Rating: 
Summary: A must-have book...
Review: Review
In order to be proficient in a technology, you need to have a solid reference manual for it. Often this need can be filled very well with the "Nutshell" series by O'Reilly. But if you're like me, you also want to have a good source of examples and explanations of how to do basic things. This book fills that role extremely well for JavaScript and DHTML.Danny Goodman is well known for his JavaScript Bible. The JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook complements that title to show both beginners and experienced developers different ways to use the language. As someone who isn't quite as adept at JavaScript as he should be, I find this book invaluable in giving me code that I can immediately use and build on. Between the working examples and a good technical reference, you can go far. Each section in the chapter presents a problem, a solution, and a discussion of the issue. You're told what browser versions will support this approach, and you are also pointed to other sections in the book that relate to the same issue. It's a useful approach to presenting the material that gets quick results. Goodman also includes JavaScript subroutines that accomplish functions that are commonly needed but aren't something you can do in a couple lines of code. Great code to use for your own applications. For Notes/Domino/Websphere developers, all the information in this review applies. If you are getting started in web development, get this book along with a good JavaScript reference book. Between the two of them, you will have all that you need to start producing solid web applications. Conclusion
I highly recommend this book for both JavaScript/DHTML beginners and pros. The beginners will learn how to effectively use the languages, and the pros will pick up a few tricks that they didn't know before.
Rating:
Summary: A must-have book...
Review: Review
In order to be proficient in a technology, you need to have a solid reference manual for it. Often this need can be filled very well with the "Nutshell" series by O'Reilly. But if you're like me, you also want to have a good source of examples and explanations of how to do basic things. This book fills that role extremely well for JavaScript and DHTML. Danny Goodman is well known for his JavaScript Bible. The JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook complements that title to show both beginners and experienced developers different ways to use the language. As someone who isn't quite as adept at JavaScript as he should be, I find this book invaluable in giving me code that I can immediately use and build on. Between the working examples and a good technical reference, you can go far. Each section in the chapter presents a problem, a solution, and a discussion of the issue. You're told what browser versions will support this approach, and you are also pointed to other sections in the book that relate to the same issue. It's a useful approach to presenting the material that gets quick results. Goodman also includes JavaScript subroutines that accomplish functions that are commonly needed but aren't something you can do in a couple lines of code. Great code to use for your own applications. For Notes/Domino/Websphere developers, all the information in this review applies. If you are getting started in web development, get this book along with a good JavaScript reference book. Between the two of them, you will have all that you need to start producing solid web applications. Conclusion
I highly recommend this book for both JavaScript/DHTML beginners and pros. The beginners will learn how to effectively use the languages, and the pros will pick up a few tricks that they didn't know before.
Rating:
Summary: Filled from cover to cover with "how-to" enhancements
Review: Superbly written and organized by computer and consumer electronics expert Danny Goodman, JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook is a computer guide that focuses on how to improve the appearance and value of a web page. Compiled from the collective wisdom and experience of countless webpage scripters, JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook is filled from cover to cover with "how-to" enhancements including from simple ways to better position HTML elements; as well as creating visual effects from stationary content, user-friendly page navigation ideas, working with interactive forms, and so much more. The JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook is strongly recommended for both novice and professional website designers.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: The JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook is about using javascript and css to create dynamic user interfaces for your web application. Each "recipe" starts with a statement of the problem. This is followed by the solution, which includes the code to make it run. After the solution section, a discussion
section follows. The discussion section includes explanations of why the code works and various alternatives. The book is broken up into chapters and each chapter consists of recipes that relate to the main topic of the chapter. For every chapter, there is an introduction, which is a very good summary of the DHTML topic. Just reading the chapter introductions would give a high level overview of DHTML. The recipes are practical solutions for problems that a developer could actually encounter. There are not flashy recipes that are useless. The recipes consist of simple solutions to complex solutions to application problems. The book could be used as a reference to solve a particular problem that you have or the book could be read, especially the discussion sections, to understand how to solve problems with DHTML. The only drawback to using the code for a recipe is that some recipe built on top on other recipes and you need to find the previous recipe. In summary, I would recommend this book for any client-side web developer.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good
Review: The JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook is about using javascript and css to create dynamic user interfaces for your web application. Each "recipe" starts with a statement of the problem. This is followed by the solution, which includes the code to make it run. After the solution section, a discussion
section follows. The discussion section includes explanations of why the code works and various alternatives. The book is broken up into chapters and each chapter consists of recipes that relate to the main topic of the chapter. For every chapter, there is an introduction, which is a very good summary of the DHTML topic. Just reading the chapter introductions would give a high level overview of DHTML. The recipes are practical solutions for problems that a developer could actually encounter. There are not flashy recipes that are useless. The recipes consist of simple solutions to complex solutions to application problems. The book could be used as a reference to solve a particular problem that you have or the book could be read, especially the discussion sections, to understand how to solve problems with DHTML. The only drawback to using the code for a recipe is that some recipe built on top on other recipes and you need to find the previous recipe. In summary, I would recommend this book for any client-side web developer.
Rating:
Summary: Pays for itself quickly
Review: The minute I opened this book and began to browse the table of contents, I found at least two solutions immediately relevent to things I'm currently working on. I can't wait to see what else I get from this book.
Rating:
Summary: A treasure chest
Review: This book has been extraordinarily helpful. It contains an excellent blend of examples layered onto concepts (i.e., a cookbook with an in-depth discussion behind every recipe). Particularly valuable are the many techniques and solutions it introduces that call upon an enormous amount of collective wisdom regarding different browser behaviors and their respective DOMs. It's the kind of stuff that will help you provide a cross-browser solution in minutes rather than spending hours to reinvent some pretty tricky wheels.
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