javascript, should read this book. Remember, all javaScript libraries are based on this. and you can use native javaScript and intermingle it with the libraries such as jQuery.

One person found this helpful

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