JavaScript for the World Wide Web

by Dori Smith and Tom Negrino

Book Overview

This title aims to provide a quick and efficient route to learning JavaScript programming. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 032119439X
• ISBN13: 9780321194398
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Peachpit Press
• Length: 498 Pages
• Weight: 1.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Great introduction

I maintain content for a corporate extranet. I have often implemented JavaScript scripts and made some modifications. However, I had never really understood how the scripts worked. I got this book and "Beginning JavaScript" by Paul Wilton, so I could learn the nuts and bolts. After reading this I started to actually understand the scripts I was implementing. I recommend that beginners start by reading the Visual Quickstart (VQ) book and then move onto something more indepth like Wilton's book. VQ is an excellent concise introduction to the basics of JavaScript. It gives a quick explanation of things such as event handlers, methods, properties, functions and loops. You should be able to finish this book in a couple of weeks and have a solid understanding of the basics of JavaScript. However, you will then need something more indepth to truly learn to program complex JavaScripts.

A great introduction to the JavaScript neophyte

The VIsual Quickstart Guide series masterfully achieves what is implied by it's name... it gets you started fast and there are lots of visual references (screenshots and code samples) throughout.If you're already savvy in JavaScript, the text might be a little too elementary, but it's doubtful that a master at JavaScript would be interested in a book w/ this title to begin with.Just enough info to accomplish the most commonly desired scripts (alert boxes, image roll-overs, clocks, etc.) without overloading the beginner with too many overwhelming projects that are beyond the scope of an intro to the scripting language.The book is written equally to Macintosh users as well as Windows users and there are screenshots of JavaScript functions from each platform. It's rare that a mainstream book, especially a relatively inexpensive one, covers both platforms. The book also covers both Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator/Communicator so that the beginner realizes the limitations that the 2 top platforms and 2 top browsers bring into play. This helps beginners from designing scripts that are only viewable with the same configuration that he/she has, unknowingly excluding other viewers.

True to its name - "QUICKSTART"

I needed to learn JavaScript fast as a pre-requisite for a training course I was taking in two weeks. This book came through in a big way. It covered the basics quickly, in an easy-to-read style. Downloading the scripts from the accompanying web site was a real time-saver. I didn't waste time copying code. Instead, I played-around with the downloaded scripts and studied how my changes affected the results. I also had the "HTML For The World Wide Web" book on hand. The two books makes a great combo for quick learning. You need to understand what you're buying with this JavaScript book. If you need an in-depth guide or reference book, then this is not it - but then again, it doesn't claim to be. It served my purpose perfectly.

Invaluable reference and great for the beginner.

I've just started using this one myself, and so far, it's proven to be an invaluable reference. I used to think JavaScript was a difficult and laborious language to learn, especially since the only coding I know is HTML, a little BASIC and some MUSH code (I'm not a programmer, can you tell? *grin*) After paging through the first few chapters of this book, and even jumping around a bit, it's not so much of a mystery anymore, and I now have a correct perception of this popular scripting language, as well as a decent working knowledge. Following the excellent path forged by other titles in the series, this guide is written in a candid, easy to understand manner. Best of all, just like the VQS Guide to HTML4, another of my favorites recommended elsewhere on this site, it's got a companion web site with all of the samples as well as further exercises. Don't waste your time reading thick books full of information you'll never use. Try this one and get to work writing JavaScript immediately. Once you get started and become better versed in the language, you'll want to keep the book nearby as an easy to use reference source.

This book gives me an UNDERSTANDING of what I'm doing!

I've browsed through several "how to" books on JavaScript and found most of them full of detail. Wonderful, but for a relative "newbie", it can be overwhelming at times. This book makes the learning curve short and makes programming fun.In the past, I tried to figure out how they did that - looking at the source code. I'd paste in some code and spend hours trying to figure out why it didn't work. I've been to many JavaScript sites and picked up scripts here and there, but I needed a single source to speak to me in plain English.I bought this book mainly as a primer - assuming I'd have to buy one of those huge ones later. This one has surprised me in that it seems to cover more than I want to know, and it seems to make the learning process easy. At this point, I've tried most of the simple scripts and I'm getting into the more complicated ones. I'm still understanding what I'm doing, and that helps me get the results I'm looking for.Well laid out and seems to have the reader in mind - Keeps true to the title of the book - good diagrams, and aimed at someone who wants to get STARTED in JavaScript. An excellent book!