Rating:  Summary: Don't be a dummy. Don't buy this book! Review: Ok. I may not be a techno geek, but I am not an idiot either. After reading this book, I was still in the "fog" about JavaScript. This is not a book for beginners of JavaScript, as the author does not teach the subject well.It was recommended to me that I look at: The Book of JavaScript by David Thau Guess what. It is a great book. The examples make sense. The reasons why things happen are explained in a way that a non programmer can understand! The entire book is like taking a class with an excellent teacher. The chapters are like assignments. In four chapters, I already know more than I did after finishing the "Dummies" book. If you want to have a book that you can just cut and paste code with a vague idea how it works, then Dummies book may work for you. However, if you want to have understanding of what you are doing, purchase: The Book of JavaScript by David Thau! Amazon.com won't mind. They sell both
Rating:  Summary: Got a bit confusing... Review: The book is pretty good for people who want to get an idea of how to use javascript, but it definitely won't make you an expert.
Rating:  Summary: Complete Waste of Money Review: I've been using JavaScript for a couple of years and bought this book only because the summary led me to believe it covers Netscape 6 browsers. I'm trying to get some of my JavaScript and DHTML features to work in Netscape 6 and this is the only JavaScript book that is currently out that even mentioned Netscape 6. Well the coverage of Netscape 6 is minimal and many of the examples don't even work with Netscape 6. All the examples use SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript" which is deprecated in favor of SCRIPT type="text/javascript"! The author clearly just rushed this book out using scripts from the older edition without even testing them on Netscape 6. I definitely would not recommend this book to anyone for this reason. It is a complete waste of money for both beginners and experienced users.
Rating:  Summary: Run, dont walk, as far away from this book as possible! Review: I have never publicly criticized someone's writing ever before. However, a book this bad deserves special attention. The harm done to the literary world by publishing this book cannot be fully calculated. Over the past couple of years, I have been slowly upgrading my computer skills. I decided to tackle what should be an easy topic for someone who can program in Basic, Pascal, Fortran, and who writes html and designs Access databases. Not that I'm a rocket scientist, but then again, JavaScript isn't rocket science. Java Script For Dummies is so poorly written, that even when I already knew what the author was TRYING to say, I could not understand what she actually was saying. The first examples of code do not tell you anything about how come you need to do certain things in certain places, of how the syntax functions and so on. And when the book does get into basics, they aren't basic. The first examples are difficult to follow along unless you already know Java Script, which of course, if you did already know Java Script, you wouldn't be reading a dummies book about Java Script, now would you..!? Far to much ink is used wining about the differences between IE and Navigator than is needed, and only serves to put the reader off, scaring them at the prospective nightmare which looms ahead in the tangled world of a Java Script war which will only lay waste to those foolish enough to try. I only read half the book before sending it back. If they give me a refund, wonderful. If not, who cares. At least it isn't on my bookshelf wasting space. Go to the movie, toss your money to a stranger on the bus, do anything you like, but please don't buy this book!
Rating:  Summary: I must be a total idiot Review: I'm a novice and I admit that if this is "JavaScript for Dummies" than I'm a bloomin' idiot!! If you are confident in your HTML skills, then you'll feel like you don't know anything after 5 chapters of this book. I kept waiting for the book to give "assignments" instead of high-level examples I'm not quite ready to decipher, yet. I'm returning this confidence-shatterer for David Flannagan's "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide", as it received good reviews.
Rating:  Summary: very good stuff! Review: I just got an advance copy of this book, and I have to say that I think it's very, very good. The examples used in the book are simple to code and easy to understand, and the chapter topics are things that you can actually use - identifying a repeat visitor to a web site, image swapping for a simple animation or slide show, creating an order form that validates user data, and the popular mouseovers for nav bars and other images. What's more, all the code examples are on the CD, so you can load them and begin using them right away for your own site by swapping the variables. I'd recommend this book to anyone just getting their feet wet with JavaScript, or anyone who has to get things up and running quickly in the real world.
Rating:  Summary: Helpful, but not excellent Review: When I bought this book, I had only a smattering of JavaScript awareness. I purchased it primarily so that I could understand what the JavaScript I saw in Web page sources was doing; for that purpose, this book was quite adequate. Even though the ...for Dummies books aren't intended to be read serially from front to back, I found doing so a big help in getting the most I could out of this book. Since I got out of it what I wanted, my main complaint is the description and use of non-standard HTML elements (such as the 'layer' tag) without noting their non-standardness, and failing to tag documents using advanced (i.e., HTML 4) features with the appropriate DOCTYPE tag. This can lead to documents that don't comply with the HTML specifications.
Rating:  Summary: Dont get this book...... Review: This book needs some....organization.......i learned more about javascript by copying other scripts and changing em a bit and see wat is different....This book would only be used as a reference and its not so great there either....
Rating:  Summary: Good basics Review: I think this book does a good job of explaining the basics of JavaScript for anyone who needs to get started using it. As the "tag, you're it!" webmaster of a small company with no prior programming experience I was able to figure out how to do mouse-overs and message alerts using the examples given in this book. I also thought that the author's explanation of HTML was complete enough to give a novice an idea of how web pages work. My only complaint is that the book is now a few years old, and I'm wondering when and if they are going to publish an updated edition.
Rating:  Summary: Not a good book Review: I bought the book but I found the flow of the material difficult to follow. I didn't feel that the concepts were well explained or that the examples were very helpful. Since I've programmed in several other languages, I was able to get things working in spite of the book's drawbacks. I wouldn't want to be a novice working from this book. For anyone, I'd recommend looking for a different beginner book.
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