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JavaScript @ Web Programming
Programming Shed : Programmer Store & Resources |
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JavaScript Index - JavaScript Book :
Professional JavaScript 2nd Edition
by Nigel McFarlane, Paul Wilton, Cliff Wooton, et al Paperback: 1088 pages Publisher: Wrox Press Inc ISBN: 1861005539; 1st edition (October 2001) JavaScript is the language of the Web. It has an intuitive, accessible nature and is available with most modern browsers. JavaScript is used for making dynamic, interactive web pages - from form validation to creating games to dynamic menus - but its uses also go much further. Hardly a single commercial web page exists today that does not contain some JavaScript. This second edition of Professional JavaScript provides comprehensive coverage of the JavaScript language, its syntax and uses. We look at the latest web browsers and web standards, and move on to examine practical techniques in the form of short examples and more in-depth and complex case studies. This book will focus entirely on the use of JavaScript within the web browser, since this is predominantly where it is used. Professional JavaScript covers: • Core JavaScript programming • Scripting browser objects • Working with multimedia • Web standards, including XML, CSS, & W3C DOM • Dynamic HTML • Debugging techniques • Regular expressions and form validation • Real world case studies • The ECMAScript Edition 4 proposal From the Publisher: This book is for anyone who needs to use JavaScript for client-side web development. You may already be familiar with JavaScript, and need an up-to-date advanced guide, or have experience in another programming language and need to pick up JavaScript as a new skill. About the Author: Nigel McFarlane, Paul Wilton, Cliff Wootton, Mark Baartse, Stuart Conway, Jean-Luc David, Sing Li, Sean B Palmer, Jon Stephens, Margie Virdell, Stephen Williams, Jeff Yates. Nigel McFarlane lives in Melbourne where he studies science, teaches and consults in the programming industry and slips in the occasional bit of writing. He's worked extensively with database, telecommunication and Web technology software. After an initial stint as a Visual Basic applications programmer at the Ministry of Defence in the UK, Paul Wilton found himself pulled into the Net. Paul's main skills are in developing web front ends using DHTML, JavaScript, VBScript, and Visual Basic, and back-end solutions with ASP, Visual Basic, and SQL Server. Cliff Wootton works on multimedia systems and content management software for large data-driven web sites. Recent work includes architectural design and development of components for several award-winning broadcast/entertainment websites, and the BBC News Interactive TV service. Customer Reviews Good but not great, September 20, 2000 Reviewer: Glen Ford 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?) Enormous Accurate, insightful and specific, October 26, 1999 Reviewer: Mark Nelson from New York I am your typical Web architect. Not really a pro, but knowledgeable enough to make me one of the best people in my company to work with consultants and do a certain amount of pre-visualization and early prototyping. My project is to get an Intranet/Extranet completed using either Microsoft or alternative products. I have to research and oversee (with others) implementation of both visual design and user functionality, for client (Intranet and Extranet clients) and server ends (including administrative tools). I know the tools I "want" to use and the strategy I want to take, but I need some hard facts and intermediate to advanced descriptions of implementations. This book has what I need. Facts. Loads of example scripts. Analysis of using Java and Javascript. Analysis of extending application functionality through standalone script interpreters. Security issues. Client issues (for all relevant browsers) Server issues (for all relevant servers). Awesome. Definitely the fruit of an enormous (there's that word again) amount of expertise and trial and error development. If you have a little bit of knowledge about Web technologies (graphics, databases, servers, browsers and plug-ins), and have some familiarity with programming principles (best if you've taken a programming course or studied on your own for a few months) this book will be the glue that ties it all together for you. Part reference guide, part bible, and all relevant. Needs Improvement, April 21, 2002 Reviewer: A reader from Victoria, BC 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. Over 1000 pages of nothing, March 15, 2002 Reviewer: Jeffrey Boenig from Apex, NC United States This book is terrible - it's incredibly frustating to use. It's worthless as a reference and I doubt that anyone has ever read it cover to cover (including the army of authors that wrote it). I have over 10 years of experience in software development in a wide variety of languages: C++, VB, Pascal, and others. What I need to know about JavaScript could probably fit in a book half this size. This book is over 1000 pages, it's poorly organized, the index is bad, and it doesn't focus on relevant facts about the language. If I want lots of prose I'll pick up a novel, not a JavaScript book. |
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