- ***+
Javascript Bible, 4th Edition
- Danny Goodman
Our Price: $31.99
Paperback - 900 pages 4th edition (January 2001)
IDG Books Worldwide; ISBN: 0764533428
I have a rather old version (JavaScript Handbook, 1996) and it's not bad. Decent level of attention
to the language itself. For example language operators and control structures are explained well.
That's what I expect of any decent introductory JavaScript book.
It is not for beginners, but the best for the next step up, May 28, 2000
Reviewer:
Johnny Liu (see more about me) from Jersey City, NJ
This book is not for someone who is an absolute beginner to scripting or programming. I would
only recommend it for someone who has some experience with scripting and programming - you don't
need much, but you do need some in order to fully enjoy this book.
When I bought this book, I had already read a slimmer, truly beginner JavaScript book,
"Teach Yourself JavaScript 1.3 in 24 Hours" by SAMS. The SAMS book taught me the basic concepts
of JavaScript and gave me a good foundation in Document Object Model, syntax, scripting logic,
etc. With that knowledge already, the Goodman, JavaScript Bible was fully appreciated.
The JavaScript Bible is the best book around on the subject for an intermediate beginner -
I mean someone who is still a beginner to JavaScript, but not an absolute beginner. When you are
at this stage, buy this book. It is the best learning tutorial at that stage. After reading this
I intend to buy the O'Reilly JavaScript book for reference and comparison. I would not recommend
the O'Reilly book as the proper learning tutorial for the intermediate beginner, because unlike
the JavaScript Bible, the O'Reilly book is written for those who are quite programming and scripting
saavy. The O'Reilly book is worth purchasing for reference after reading the JavaScript Bible.
The O'Reilly book is also worth buying later in order to find any points that The JavaScript Bible
may have not included (and points that the O'Reilly book may have not included but are found in
the JavaScript Bible). The JavaScript Bible is a good teacher and a very good reference book.
The O'Reilly book is a OK teacher and an excellent reference book. --This text refers to the
Paperback edition.
I don't know what book everyone else was reading but..., October 15, 2000
Reviewer: A reader from Delray Beach, FL
this book as someone else already stated 'sucks'. If you've got time to waste reading through
this guy's twaddle more power to you. The examples are poorly presented. Mr. Goodman, the author,
seems to enjoy burying useful information within his long explanations of extraneous data.
This guy does an excellent job of blending together a lot of concepts (sometimes unrelated
to the current discussion) and then burying the core concept he's discussing! Unbelievable.
If you are still thinking about buying this book, do yourself a favor, when you're at
the book store look in the index or table of contents of this book and then go to the page and
read the authors discussion/explanation. Read it carefully, if you don't fully understand the
concept then look for a reference to what you don't understand in the book keep doing this until
you fully understand the concept you were originally interested in. Once you've done that
if the time it took you to *fully* understand the concept was acceptable by all means buy the
book, but if you're like me you'll find the time invested in finding useful information in this
book is unacceptable.
FYI- I've read a lot of computer books in my life this ranks right up there with the worst,
a five star waste of time. --This text refers to the
Paperback edition.
- ***+
Dynamic Html in Action
- Eric M. Schurman, William J. Pardi
Paperback - 497 pages 2nd Bk&Dk edition (March 1999)
Microsoft Press; ISBN: 0735605637 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.41 x 9.46 x 7.47
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 4,586
Avg. Customer Review:
- Number of Reviews: 9
Not bad coverage of both HTML and JavaScript for those who already know C or Java or other C-like
language. Not recommended for beginners that has no programming experience.
a readable, accessible primer-to-intermediate guide July 11, 1999
Reviewer: [email protected] from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA
True, this is not a great reference, though the CD contains great reference material
and there are www links scattered liberally throughout the text. For more general DHTML references
one would do better with either Goodman's "Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Guide" (O'Reilly & Assoc.,
1998) for a cross-platform perspective or Francis et al. "IE5 DHTML Prog. Ref. 2nd Ed." (Wrox
Press, 1999) for a very IE5-centric text.
What this book excels at is showing you how to do stuff with DHTML, combining (Java)script-ing,
CSS, and touching on XML. It doesn't go deeply into any particular subject, nor does it
skim too lightly, and its "portal" approach almost guarantees there are links to more information.
Netscape-centric developers will find this text off-putting to offensive. This book stresses
- though is not exclusive to - IE4 and 5. As Microsoft and Netscape converge on the W3C DHTML
specification we can hope browser-specific DHTML books will be replaced by more standardized texts.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is at least slightly familiar with the technologies
and wants to put them together quickly to create eye-catching sites. Its Javascript tutorial is
weak - if you're not already familiar with Javascript or its siblings (JScript, ECMAScript) start
elsewhere then return to this book for practical uses of Javascript.
***** Good training for beginners and information for advanced January 8, 2000
Reviewer: jnz08 from Honolulu, Hawaii
I disagree that this book covers only the very basic. It begins with a great overview of HTML
(though I'm a pretty good web programmer, I read the HTML chapters and found some things that
I did not know before)and then covers scripting quite well. It also has a good overview
of css, including some screenshot differences between how IE and Netscape display styles.
After this, it gets into more esoteric subjects like data binding, scriptlets, and font embedding.
It also has a chapter or so for XML, talks about javascript error handling, and has a big section
on cross browser coding.
I liked this book-I thought it was very well written. It definitely wasn't a hard core reference-but
it points you to specific places in all sorts of real references, most on the net, though it also
recommends some real reference books.
- ***+
Mastering Javascript and Jscript (Mastering)
- James Jaworski / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $31.99
Mass Market Paperback - 895 pages 1st edition (March 1999)
Sybex, Inc.; ISBN: 0782124925 ; Dimensions (in inches): 2.37 x 9.02 x 7.53
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 5,644
Avg. Customer Review:
Number of Reviews: 8
Expensive, but not that bad for the introductory book. The author has bad habit of including HTML
tags in each example, but examples itself are not bad and some are actually pretty interesting.
-
-
This book is excellent, February 26, 2000
Reviewer:
Sharon Bull (see more about me) from England
Jaworski explains not only the syntax but basic principles behind the programming. Very
handy for anyone, regardless of programming experience!
The book will help you to get started very, very quickly. There are great examples, showing
you exactly what you can do with JavaScript.
I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending this book - my copy has yet to see my shelf!
A handy day-to-day reference document, December 24, 1999
Reviewer: Joel Howe from Massachusetts
I found this book to be very useful. There are many examples that are helpful in developing
your JavaScript skills, and there are several more advanced sections that include explaining how
JavaScript can be used to link with Java and ActiveX. This book truly helped me develop
from a beginner at JavaScript to an expert. My experience before this book was that I was an HTML
expert, but didn't have a clue about JavaScript. I am currently doing some web page development
work and I routinely reference this book to refresh my memory. I highly recommend this book, though
it may be getting out of date a bit, but since there are still many people using Version 4 browsers,
this book will ensure you are writing JavaScript code that can be used by most anyone, not just
IE5.0 users.
-
- ???
Official Netscape Javascript 1.2 Book The Nonprogrammer's Guide to Creating Interactive Web Pages
- by Peter Kent, John Kent
- Amazon.com Sales Rank: 115,263
Avg. Customer Review:
Number of Reviews: 11
-
Table of contents
- Web site: Official Netscape
Javascript 1.2 Book
Never read it. But hope that it's better than those that I did read. Netscape oriented book
-
Toss the Rest -- This is the Best, October 2, 1999
Reviewer: A reader from Miami, Florida
Good to see this book is coming back onto the shelves. Had to scrounge around recently to find
my copy. Recommended to me by a JS pro. Purchased two other books previously that will soon collect
dust in the used book store.
The Kent brothers REALLY explain JavaScript and and provide a good introduction to the nuances
(= annoyances) of object based syntax. If you think you have to buy four or five bad references
to find a good one, this is the ONE good one on JS. (Better than anything in the O'Reilly catalog.)
This is THE book many developers turn to in lieu of sharp objects and alcohol when fumbling
with JavaScript. Why? It's in English and is well organized. Plus, instead of clunky CDs, you
can access/copy the book's scripts over the web as you read the book.
This book defines the top of its category., August 9, 1999
Reviewer: A reader from Selinsgrove, PA, USA
Out of a large library of JavaScript books, this one is the only one that never gets shelved.
I've seen novices find out how to do all the things they were looking for, and I've personally
used it to expand my own knowledge. If I were to own just one JS book, this'd be it.
THE book for beginners, May 23, 2000
Reviewer:
Tobias Schmidt (see more about me) from Cologne, Germany
I bought three books about JavaScript to get me started and I have to say that this was by far
the best. The other two books I bought were the Visual Quickstart Guide by Peachpit Press and
O'Reilly's Definitive JavaScript Guide. I used the Quickstart Guide to get a basic understanding
for the language but soon noticed that I didn't actually learn it, but was rather just copying
the examples in the book. With the Definitive Guide the exact opposite was the case. It was simply
to hard to understand as a complete novice.
The official Netscape Guide is the ideal book for starters: It takes you through the learning
process step by step, starting with the easy stuff and then becoming harder and more complex.
It also shows you the annoying parts about JavaScript (browser incompatibilities) and how to deal
with them.
Overall an absolutely cool book to get you started!
-
- ****
Beginning Javascript
- by Paul Wilton
Our Price: $31.99
Paperback - 800 pages (December 2000)
Wrox Press Inc; ISBN: 1861004060
Table
of Contents Beginning Javascript
Paul Wilton participated in the writing (semibaked) Professional JavaScript book from Wrox
and a couple of VB/VBScript books. This book provides a decent beginner tutorial in the JavaScript
language, hopefully teaching programming concepts along the way. What I really like is the
chapter about debugging that includes both discussion of MS debugger and (now obsolete Netscape
debugger). One reviewer complains that the author is too much OO fundamentalist and that's bad,
but still it's one of the best intro books available on the market.
From the Publisher
This book is for anyone who's interested in web programming - from the amateur home user who wants
to enhance his home page to the aspiring professional developer who wants to add another tool
to his belt. Only some HTML knowledge is assumed - no prior programming experience is required
for this book.
Javascript is just an Object-Based Language?, August 27, 2001
Reviewer:
Boris Strokopytov (see more about me) from
Bronx, NY USA
This is a good book. But I didn't like the author's statement that Javascript is (just) an Object-Based
language. This maybe true - there are no full blown classes in JS. But I didn't like that he is
obviously trying to overemphasize this fact. To support his view on not-OO nature of JS he only
starts discussing keyword 'this' on page 473 and generally avoids discusion of OOP techniques
for Javascript. And, yes, contrary to what the authors states it's possible to define your own
objects (though without classes) in Javascript. I always thought that JS was very close to the
definition of OOP language though it lacks inheritance, polymorphism etc. (It is not full blown
OO language like C++ or Java of course). But on p.747 we read the following: "...Javascript does
not really have the language features to achieve this(OOP), and is simply an object-based language.
By this I mean that it can use objects, but we can't use it to define our own class of objects".
This contradicts with "Javascript Objects" by Alexander Nakhimovsky and Tom Myers. On p.4 in the
paragraph "Why do OOP in Javascript" we read - "...As we've just said, one CAN do OOP in Javascript"
and "Javascript is well designed for Object-Oriented Programming". I can understand of course
the wish of the author to make things simpler for the beginners but I wouldn't call this language
Object-Based. Too offensive. JS was designed with OOP in mind but OO model is just very
much simplified here.
Whether Javascript is OO or not OO language is maybe not that important. That's not my point.
It is what it is. Perhaps it somewhere in between OO and structured languages but what bothers
me that Paul Wilton didn't show to the end what great language Javascript is. From my point of
view at least 2 additional chapters are needed to be added which would clarify how you CAN do
OOP in Javascript and how you can define your own reusable objects in JS. On the positive
note, Paul Wilton is obviously a very talented writer and his writing style and explanations are
excellent. Good book for the beginners. Though, I'm repeating, this book is not going
to give you a full impression about Javascript. I certainly would recommend to read everybody
Hour 11 from "Teach yourself Javascript in 24 hours" (not a bad book at all, by the way!) or if
you are brave enough "Javascript Objects" mentioned above. The OOP part was at least partially
missing from this book.
Outstanding book!!, July 9, 2001
Reviewer:
rcbto (see more about me) from
North Huntingdon, Pa. USA
Beginning JavaScript by Paul Wilton is a great book !!! I have 31 computer related howto/learning
books on my bookshelf at the present time, on subjects such as C/C++ Programming, Windows Programming,
Linux Programming, Perl, Emacs, etc. etc., so I have some experience with different writers and
different styles and methods of presentation/teaching. This book may be the best of the lot. Programming
Windows95 by Charles Petzold is the only one that is probably better -- but not by much.
The book is laid out in a logical, orderly, consistent manner from beginning to end. First
you are presented with a concept. Secondly, you are given an example of fully functional code.
Thirdly that code is fully explained, line by line. The book starts out with simple concepts and
builds on them almost effortlessly. First you learn the core language, then you learn how to attach
the JavaScript code to the base HTML document. Later you learn how to dynamically change the HTML
document "on the fly" using JavaScript. Next, you are presented with -- interaction with the user
through forms, string manipulation using regular expressions, Date objects and methods, Time,
and Timers, Cookies, Dynamic HTML, Databases and server side scripting. I appreciated the fact
that the examples given in the first 9 chapters work in both major browsers, so you are not immediately
presented with confusing browser incompatibilities that complicate the learning process, but you
are made aware of the incompatibilites later in the book when you are more able to understand
them.
As an aside, if I am a "little shaky" on one of the properties' or methods' syntax, and want
to go back and review the concept, the material is quite easily found. The index is good as are
the appendices where the DOM's and BOM's are laid out in detail.
The book is exceptionally "meaty". Don't skip over any text or explanation of code, because
you will miss myriad little tidbits of information and programming techniques that will prove
most valuable.
Some of the reviewers have complained about mistakes and typos. I have found most of the mistakes
to be typos and the typos to be trivial matters, easily recognized. Of the 70+ examples give that
I have done and experimented with up to chapter 10, only one didn't work as laid out in the book.
(ch7 GlobalFunctions.htm) And from the thorough instruction given up to that point, I was able
to correct the mistake and get that example to work also.
In short, using this book, you can go from knowing nothing about JavaScript to building almost
any kind of website you've ever encountered, from storefronts, to "virtual amusement parks". My
hat's off to Mr. Wilton.
-
Better than a COLLEGE COURSE!!, May 17, 2001
Reviewer:
Rudy (see more about me) from
Coralville, Iowa United States
FINALLY a book that TEACHES JavaScript Programming and not just copycat code! I took an Internet
Programming class in college...basically was a joke. This book along with Professional JavaScript
by Wrox, will make one a PRO!! Bottom line, Wrox makes the best computer books in the industry!
I'm a PC Programming major at a 2 year school, and I'm learning MORE on my OWN from the WROX books
than in any class I have taken, and that also includes University courses.
Very Well Done!, May 25, 2001
Reviewer: Steve Aschoff from
Lincoln, Nebraska
I've read programming books on all different sorts of languages including JavaScript. This is
one of the best books I have read about any language. Mr Wilton does an excellent job of explaining
the intricacies of JavaScript while making good points about the "gotchas" of some of the cross-browser
compatibility issues. I am not a very good student, and I've never been a very adept reader of
books so learning from books like this is usually difficult for me. Not with this book! If you
are new to JavaScript or even programming in general, this is a great book to start with!
Dis be da bestest!, May 19, 2001
Reviewer: Jeff Harder from Vilnius, Lithuania
I was thrilled to finally get a JavaScript book that teaches basic (and not-so-basic) concepts
in a clear, concise manner. I've been using JavaScript for around 2 years now, but I found the
book really useful. Wilton did not write a cookbook, but instead takes the reader into areas that
most authors don't. I've got 4 other JavaScript books (including Goodman's Bible), and none come
close to the style delivered by Wilton. What I like personally is his coverage of string manipulation
and Regular Expressions in a way that is understandable, without leaving you more confused as
others seem to do. Don't buy the Definitive Guide or Bible if you don't know JavaScript. Get this
book first, then move on to the big gun reference jobs.
- ***+
Professional JavaScript
- by Nigel McFarlane, at all
- Amazon price: $49.99
Mass Market Paperback - 1149 pages 1st edition (September 23, 1999)
Wrox Press Inc; ISBN: 186100270X ; Dimensions (in inches): 2.01 x 9.10 x 7.22
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 11,186
Avg. Customer Review:
Number of Reviews: 18
-
Table of contents
- I used this book in one semester course with mixed results. This book is semibaked and looks
more like a reference, and less like a university textbook or tutorial. But all-in-all was a better
choice than Javascript The Definitive Guide ;-).
- If you do not already have formal programming training, and a good familiarity with
JavaScript itself (or at least own a good introductory book), the
other book might be a better choice.
- The main strength of the book is the wide spectrum of topics it covers. Actually it is one
of very few books that discuss ASP and CGI programming with JavaScript as well as WSH (most other
books about ASP use VBScript which is a weaker language and WSH usually in not covered in Javascript
books at all). The book contains a substantial number of practical and working examples (but not
all of the examples are practical and working :-).
-
- The book contains extremely valuable chapter about debugging JavaScript (Chapter 17 Debugging
and Disappearing Data). Another plus is that there is a special chapter that discusses JavaScript
security. Excellent two projects are discussed (one for Dynamic HTML, the other about ASP
usage in e-commerce application).
-
- As for weaknesses, the book was written by several authors that that's noticeable. The
quality of writing vary widely and generally not that great. In some parts of the book it's simply
bad. JavaScript overview in Chapter 3-5 is weak to say the least and useful only for those
who already know JavaScript (actually this is an intended audience and that is probably the only
excuse that can save the face of the author of those chapters ;-). I suspect that the message
to the reader that the author of Chapter 3 intended to communicate is "Give me your money and
go to hell" ;-(. Reference chapters (appendixes A-L, pages 780-1080) that constitute approximately
one third of the book are weak. For example description of methods does not contain the list of
arguments.
-
- Examples are often not that great, but at least the authors do not put each and every code
snippet into html with at least <html><head> </head> <body> </body> </html> tags :-). That definitely
helps to save trees.
-
Good but not great, September 20, 2000
Reviewer:
Glen Ford (see more about me) from Houston, Texas USA
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?)
-
Decent programmers reference, but not for beginners, October 11, 2000
Reviewer:
Levi Wallach (see more about me) from Vienna, VA USA
Professional JavaScript is great as a reference and one can find some good nuggets in some of
the non-reference chapters. However, if you do not already have formal programming training, and
possibly some good familiarity with JavaScript itself, the book may do you better just as a reference
tool. Also, because it was written by so many people (each one responsible for a different chapter)
the text reads more like a disjointed collection of essays.
The first 750 pages or so of the book comprises the main content of the book. It is divided
into 20 chapters, covering just about every aspect of the language. Some of the more advanced
chapters, which I did not get a chance to read, are integrating JavaScript with Java, Server-side
JavaScript, and stand-alone JavaScript via Windows Script Host. There are also chapters on integrating
JavaScript with ASP, and detailed looks at a couple of fairly complex JavaScript systems including
a family tree and an ecommerce tool. The problem is that there's little ramp-up. There are lots
of code examples throughout the text, but they are primarily small snippets. So it's like shock
therapy when you are presented with such major applications of coding without anything in between!
But this has to do more with the aforementioned nature of the book in that so many different authors
with different styles and topics wrote it. Some of the chapters are great; they have some really
good information that any level of programmer can use. The chapters on Forms and Data, Multimedia
Plugins, Debugging and Disappearing Data, and Windows and Frames were all extremely helpful.
Other chapters for me were completely useless to me - they droned on and on about theoretical
issues without getting into practically any coding. I had great hopes for the chapter on
Privacy, Security and Cookies, as well as the one on Rapid Application Development, but neither
was helpful at all.
The last 300 pages or so comprises the reference section. The reference section is great, it
goes into every aspect of the language, including the core language attributes, objects and methods,
and there are a ton of JavaScript/browser comparison charts that give you a great idea of what
functions and features will be available to you in Netscape and IE from the earliest version to
the latest.
Ultimately what you get out Professional JavaScript really depends on your level of expertise
when it comes to programming. I do not personally have any formal training - it's all
been self-taught, so some of the more advanced stuff, though I'm sure I could learn it given the
need, was not presented in a way that instructs people who do not have a familiarity with advanced
programming techniques. There seems to be a lingo that some programmers use when talking about
programming and for people who don't have formal programming training (or haven't been programming
since they were nine) is just completely baffling. Most O'Reilly books seem to be full of this,
but then they are written for the professional programmer. Professional JavaScript, as the name
implies, probably is as well, however, there is enough great information here for any kind of
programmer, and you just have to be selective as to which chapters you try to tackle.
-
Only for intelligent people, July 11, 2000
Reviewer:
Richard B Miller (see more about me) from Cincinnati, OH United States
I found that wrox books are quite informative, and being a web professional, these are the kind
of books that you want to buy. If you are a web monkey and don't have any education of the art
of programming however, you really won't grasp the concepts that are presented in this book. It's
not meant to be a code source book, that you can find in the javascript reference. This is to
fully understand the concepts of JavaScript.(aka livescript for those of you in the know) Again,
if you are a professional, this would be a great book for you. If you are a beginning programmer
however, you might be better off getting a sams teach yourself book. start with the blah blah
in 10 minutes. then get the 24 hours. 21 days is a waste. When you are at that point then come
to wrox and get the real book on the language.
Very Good Book if you have some programming Experience, January 3, 2000
Reviewer: Harry Yeh from Kirkland, WA
This Book and the O'Reily Book Javascript : The Definitive Guide are the best books for Javascript
in my mind. This Book teaches you all the useful techniques, and I use the O'Reily as a reference.
They have a really good section on the OOP with Javascript.
If you are a beginner, this book is pretty good as well. This is definately a book you will
pick up time and time again! For the professional Web Developer, this book will teach you techniques
that you would have had to scour the internet to figure out. There aren't that many Javascript
books out there that were really good in my mind but this is definately one of the best! Like
other Wrox books, You DEFINATELY CAN'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER!
Excellent Case Studies, January 15, 2000
Reviewer: Mart Poom from Oslo
Chapters 10 and 14 in this book are excellent case studies. The 'Family Tree Photo Album' is a
great real-life example of how to use JavaScript practically and ties up what has been taught
in the book.
But then chapter 14 which is "Building an e-commerce shop front" goes beyond that to create
a functioning online shop. It's brilliant! I have "borrowed" it for our company site.
Thanks Wrox, this book surpasses even ASP2.0 in quality and depth. Keep up the good work.
-
Should be half this size - very incoherent, February 21, 2000
Reviewer: Zarko Berberski from Europe
It really looks like production team was under orders to produce pre-set number of pages no matter
what. Almost 300pg reference section would comfortably fit in 100pg and would be of some use then-
after major rework, and reference is important part of a book calling itself professional. For
example, no information on object method arguments is included, not even a list. Tables are at
least twice as large then what would be reasonable for the content - almost like they went printing
Web tables from and old browser. What was supposed to be Netscape and IE specific reference really
looks like a verbatim copy of some web intro page.
Proliferation of subtitles, many times just for one paragraph. Index with at least one level
larger font size then what even Wrox itself used in ASP 3.0 book. Table of contents stretched
out to 30 pages with big font sizes which rendered it almost useless.
Way to many "buy this further Wrox book" nagging in the text up to a point where you have to
start suspecting that not things are not present on purpose just to make you purchase one more.
DHTML section is way too IE biased, even with no mention of some cross browser techniques you
can see working on web. Client side JavaScript case study just goes presenting IE exclusive code,
then some rambling how "Netscape can't do this" and then - a miracle - cross browser JavaScript
library from the net :-) FI development of cross browser code was too much for authors they why
not simply presenting several good libraries and explaining their inner workings?
Authors of at least half chapters seem to be at loss about their intended audience. If this
was written for web developer then one would expect to see things like events and document object
model covered in one place and not scattered (as some tutorials have to do). I can't blame for
this so much authors but project manager and editors (6 of them :-) Book with many authors scattered
all over the planet lever or dies by good or bad project management to provide coherence.
Chapters on server side, wsh and client configuration are fine but that is no more then several
hundred pages. This book really needs major rework and split into two smaller volumes of which
one would really be professional (with good reference section this time) and the other would be
intro review volume. Then professional part would probably get 5 stars - and wouldn't break your
wrist while you try to wade through to find something.
-
- ???+
Javascript Unleashed (with CD-ROM)
- by R. Allen Wyke,
Richard Wagner
- Amazon Price: $44.99
CD-ROM - 996 pages 3rd Bk&cdr edition (June 15, 2000)
Sams; ISBN: 067231763X ; Dimensions (in inches): 2.05 x 9.01 x 7.33
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 3,801
Popular in:
Arizona State University (#12)
- Avg. Customer Review:
Number of Reviews: 1
Just browsed it in store. Looks interesting and I hope that in some aspects it might be slightly
better than Professional JavaScript :-).
-
Great for getting you started, but..., October 11, 2000
Reviewer:
Paul Hurt (see more about me) from London, United Kingdom United Kingdom
As a practical introduction to the language, this book was pretty much what I was looking for.
And it's pretty readable, much more so than a lot of other big fat JavaScript books I looked
at. So I guess I'd recommend it. But a few major provisos:
1) if you've done any programming in another language before, you will find the first couple
of hundred pages heavy going, as it explains very basic concepts in excessive detail. But you
still need to read these chapters as a few things come up which are peculiar to JavaScript.
2) It's just plain wrong, or incomplete in places. For instance, the browser-detection example
given doesn't actually work because of some basic errors in the code. And it neglects to mention
a lot of the vital peculiarities where Netscape's JavaScript and IE's JScript diverge in their
behaviour. If the book is to be believed you'd think all Javascript 1.2 code would work on the
latest Netscape and Microsoft browsers. It won't. It's just not that easy unfortunately.
3) Good for learning, but not much use as a "reference". Hard to find the info you want while
you're coding, and when you do find it it's frequently too sketchy to give you any insight into
your problem.
So don't rely on this book as your only JavaScript reference. You will have to look elsewhere
to find out the truth and get your scripts working properly. Particularly if you want your code
to work in Explorer.
Just get it!, August 1, 2000
Reviewer:
Tomohiro Noda (see more about me) from Cupertino, CA USA
It's exactly what I wanted! There are many points I recommend this book to you.
- 1st, it covers the most appropriate issues. Basically, this book focuses on client-side
development and covers almost all of it. Some books cover even server-side issues such as servlet,
ASP, JSP while they are lacking in the main subject, client-side issues. If we want to learn
server-side issues, we can just pick these kinds of books (Sun's JSP book is good).
- 2nd, it's well organized. For people who don't have a time to read everything, this
well-organized book is really helpful. There are 35 chapters and each chapter pick up precise
one distinct topic. You can skim and scan whichever you want.
-
3rd, a lot of useful sample codes and graphical outputs enable us
to learn JavaScript easily. The definition of good programming books is how much they
contain sample codes. This is it.
- 4th, If you are beginner for JavaScript, just take this. I'm a Java programmer but I'm
a beginner for JavaScript and even HTML. However, this book helped me without any extra
beginner books.
Anyway, it's worthy of $50.
Great book for heavy duty programmers!, October 15, 1999
Reviewer: A reader from Maryland
Unlike the first 3 reviewers, I am a software engineer who LIKES TO PROGRAM. My complaint
with other Javascript books is that they are too lightweight and there is not enough information
besides how to make cute web pages. I consulted this book frequently during the development
of a large project, and it never let me down. There was information on every topic I needed, and
examples with enough substance that I could take it from there. This book spans the simple to
the complicated, so you get a lot of value out of this book - this book will remain useful as
your skills grow.
- by
Tom Myers,
Alexander D. Nakhimovsky
Our Price: $31.99
Paperback - 450 pages (December 1998)
Wrox Press Inc; ISBN: 1861001894 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.07 x 9.14 x 7.29
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 53,066
Avg. Customer Rating:
Number of Reviews: 9
table of contents
-
JavaScript Objects, August 28, 2000
Reviewer:
Michael V. Wenczel (see more about me) from Lawrenceville, NJ United States
Very good book. If your just looking for a JavaScript reference or a source for scripts, this
is not the book. The authors take a serious approach to client-side applications using JavaScript
and object-oriented code.
Others have complained about the examples being too academic but I found them very appropriate
for the kinds of things I'd do such as using regular expressions for form validation, binding
of html elements to objects, etc., using tree and stack data structures for document parsing...
Even if you already use these techniques I found it an effective way to teach the language.
A great book with great depth, August 18, 2000
Reviewer:
Easdr ahuk (see more about me) from Mohr's Beach, SK Canada
This is an important book, that takes the object-oriented aspects of JavaScript seriously and
will take you there, if you are prepared to think long and hard. I found the reading is slow going
because there is an incredible amount of material here. Buy this book and then find lots of time
to work the code and think about OO and how JavaScript does OO. Wow
Disappointing, July 18, 2000
Reviewer:
Robert A. Fontana (see more about me) from Boca Raton, FL United States
The main point that the authors attempt to make is that JavaScript can be a powerful and flexible
object-oriented programming language. This book is better suited for the classroom than for real-world
web development. Out of its 450+ pages, a single 30-page chapter deals with JavaScript in the
browser.
Since I have several years of C/C++ experience, I bought this book primarily for the object
reference table in the appendix. As I began writing real JavaScript applications, however, it
became clear that this book was more of a hinderance than a help -- that even the object reference
was a watered down version of the Netscape documentation. For instance, the book makes no distinction
between read/write and read-only properties. The programmer is left guessing whether his program
is failing or the property is not writable.
I found that "JavaScript - The Definitive Guide" by O'Reilly & Associates (ISBN 1-56592-392-8)
covers browser objects much more thoroughy.
Thinking clearly in a scripting language, March 9, 2000
Reviewer:
Stavros Macrakis (see more about me) from Cambridge, Massachusetts
Your code can benefit from object-oriented programming even if your language doesn't support it
directly. Javascript provides more support for O-O programming than (say) C, although much less
than Java.
JSO shows you how to write client-side applications in object-oriented Javascript. It leads
you through useful examples using the technique, demonstrating that you can do many sophisticated
and useful things with this 'scripting' language.
For very experienced programmers, this will at times be a slow, but most developers will benefit
from the close attention to the code.
JSO doubles as a concise introduction and reference to Javascript, covering it better in 80
pages than those bricks in the bookstore do in 1200.
The strength of this book is also its weakness. Since it focusses on client-side functionality,
its example of client/server Web programming is unrealistically tilted towards providing all functionality
on the client. But, given the current state of the art, I can't think of a better way of doing
this without spending too much time on server-side issues. Along the same lines, the current incompatibilities
among implementations force it to be browser-specific (Internet Explorer).
Overall, this is probably the best book on client-side Javascript programming -- as long as
you don't care about cross-browser compatibility.
-
- ****
Windows Script Host Programmer's Reference
- by
Dino Esposito
Our Price: $23.99
Paperback - 373 pages 1 edition (July 1999)
Wrox Press Inc; ISBN: 1861002653 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.99 x 9.06 x 6.07
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 17,196
Popular in:
Unisys Corporation (#8)
Avg. Customer Rating:
Number of Reviews: 11
- See positive ERCB review at
http://www.ercb.com/brief/brief.0146.html
by Lou Grinzo:
- The general approach of this type of book can make or break it, and Esposito strikes just
the right tone. He assumes that readers are reasonably capable Windows programmers, but are rank
beginners with the WSH. Thus he explains early on how scripts are executed by Windows, with the
obligatory (but still useful) box diagram, but never burdens the main part of the book with the
tedious, blow-by-blow description of either JScript's or VBScript's syntax. He also refrains from
making numerous references to the language-specific appendices. This creates a somewhat unusual
atmosphere, as compared to that of most books of this type, but it's a very comfortable and productive
one, nonetheless.
The author explains enough of the plumbing of the WSH and its object model, and how they interact
with the facilities in the two supported languages, to give the reader a firm foundation.
He routinely shows programming examples implemented in both VBScript and JScript, or shows
one and describes the minimal changes to the other. While all such programming examples
are inherently somewhat artificial, the examples in this book are well chosen, and in many cases
will probably be "borrowed" directly into some reader's code.
I was particularly pleased to see the three chapters that focus on the new features in
WSH 2.0, file system programming, and code reuse...
File system programming is another inescapable joy of programming, but sadly it's one that
many authors don't like to address. Esposito talks at length about dealing with drives, folders,
and individual files, as well as some of the nastier details, like how to go about replacing or
moving an in-use file under Windows. He points out a bothersome NT versus Windows 9x issue, caused
by the lack of access to the MoveFileEx() API.
...The file handling and reuse chapters are the best examples of a subtlety that pervades
this book, namely the feeling that it was written by a working programmer. Esposito clearly
knows where a lot of the "gotcha's" are, and he takes the time to help the reader plot a course
around them. Of course, any book of this sort can be criticized (fairly or otherwise) for not
having more examples, particularly in the file-handling or dialog box areas. You can always think
of additional, specific examples of trickier code that would be helpful, particularly when under
time pressure on a critical project. And Esposito does commit the obligatory (some would say canonical)
Windows error in version checking in one of his code samples, on page 277.
- About my only other criticism of this book is the title -- it should serve quite well as a
"programmer's reference," but I believe it will work just as well, if not better, as a tutorial
that experienced programmers new to WSH should read cover to cover.
- ???
Microsoft Windows Script Host 2.0 Developer's Guide
- by
Gunter Born
- Our Price: $39.99
- Paperback - 600 pages Bk&Cd-Rom edition (September 2000)
Microsoft Press; ISBN: 0735609314 ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.41 x 9.09 x 7.39
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 6,518
Avg. Customer Review:
Fundamentals of MS Programming Explained, January 10, 2000
Reviewer:
P VILEVAC (see more about me) from Silicon Valley, California, USA
I am a very experienced Microsoft developer. Mr. Hill's previous book, NT Shell Scripting, was
fantastic, and became part of my recommended reading for IS folks. Using concepts from that book
I was able to automate a tremendously complex web site build process (including database builds
and dumps, source safe retrievals, etc).
This new book is great. In attempting to encourage others to become computer people, its difficult
to provide them with a book that clearly and concisely explains the Microsoft development architecture.
This book does that.
I'm very technically oriented, but this book does not offend me by being patronizing. Unlike
many WROX and similar books, its not full of author fluff that contributes little to the book.
A good read and review, a great reference for the future. I highly recommend it, anyone who
does anything with NT should have a copy.
It will be a competitive advantage between NT administrators.
Excellent tutorial for WSH and VBScript, April 1, 2000
Reviewer:
John Avitt (see more about me) from Chattanooga, TN
This book is an excellent reference and tutorial on WSH and VBScript. It seems to be somewhat
geared toward system administrators, but any Windows user seeking to utilize WSH would benefit
from this book. I was pleased with the thorough coverage of VBScript. Since I could find no other
book on the subject, this was a gold mine to me. Only a couple of things I would like to see different:
(1) The author explicitly recommends using Cscript.exe instead of Wscript.exe (I would like to
see more examples geared towards Wscript.exe), and (2) I would like to see coverage of other scripting
languages in addition to VBScript (e.g. JScript). For the topics this book does cover (WSH and
VBScript) you won't find a more thorough book.
- ???
Sam's Teach Yourself Windows Scripting Host in 21 Days
- Thomas Fredell / Paperback / Published 1999
Amazon price: $23.99
- Paperback - 607 pages (July 1999)
MacMillan Publishing Company; ISBN: 067231374X ; Dimensions (in inches): 1.47 x 9.14 x 7.43
Amazon.com Sales Rank: 22,658
- Avg. Customer Review:
Number of Reviews: 7
Best computer book ever!, January 22, 2000
Reviewer: rob from Delray Beach, FL
This is a great book. It provides a excellent foundation for learning the basics of: WSH, vbscript,
jscript and provides useful real-world examples for scripting: IIS, MS Office, ADO, ADSI,
etc. The author even devotes a chapter on how to deploy scripting solutions.
After you finish reading this book get the MS help files on: WSH, vbscript, jscript, ADO, ADSI,
other COM, and MS OLE/COM viewer and you'll be ready for scripting in the real world.
Well structured, with lots of valuable reusable examples, August 15, 1999
Reviewer: A reader from Belgium
Very high level approach to WSH. This book is a must have for the serious professional administrator
or infrastructure architect that wants to get rid of the old 'batch' script timeperiod.
Missing Appendix A suggests other poor planning., November 15, 1999
Reviewer: A reader from California
I guess I'm angry, after spending more time looking for the missing, and oft-referred to Appendix
A than the authors spent planning (or writing) the book. "A" suggests even more than one (missing)
appendix. The screen reproductions are impossible to read. The authors only "present" features
of the language, they do not explain or teach it. One good point: They do present an almost readable
summary of data bases. Buy and read different one, then return to this one and use it as a reference.
Looks like great Microsoft-oriented textbook. Covers al important topics including databases,
but not covers WSH.
