Rating: 
Summary: JavaScript Bible
Review: A nice book - IF - you remember that it is a reference book, NOT a tutorial. Big difference there.To be fair, Goodman does explain in quite some detail about how browsers work, and what happens when a web page loads. Beyond that, if you are looking to learn JavaScript, I don't think this is the book to do it, monumental as it is to the task of being a "bible" on the subject. Get another real tutorial first, and then come back and learn the "innards" of JavaScripting. Goodman definitely knows his stuff, but a tutorial this is not. It is, simply put, a "bible."
Rating:
Summary: JavaScript Bible
Review: A nice book - IF - you remember that it is a reference book, NOT a tutorial. Big difference there. To be fair, Goodman does explain in quite some detail about how browsers work, and what happens when a web page loads. Beyond that, if you are looking to learn JavaScript, I don't think this is the book to do it, monumental as it is to the task of being a "bible" on the subject. Get another real tutorial first, and then come back and learn the "innards" of JavaScripting. Goodman definitely knows his stuff, but a tutorial this is not. It is, simply put, a "bible."
Rating: 
Summary: I am enjoying this book
Review: After reading predominantly negative reviews of the book, I wasn't too sure about my purchase. However, as I started to read, I was more and more impressed with the clarity and orderly organization of the 'bible' that seems to cover a huge range of topics. So far I've finished the first 15 chapters, and find it very informative. Although I've programmed in Javascript on and off previously, this book helped to set the concepts straight, and cleared my mind, and improved my confidence in future javascripting. It might be a little too much for a complete beginner, but if you follow the chapters, I believe you'll benefit from the authur's vast knowledge.
In 3 words: it's a keeper.
Rating: 
Summary: Helpful for beginner
Review: As a non-programmer (graphic designer), I am finding this book helpful. The author does a good job not assuming too much except familiarity with html. He uses real-life comparisons to make concepts understandable. The writing style is friendly and very thorough. I was struggling to learn Javascript from Paul Wilton's Beginning Javascript. This book is making things clear that I was stumped on by approaching it very methodically, building on the simplest examples. I have also ordered 'Official Netscape Javascript 1.2 Book' by Kent which I heard was beginner-friendly. I find programmers have a hard time relating to us non-programmers! Goodman seems to have a grasp of how to present these basics to the 'rest of us'.
Rating:
Summary: You must have this one
Review: At my work, everyone has a personal copy of this work. I always resisted buying my own copy and would just borrow it from a colleague. It so happened one day that I could not get my hands on the book when I was stuck while working on a page that had to be served on many browsers, I thought that it was the time to get my own. Since then I have been so impressed by this book that I now have 2 copies, one at work and one at home.
This book is clearly a 5 star. Use this book as a reference and you will find answers to almost every question you may have. Ironically this does not cover latest browsers such as IE6, and I am sure Goodman is working on the latest edition.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Poorly Organized
Review: For such a huge book it is very hard to get any useful information out of it. The examples in the book sometimes work well enough but are not explained in enough detail. What is the point of just blindly showing code without detailing WHY each portion of it works? I would try to find information about some of the syntax in an example, only to find that it was either not covered at all elsewhere in the book, or just vaguely referenced. The reader is also often forced to look for the "Example on CD-ROM"; the space taken by that phrase and the picture of a CD-ROM could have been used to actually GIVE an example right then and there! I was also annoyed by the fact that the author seems to have a habit of using functions and objects that have been deprecated in the last several versions of Javascript. Some of the sample code on the CD does not work for this very reason. I found myself going to the Netscape developer documentation in order to find the correct way of doing some things shown in the book. This book wasted my time and energy. I hope the author makes the inevitable next version of this book less cumbersome and more of a true learning experience.
Rating:
Summary: DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK!
Review: I bought this book because I wanted a JavaScript reference that was current. Before that I was using the JavaScript reference section in "Dynamic HTML - The Definitive Guide" also by Goodman. That book served as an excellent reference. "JavaScript Bible" however is horrible. Many topics aren't covered in the book. The index refers you to the CD and then the topics cannot be found on the CD. This is extremely frustrating. I just looked up NN4 Events and was directed to CD-226 (I can't believe this topic wouldn't warrant its own page in the book). Then I discovered CD-226 doesn't exist on the CD. This seems to be the case whenever I try to reference something in "JavaScript Bible". Wading through the pdf version of the book on CD is extremely time consuming and often the pages don't exist. I still use my 1998 copy of "Dynamic HTML" as my JavaScript reference and use "JavaScript Bible" as a door stop. I want my money back.
Rating:
Summary: Very poor book
Review: I bought this book hoping to learn some Javascript from it, and although I eventually managed to, very little of what I learned was from this book. I found the book to be very user-unfriendly in its layout, and the index is quite bad (and incorrect in a few cases.) The examples are usually either too short or not explained at all - just a printout of some code, figure it out yourself. Several chapters aren't in the book at all - they're only available on the CD-ROM. If I wanted to read a book on my computer, I wouldn't have bought a real-world book. Finally, chapters 43-57 aren't in the book at all - they're only in the 'gold' version of the book. Three guesses as to where they put the information you'll most want to know about... Possibly this book would make a useful reference to an experienced Javascript programmer, but for someone trying to learn the language, stay far away from this book.
Rating:
Summary: Good Reference, Confusing Structure
Review: I bought this thinking it was the ultimate Javascript reference. What keeps it from being as thorough as it could be is the awful structure. A large part of the book isn't even in the book; it's on the CD-ROM. So, part of the book correlates to what's on the CD, but a VERY large part does not. Another thing about that that ... is that much of that large part is comprised of advanced Javascript. So, it's great to have a syntax reference, but it's not even very thorough about that. I'm a bit disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: Adding to an already good thing 4th Edition
Review: I dont think anyone up here has yet reviewed the 4th version of this book vs 3rd version of the book. I have both and I will tell you that for the most part he has updated and re-written it: Highlights of the new book: 1. Extensive Examples There are over 300 cd examples that are very well cross referenced in the chapters as well as properties and methods. As in the 3rd edition he puts several chapters(15) on the CD that are not in the book. What is missing from book is the code snippits on the printed page. So if you dont have the CD you are pretty much hosed. Every feature is cross referenced by browser and version so you will know when that javascript feature was introduced to that browser. As previously mentioned Danny gives a lot of attention to Netscape which I personally never use but if I had to develop cross browser the information about what would and would not work would be there. In my opinion this is the best most thorough Javascript book out there. Another excellent one is the Beginning Javascript by Wrox. Having these 2 books is all I think you would ever really need
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