JavaScript: The Definitive Guide

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, in-depth and easy to understand
Review: This is the most concise and focused book on JavaScript. I had tried two other highly recommended books prior to this one, and both left me with many unanswered questions and an image of JavaScript of being an extremely awkward and unmanageable language. This book made everything crystal-clear. There are practically no aspects of the language not revealed in the book. After reading it you will have a structured and in-depth understanding of JavaScript, including its most subtle topics. Examples are short and very helpful. Do not hesitate to buy it. I wished there was the new revision of the book to cover JavaScript 1.4.

Rating:
Summary: Not a fun read
Review: The book is poorly laid out, and the examples are not explained thoroughly. I already knew Java, so I was able to pick up JavaScript without a large struggle, but if I hadn't known Java, I would have quit reading the book about 10 pages in. One plus is the extensive reference section (200 pages).

Rating:
Summary: average
Review: This book is not good and yet it is not bad. I therefore conclude that it must be in between.

Rating:
Summary: I like the cover...
Review: The cover is great. Nothing like a Javanese Rhino to make me whip a book off the shelf. I do not think this is a good beginner's book, though, but once you know what you're doing, it's the thing to sink your braincells into. Absolute beginners should check out something like Javascript Goodies by Joe Burns or an online tutorial.

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Summary: I wish there were a dozen David Flanagans
Review: to write books this good on every programming/scripting language I want to learn. The book is not for raw beginners; you should already be able to program in a language related to C (e.g., C++, Java, Perl). That said, this is the best book on a programming or scripting language I've ever seen (I've read dozens, on four different programming languages and three different scripting languages). If you're a serious programmer who wants to learn JavaScript, GET THIS BOOK.

Rating:
Summary: An invaluable reference for web development
Review: Put simply, it is the definitive guide. This book starts with the basics of the language and then progresses through each individual piece of it in detail. It takes the time to point out the differences in implementation between browsers, which is very helpful, especially when using the book as a reference during debugging. The only thing I found lacking in the book were short, easy to understand examples of the language in action. While it does have enough code snippets in it to illustrate the general points, it does not show some of the more interesting parts of the language.

Rating:
Summary: The Title Says it all
Review: This book was perfect as a "learning" book and a refernce manual. I read the book, learning by examples and excellent descriptions. Now I use the book almost everyday as a reference when I develope web applications. Roughly half of the book is a complete reference manual focusing on the syntax, methods, and properties of ALL of the Javascript components. The reference is organized by Object making it easy to find what you want. There are also plenty of cross references for easy indexing. O'Reilly has done it again.

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Summary: Windows Host Script not mentioned
Review: The book is good, but does not touch new application of JavaScript - Windows Host Script, MS scripting control.

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Summary: The K&R of Javascript
Review: The book has a very good introduction to the core of client side javascript. It is a great reference for coming back to those things that you get kind of rusty on like "regular expressions" and "creating your own objects". The rest of the book is an incredibly comprehensive reference which goes into considerable detail. It's the kind of detail that a compiler manual goes into. I would prefer a version with indexes like a study bible. If you read most of this book you wont have to go around copying other peoples code snippets because you'll be to busy making up your own scripting libraries. I wish that this author would add about 300 pages on Server Side JScripting and Active Server Pages. I'm sure he could take the magic out of it in a way that most programmers could pickup in a matter of hours.

Rating:
Summary: Great reference that makes learning JavaScript fun and easy!
Review: This book is an excellent complement to Danny Goodman's 'Dynamic HTML'. I was able to put my new-found knowledge distilled from both books, together with ASP, to good use in creating a 30-page web application for marketing a local institution abroad. In practice, I learned that the greatest challenge facing the 'Dynamic HTML' author is providing consistency across the main browsers. Working with IE was fun: Navigator 4.0 has some catching up to do.