Professional JavaScript with DHTML, ASP, CGI, FESI, Netscape Enterprise Server, Windows Script Host, LiveConnect and Java
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Spotlight Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 3.31Customer Rating: 5
Summary: Superb second book on Javascript
Comment: I started learning Javascript with the O'Reilly book 'Javascript' (the one with the rhino). It was a good intro, but left me hungry for more.
Enter 'Professional Javascript' from Wrox. From the sample chapter at www.wrox.com I knew this was going to be a great book. I definately helps to be already familiar with Javascript. The basics and syntax are covered in a single chapter. The authors reveal huge amounts of information in a tight, well-constructed format that enlightened me in a very efficient manner. I cannot believe how much I've learnt from this book.
The best thing about this book is that they don't consider Javascript to be a 'toy' suitable only for building flash into web pages. This attitude is best expressed in the chapters on browser configuration using Javascripts and server-side Javascript.
The only criticisms I have are the poor reference section (what's the point of telling me the String object has a substr method if you don't also tell me the parameters?) and the constant references to 'magic' processes -- that's condescending.
The O'Reilly book 'Javascript' has an excellent reference section. The Wrox guys should really take a look at it.
However, I'm prepared to overlook these minor flaws. This isn't a reference book -- it's a darn good technical manual with succinct examples and a good balance between praise and criticism of the major browsers.
If you want to take Javascript beyond flashy animations and build real applications you need this book.
Customer Rating: 3
Summary: Good but not great
Comment: As a web developer, I've been using this book for the better part of a year now. That, coupled with the fact that it's getting a little worn, should be a testament to its overall usefulness. I haven't yet found a professional application for the advanced material presented -- I mainly work in DHTML -- but I like knowing that if I had to do server-side JavaScript, for instance, I could.
However, the reference chapters -- always the most important part of a computer text -- are fairly useless. The IE DOM is hardly explained -- it could warrant a book of its own, but this book's sketchy outline is useless. The way the appendixes are laid out is inconsistent and not visual enough -- you have to dig for the information you need (for instance, which browser supports which core object).
Finally, and worst of all, the methods reference doesn't give you any clue as to the parameters of the methods! I often find myself looking up the object description here, then going to MSDN to se what the parameters are. How silly.
3 of 5, because it *could* have been truly the only JavaScript book any serious programmer needs. As is, I'm off to the store to finally get a decent reference book. (Problem there is that all of them pre-date IE5. Where's the update, O'Reilly?)
Customer Rating: 3
Summary: Needs Improvement
Comment: And yes, another WROX. No formal organization, no definte goal, but a whole bunch of high class authors. The result: an excellent book if you're looking for examples of that little twist of class, a dash of luster code.
There are excellent case studies that make this a good addition to your bookshelf and there are valuable hints scattered everywhere: but the total lack of organization and tutorial direction leaves the book like a box full of sharp tools hidden in a dusty attic.
There is no attempt to teach Javascript (perhaps Paul Wilton's excellent Beginner Javascript is intended for that). The section on Good coding Practice is laughable: why does a book entitled *Profesional" Javascript have 2 chapters on programming practices? The Core javascript section is just a bare scratch on the surface of language itself and does not do Javascript any justice. The Jscript.Net seems to have been thrown in as an after thought.
I like WROX for the "from the field" examples for which they are famous: and I found the case studies ( a third of the book) very interesting. However, sorry, Wrox, it's not worth paying that much for just the last chapters. I'll wait till it hits my library or wait for the 3rd edition.