Rating:  Summary: An Excellent Guide For A Newbie or Intermediate Review: Even if you've got the most basic knowledge of HTML, this book will have you both tweaking existing JavaScripts, and writing scripts yourself. Concepts, language and techniques are clearly explained and written logically, and the book is well organized so that you can find what you need easily.The routines the book details explain helpful and useful applications of JavaScript, and the companion website offers scripts and demos, etc. This, I think, keeps the price much more reasonable than other book and CD-ROM combinations, with the added advantage of having errata, additions, etc., that are updated. This book now resides near my home computer, and I'm purchasing another copy for the office. It's the best guide to JavaScript I've found.
Rating:  Summary: I feel like I missed a page or 2 along the way? Review: I chose the Quickstart book to build on that foundation and provide a reference. The authors of the Quickstart book fail fill in the blanks as they go along, and have left me wondering what I missed in several excercises. I guess if you wanted to copy some code and didn't care if you knew how it worked, this would be a good book.
Rating:  Summary: A book for starting with Javascript Review: If you are new to Javascript and want a tutorial, then this book is good for you. You get very quickly an introduction to Javascript through code examples, just as the title of the book tells - Visual Quickstart. However, if you start to develop real applications, and you want to look for the description of how to implement a Javascript function, then you will probably not find it in the book. The book does not even cover freqently used Javascript functions listed in the function tables. In other word, if you want just ONE book for JavaScript, this book is NOT for you. Buy "JavaScript Definitive Guide" by David Flanagan. You will find it is worth the money. Another book in the Visual Quickstart Guide series, "HTML for the World Wide Web", did a much better work.
Rating:  Summary: JavaScript for the WWW, Visual QuickStart Guide Review: After finishing a different book on learning to write java-script, I was very discouraged since I got zero out of it! I was very frustrated about what I did not learn, because of the way it was taught I was more confused then anything else. Undaunted, however, I decided to try "JavaScript for the WWW, Visual QuickStart Guide" and see if I had better results. Well, I learned more in just the first few chapters then I did with the entire other book! The book is presented in a clear concise instructional format - that builds a foundation one block at a time. I recommend this book to anyone that wants to learn JavaScript.
Rating:  Summary: Don't buy this book if you want to learn JavaScript!!!! Review: This book does anything but help you learn JavaScript. Especially if you are new to the concept. I have some Visual Basic skills and this book just threw me for a loop. This book does show you a lot about what JavaScript can do HOWEVER it is easier to just download the scripts from there web site (www.javascriptworld.com) because they do a poor job explaining their concepts!!!! For example Page 23 of the sample pages (located here on Amazon) gives a line of code and this is the first example: "document. write ("hello, world")". What does "document" mean and what does "write" mean if you have never seen JavaScript or VB before. Here's their explanation. "Here's you first line of JavaScript: it takes the document window and writes "hello, world" into it". Shouldn't they tell you what document means? And what "write" means? This is how they continue throughout their book. They do not give you enough information to write your own scripts!!! So then what is the point??? I am glad I padding their pocket so they can show off the scripts that they have created. BOTTOM LINE: DON'T BOTHER! If you want a good series of books, one that goes through the code line by line explaining everything then I would recommend WROX Press Beginning JavaScript. I am in now way affiliated with WROX. I have been very satisfied every time I have read one of their books.
Rating:  Summary: A nice intro to JavaScript, and a useful reference Review: This is not the end-all, be-all JavaScript reference, as some other reviewers have complained. Obviously, they did not read the cover of the book, the introduction, or the first chapter. Had they deigned to do such a thing, they would have discovered that this is an introduction to JS, as well as a reference one can come back to later. I had quite a bit of HTML experience when I got this book, and I appreciated several things about it. First, it is a *brief* overview of what JS is and does; it does not go into the geeky behind-the-scenes details, about which most casual users couldn't care less. Second, it is, as the title implies, a *quick* way to jump in and get learning. Third, the Visual Quickstart style places screenshots and code snippets on nearly every page, so you can see what things are supposed to look like. I agree that this isn't a heavy-duty JS textbook -- but that isn't why I bought it. If you *need* to know all the details, buy another book. But if you just want to be able to use some simple JS scripts, and have a basic understanding of how they work -- and do so quickly -- this is the book for you.
Rating:  Summary: Inadequate is an understatement Review: For newbies, this book is a good start in the whole world of fascinating techniques like rollovers. It has a static examples, that novices can type in and possibly (maybe not, see below) see the results. It's kind of like a kindegarden show and tell type lessons. However, if your needs are beyond playing around, and you really want to do something useful, this this book is drastically inadequate. The book does not adequately cover the DOM (Document Object Model) to allow users to truly understand how web-scripting works, beyond creating a few fascinating (and perhaps annoying) web tricks. Some of the scripts will not even work on today's browers. Most of the code is glued specifically to the Microsoft DHTML DOM (all DOM), which is propiertary, and doesn't cover at all the standard W3C DOM used in Internet Explorer, Opera, and Netscape. Even in the coverage of code for Microsoft's DOM is far from even approaching adequate, meaning that readers cannot piece together enough knowledge to do their own creations (beyond some web tricks). If you are a complete newbie, wanting to create some stupid web tricks to annoy people, then this book is a good place to start. Though, the web has far better resources on this material. However, if you want to seriously use JavaScript to enhance your web pages, or to make a professional solution, then this book is a far cry from being resourceful.
Rating:  Summary: Quickly get up and running with Javascript Review: This is a book of examples and it's organized by the things you want to do on your Web site rather than by the Javascript features. Each example is accompanied by screen shots and example code that can be easily modified and added to your Web site. Better yet, there is a companion Web site so you don't have to type the code from scratch. Those who want to understand objects need to look at other books specifically for advanced developers. This is a book targeted at beginners and people who know how to set up Web pages. There are two nice charts in the book that provide details on the objects along with its properties, methods, and event handlers.
Rating:  Summary: Doesn't even deserve a star... Review: If you want examples of how to do specific things, this book may be for you (I doubt it), but if you really want to know what the stuff means, don't waste your money. I returned my copy. If you want examples to copy, you don't need a book. There are plenty of sites out there to learn from.
Rating:  Summary: Good start... Review: This is a good book to start learning javascript. The examples are well explained, and the examples are for the most part, things you will want to do in javascript, ie real world examples. What you won't find is a detailed explanation of the ojbect model, although there is a very nice chart that is very handy. This chart shows each property and method in a color specific to the browsers that support it. What is missing, and you will need another book for this, is the detail needed to actually call the many object methods. Most are not covered by this book. Look at Dan Flanagan's pocket reference. So, only 4 stars instead of 5, and the hope that the author adds a guide to method parameters in the next edition!
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