JavaScript for the World Wide Web: Visual QuickStart Guide (4th Edition)

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Summary: "I hate apples that don't taste like oranges!"
Review: I love this book because it is just what I need - a "Guide" that gives me a "Quickstart" coding "Javascript" and uses "Visual" aids. That might be why Peachpit calls it a "Visual Quickstart Guide" instead of "The Fixated Geek's Complete Bible of Javascript".

Rating:
Summary: Good Reference
Review: I'm currently taking a course on Javascript online and I found this book to be a good reference tool when you are doing the actual typing. For what I use it for it is very helpful but it wouldn't help much if you were trying to learn from this. It explains what each part does but not what it means.

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Summary: Great presentation, but that's it
Review: Peachpit's Visual Quickstart Guides are excellent. But you can't learn JavaScript from this book. You can copy what's already there but you won't understand it. Programming concepts are either glossed over or ignored and there just aren't enough examples for everyday applications.

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Summary: Here's why so many readers are upset
Review: The JavaScript Visual Quickstart Guide has generated split reviews. Some people loved it and some others absolutely hate it. I'm about done with it, and here's what I have to say:
As far as learning the basics and the theory of JavaScript goes, this book is a disappointment. You won't be ready to generate your own codes from scratch unless your project is similar to the examples given in the book and require minor revisions. The style of the book is:
To achieve task A, type in code A.
To achieve task B, type in code B, etc..
If you're lucky, what you want to do matches one of the countless example codes in the book. The codes are explained very vaguely. For example in one of the codes, a 'return true' statement appears out of nowhere. The return concept has not been explained in the book, and the authors do not make clear where 'true' is being returned to and what consequences it will have. The explanation they have is: You need the 'return true' statement here to make sure the code will work. So, the book has a cut and paste approach, which rightfully upset some readers. But if you read the 'further reading' section at the end of the book, the authors admit that their book is intended for people who just want a code to work quick, and don't care why it works. I wish they made this clear in the foreword, so readers like me who actually want to learn JavaScript could look elsewhere.
As far as the 'copy this code, and it'll work' approach goes, the book is great. The authors claim that their upcoming book:'JavaScript Advanced Visual Quickstart Guide' will focus on the background of the language. That book may be worth a shot.

Rating:
Summary: Monkey see, monkey do
Review: This book is ideal for those who have a passing curiosity about Javascipt, but it is defininately NOT a reference manual. Not a bad investment for the weekend web doodler who is intimidated by learning new computer languages. This book isn't designed to TEACH much about Javascript; it takes a "monkey see, monkey do" approach. Not a book for serious programmers.

Rating:
Summary: good jumpstart
Review: This book helped give me a fast start and gave me what I needed to know quickly. I like the website as well. It's a good book for a beginner. Like many people, I know this will not be the only java script book I buy, but I am sure glad it was the first.

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Summary: A real nice book
Review: You people are all raising stink about this book and I wanna tell you you're very wrong about that. It's a beginning book, very reasonably priced, and, what you not one of you noticed, very nicely printed! O'Reilly books don't even have any screenshots, not to mention different colors, and O'Reilly books ain't bad overall. I like how Peach Press makes their books and this one is very, very good for someone who'd just starting (or, let me add, doesn't need all that much. After all there is about five gazillion 'nifty little' languages and you just can't "master" them all coz there's just so much time in life.) It's a good book to get a gist of how javascript is and how to do some basic things with it. I'm gonna look at some other Peach Print books now, coz I like how they look and they're not expensive.

Rating:
Summary: Terrible
Review: I dont know how some people are giving this book five stars, but its like this. It went over things too quick, didnt explain any of what was going on, and pretty much, the authors just took a few functions outta of the javascript library and threw into this book, wrote a real quick non-complete description of it, and probably only spent a week making this book. I bet those people giving the 5 star ratings are just the company getting onto amazon and making up names and stuff just so they will get your money. Trust me, this book is terrible! Even if you know all the C++, VB, or whatever, this book skips things like understanding what is going on, they just throw stuff in and dont explain what is going on, they assume you know already (even though you dont). The only good thing this book is for is firewood.

Rating:
Summary: Garbage. . .
Review: This book is not a resource for programmers or even those who are learning to program-- it is ok if you are too lazy or clueless to swipe a script from another site, but if you want to learn the how and why of JavaScript it is a total waste. . . Buy a reference guide and work through it. . .

Rating:
Summary: Perfect for beginners and a great reference book
Review: I first bought O'Reilly's JavaScript The Definitive Guide and this book was too confusing. After reading JavaScript for the World Wide Web I have a better understanding of JavaScript. These visual quickstart guides are great!