Rating: 
Summary: Buy V4, but don't throw away V3.
Review: Having recently shipped an open source JavaScript application framework comprising 125,000 lines of JavaScript (TIBET) I can say it would have been impossible without Version 3 of this book -- and impossible with only Version 4 of this book. Where Version 3 focused on documenting the *reality* of the browsers, covering the various bugs and inconsistencies in detail, Version 4 abandons that approach in favor of documenting the *dream* embodied in the standards. While that's "a good thing", what's really needed, and what was provided by Version 3, is a volume that also covers how the browers vary from the standards. That's what made V3 the best JavaScript book on the market. Much of that content has been removed from V4 however. V4 is a solid effort. Don't get me wrong. You should have a copy. The coverage is for the most part accurate and accessible. The new content on Mozilla and the DOM/CSS standards is solid. But the missing material means you can't toss all your other JS books and just settle down with JSTDG V4 :(. With V3 you rarely needed to go anywhere else. With V4 I find myself looking back at V3 to check accuracy or going to the net to search for bug reports. The book just isn't as functional in the real world of web development. So buy V4, but don't get rid of that well-used copy of V3 just yet ;). ss
Rating:
Summary: 3.75 stars...
Review: if you're a programmer or a computer language theory fan, this book is perfect. for the rest of us who just want to know how to use javascript, it's too much information. get this book after you get a basic understanding of javascript from the web or more newbie-friendly books. if not for another introduction to programming book i own, i don't think i would have grasped many of these concepts.
Rating: 
Summary: If you don't have this book, STOP READING AND BUY IT NOW!
Review: Unfortunately, there are more JavaScript books available than there are stars in the sky. For someone trying to learn JavaScript, I can only imagine the difficulty of trying to pick a good book. I've read several, sold several, thrown away several. You're luck finding a decent book would almost be as good as walking into a book store, closing your eyes, and pointing randomly. That is, EXCEPT for this book. I cannot stress enough the QUANTITY of information contained in this book, nor can I stress the QUALITY of that information. The first section provides an understanding of the framework and fundamentals of JavaScript. This is a thorough explanation that will NOT leave you wanting like some "Nutshell" or "Learn in 24 Hours" book. The second section is an alphabetized list of every JavaScript element, and here's where the power of this book comes out: each element is defined including any browser limitations, all possible properties and functions of that object, and, in most cases, an actual working example. Yet, with all of this, my admiration for this comes in the last section: a detailed explanation of all the exceptions to the rules. You WILL NOT find this in any book, at least none that I've seen. More than once, my entire team was hung on something only to look in this book to find the problem described with an explanation of how to get around the limitation in the language. This alone is worth every penny, believe me. If I could give this book more than five stars, I would. To this day, it remains *THE* most valuable book in my bookcase.
Rating:
Summary: Not for dummies
Review: There are lots books available on JavaScript, by and for dummies. This one is not for dummies. This one is for programmers. It is the only book I've seen that correctly describes the complete language, including object literals, function values, and closures. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The Definitive JavaScript Reference
Review: Once again David Flanagan has created the definitive reference text for JavaScript. The most popular scripting language on the Web, JavaScript is nearly ubiquitous now. The fourth edition has been updated all the way from JavaScript 1.2 in the third edition to cover JavaScript 1.5 (ECMAScript-262 Version 3), the W3C DOM standard (Levels 1 and 2), while retaining the old legacy "Level 0" DOM for backwards compatibility. Older editions emphasized Netscape over Explorer, as Netscape had more market share. This edition has almost completely purged this emphasis, and instead focused on standards-compliance for cross-browser scripting. With the proliferation of implementations, it is no longer practical for one book to document every quirk and workaround associated with all browsers. Focusing instead on specifications instead of implementations makes this book easier to read with a longer shelf-life, and your scripts more portable and maintainable. With the release of JavaScript 1.5, better browser support, open source JavaScript interpreters (one in C and one in Java), and its availability on a multitude of platforms, JavaScript has become a mature language. This book reflects that. The fourth edition splits the reference section into three parts. Core JavaScript, which should work anywhere. Client-side JavaScript, which deals with browser-specific language material, and the W3C DOM has a section of its own now. The DOM defines a standard API that is distinct from the legacy API of traditional client-side JavaScript. Flanagan has found that depending on the browser platforms they are targeting, developers typically use one API or the other and usually do not need to switch back and forth. The book is huge, some 916 pages long. In order to accommodate all the new material Flanagan omitted reference pages for the trivial properties of objects. Everything is covered in the object reference page, just not twice as before. Flanagan has left out some non-cross-platform features, like Netscape's nifty .jar ARCHIVE source file attribute, which is not supported by Internet Explorer. While not a JavaScript in 24 hours how-to, this book has plenty of illustrative examples and explanatory text. This combination of explanatory material and matching extensive reference sections make this a must-have book for any JavaScript programmer. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Learned it in just two weeks...
Review: Using this book, and having never written a stitch of JavaScript in my life, I constructed a complete, dynamic, client side treeview that can render 1000s of nodes in seconds, by using the object-oriented concepts in this book and creating my own JavaScript objects. That one-star review below is absurd: if you're going to use the language, use the FEATURES of the language! Now, as for JavaScript itself, it is a phenomenally powerful language. It is not the language itself that has relegated it to the status of a toy-- rather it is the -----poor cross platform support for it in browsers, and the fact that nobody can make any money from it. If you want to know why there are no other, more recent books available on JavaScript, buy this book: then you'll know. The competition have simply closed their doors on this one.
Rating:
Summary: the best javascript reference book
Review: This is the best reference book for javascript
Rating:
Summary: Best of Breed
Review: Yes, this is the "best of breed" for JavaScript. I looked at all the others and liked this best. Several JavaScript colleagues had their own preferences, but when they saw this book, they bought it. That says a lot.
Rating: 
Summary: A useless book
Review: If you're thinking of using Javascript for webpages, this book is useless. Even as a reference it's awkwardly arranged and obtuse. The author seems to consider Javascript more intresting as a computer language than as a tool for constructing webpages, and so the book is organized around the abstract structure of Javascript rather than (for example) the structure (document object model) of webpages. Want to create your own objects with Javascript? Use it as a general language? Maybe you would like this. Do you build websites? There are a hundred books you will find more useful. (O'Reilly usually has a pretty high standard of quality, but the occassional hack job does sneak through -- especially when it's their only book on the subject).
Rating:
Summary: Excellent reference, not a "how to" book
Review: I have yet to meet an O'Reilly book I didn't like, and this is no exception. As an instructor I am always looking for good reference texts and O'Reilly publishes some of the finest computer references available on the planet. They are NOT, however, "how to" books that most beginners will find useful. Once you have grasped the basics of JavaScript and can tell the difference between a function, a method, and an event handler, THEN buy this book! Until then, stick with references from PeachPit Press, or the Dummies Guides. They will help you get started with a much lower frustration factor. O'Reilly texts assume some working knowledge of how computers work, and Javascript: The Definitive Guide will be much easier for you once you have an understanding of basic programming concepts and theory. The Third Edition of Javascript: The Definitive Guide has several improvements over the Second Edition. For example, the reference pages include the availability of each command described (i.e. is it JavaScript 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 and which version of Netscape or MSIE will it work in). That aspect alone makes it worth every penny because it will save you HOURS of time when trying to write cross-browser friendly code. Chapter 1 also contains some excellent background information about the history of JavaScript, dispels a few myths, provides an overview of client-side features and addresses security issues. (Not many texts even bother to mention that there ARE security issues when using JavaScript!) Highly, HIGHLY recommended for intermediate to advanced JavaScript developers, or anyone who is already familiar with object oriented programming and wants to add JavaScript to their tool kit. BKA
| 
