Rating: 
Summary: Beginners will struggle, but persistence pays off!
Review: I am a complete beginner when it comes to programming. I found the flippant style half amusing and half irritating but I guess it helped maintain my interest.Most of the book is quite clear, but there are concepts which are not well explained. For example, if you are not familiar with Functions and Arguments, you're left wondering how exactly this all works and why all of a sudden a function call is using arguments with names different to those the function was initially declared with. It all becomes very confusing. Contrast the examples in Javascript - Annotated Archives, (ISBN 0078823641) where each single line is carefully explained. Now I am not suggesting this is the right book to start trying to understand Javascript with, but the two together did it for me. Vander Veer's basic problem is that she can't be bothered to fully explain; and this is not helped by examples which are just fragments. There comes a point when you need to explain the whole thing, in one go and not just make promises (and there are plenty of them) that you will explain later in the book. Are readers supposed to put pen to paper and keep a list of things which will be explained later? By the time later comes round, you've forgotten what it was the authro promised to explain 'later'. Even more disappointing, is when the author does not keep her promise and explain... especially because when she can be bothered, she is quite good. If this is Javascript for Dummies I probably needed Javascript for Amoebas...
Rating: 
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: I bought this book with a basic knowledge of HTML but very little knowledge of Javascript. Being a fan of other "Dummies" books, I thought this would be a great place to start learning Javascript. Do I feel ripped off! In the Introduction, the author states the book is for those with little or no knowledge of Javascript, which I don't think at all to be the case. She claims to use "real-world examples", most of which I find to be fairly abstract and very poorly explained. She also claims that all the sample codes are contained on the CD-ROM, which is a flat out lie, the applications are similar but the coding is very different from the book, which combined with the author's hard-to-follow explanations leaves the reader very confused and frustrated. On top of all that there are several typos, one of which refering to Microsoft Windows as a word processing program, and poorly written HTML, missing several tags. The author definately knows Javascript, but how good she is as an author is questionable.
Rating:
Summary: Missed it
Review: Not to sound trite, but this book was written by Dummies.... the examples are not true to life, there are too many mistakes and the explaination of JavaScript is too complicated and overblown.
Rating: 
Summary: Javascript Professionals learn by doing, not reading!
Review: I, as well was not too impressed with the book. Fortunately, I know some Java so that JS was not too difficult. But, if you are a total novice and know nothing about object-oriented or object-based programming, then you are going to be totally lost. I think that the author dives into functions and object methods way too early. There are some useful scripts in the book, especially for client-side form validation. But, if you are not familiar with Javascript you're going to be lost. My suggestion to the author is that she also have exercises to test the reader's knowledge - you can only learn this stuff by doing. If any novice is reading this review, my suggestion would be to first visit Joe Burns' javagoodies (http://www.javagoodies.com)site and go through the 30 javascript primers that are there. The best thing about them is that they're free! Also, if Joe's new book on Javascript (Javascript Goodies) is anything like his web tutorials or his HTML Goodies book, then I would save your money and wait for that one to come out.
Rating:
Summary: I'll Stick With the Moron's Edition
Review: I have several complaints about this book. Firstly, the author assumes you don't even know how to turn on a computer. Who would be bothering to learn about JavaScript if they don't even know how to power up a PC? Come on! The author should spend less time detailing the basic boot up process on the PC and how to open your text editor, and more time explaining the way JavaScript works, and how it depends on the browser that the person visiting your website is using to work correctly. Also, a lot of the examples given in this book don't work. (Unfortunately, I've found that is common with JavaScript books.) Also, the book seems to waste a lot of time going on and on about useless nonsense. I know it's a "dummies" book, but this book expects its readers to truly be morons. I'm only thankful I purchased the book at a discount bookstore for only $3.99.
Rating:
Summary: A big disappointment
Review: I bought this book with a basic knowledge of HTML but very little knowledge of Javascript. Being a fan of other "Dummies" books, I thought this would be a great place to start learning Javascript. Do I feel ripped off! In the Introduction, the author states the book is for those with little or no knowledge of Javascript, which I don't think at all to be the case. She claims to use "real-world examples", most of which I find to be fairly abstract and very poorly explained. She also claims that all the sample codes are contained on the CD-ROM, which is a flat out lie, the applications are similar but the coding is very different from the book, which combined with the author's hard-to-follow explanations leaves the reader very confused and frustrated. On top of all that there are several typos, one of which refering to Microsoft Windows as a word processing program, and poorly written HTML, missing several tags. The author definately knows Javascript, but how good she is as an author is questionable.
Rating:
Summary: Decent reference, but definitely not for "dummies"
Review: My general rule of the thumb is to avoid books that blatantly insult my intelligence in the title. However, I decided to give "JavaScript for Dummies" a try. The thought of teaching an object oriented programming language to a "dummie" is laughable. However, JS for Dum-Dums certainly tries, but Ms.Vander Veer needs some help in the "dummies" part. Much of what the book is based on assumes that you understand programming terms (parsing, methods, global variables, the purpose of curly braces } ).The book itself starts off good, but it just doesn't pull through. It introduces everything you'll need to write good *SIMPLE* JavaScripts. There's nothing really to say that hasn't been said in previous reviews. Despite what you may have heard, you need more than just HTML under your belt to get the full benefit from this book. Repeat, knowing HTML is not enough. Many "advanced topics" are left out in the cold, such as JavaScript's excellent implementation of regular expressions, arrays and zIndexing for dynamic effects. The explanation of Netscape and IE DOMs are shoddy at best, and the object-method reference in the back of the book needs to go back in the oven for a few more minutes. Throughout the book, you'll learn a handful of principles and see them applied through "real life" scripts. Often these examples are cute "look-what-I-can-do" scripts circa 1996. This, of course, is utterly useless. No one wants to know how to construct a poem generator in JS, save for maybe the weekend hobbyist. Ms.Vander-Veer's style of "nevermind if you don't understand / the example will reveal all" is cumbersome. Often, the example scripts are archane and overcomplicated. This will only further frustrate the newbie. Ms.Vander-Veer's literary atrocity is the case of a weekend hobbyist gone bad. Whoever told her to write a book on something she obviously has little experience in should be shot. While she explains that this is not a book for hardcore programmers (who should check out O'reilly's "JavaScript : The Definitive Guide") she does say that you will be writing professional-grade scripts by the end of the book. Only covering a handful of the avalaible objects to JScript developers only adds insult to injury. Yet, this book still has some redeeming qualities. If you've got some experience with BASIC or another relatively simple programming language, this book might be of some use as an intro. However, it is supremely insufficient as a stand-alone reference and will have you scrambling to online references frequently. In the end, "JavaScript For Dummies" is a book that chokes on it's own mediocrity, which is glaringly obvious from the hind-side perspective of a semi-seasoned JavaScript programmmer.
Rating:
Summary: I should have checked Amazon first....
Review: I just purchased "JavaScript for Dummies" and immediately became lost after Chapter 2. The author is horrible at teaching this language. Fortunately, I have a friend who is a VBasic programmer and helped me through parts of it. But I give up - I'm going to search for another JavaScript manual. This one is the pits and I am very, very, VERY disappointed that "For Dummies" even published this book! I have a deep urge to slap the tar out of the author.
Rating: 
Summary: The Source of My Programming Knowledge
Review: This book is not only what taught me JavaScript, but computer programming as well. I continue to refer to this book today, years after I first read it. It has an amazing compilation of information, really simple to understand as are all dummies books that I've read.
Rating:
Summary: Not a bad reference; not the best book to learn from
Review: Once upon a time the "For Dummies" series stood alone as the only name brand instructional company in the world. However, like most great ideas, variations of the same concept were adopted. In the case of internet lingo, O'Reilly's and The Complete Idiot's guides were created. I have read both the O'Reilly and the For Dummies book, and after completing both of them (I am an advanced J-Script user), I found the O'Reilly book, although not geared specifically towards beginners, as the more instructional book. It gives typical O'Reilly plans and lessons that will guide you to being an earnest Java Script writer. The main problem with the For Dummies book is its lack of direction for the overall web constructor. The author advertises Java Script as the ideal programming language, and in doing so has written chapters on how to do things in this language which I, and many other professional web designers feel should not be done. Therefore, keep yourself away from this book until you have read a truly introductory book, as well as a book like O'Reillys... after that you should DEFINETLY buy this book as a reference because of the vast amount of intermeddiate knowledge it has.
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