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Summary: Title says it all -- this is for DESIGNERS
Review: The title of this book nails its target audience 100 percent: this book is for desingers. It is not intended for code jockeys who think writing COM objects is a fun way to spend a Saturday night. This book is the PERFECT introduction to Javascript if you are a graphic artist, Webmasters or someone who has at least an intermediate understanding of HTML or Dreamweaver.Since its publication, I have given this book to four different junior Web designers (I've had to buy two copies, one for me and one to loan), and each one said it helped them learn how to code the areas that were of interest to them: NAVIGATI0N: dropdown menus, changing multiple frames with one click, managing and changing page hrefs IMAGE ROLLOVERS: manually change them, change via arrays, DHTML (this stuff is getting dated, but a new edition is on the way) SIMPLE FORM VALIDATION: required fields, making e-mail forms As some of these other reviews note, this is not a great book if you already understand programming and object-oriented concepts. If you can already tell a method from a property, buy something else (all those great JavaScript books for programmers, by the way, almost universally slight JS's visual capabilities). But if you're a beginner who is interested in manipulating graphics and menus, then this is DEFINITELY a great way to get started with scripts you can use immediately while you're building a foundation for more advanced skills in JavaScript. ---------------------------- I also recommend this book: "DHTML for the World Wide Web" by Jason Cranford Teague. It also focuses on the visual aspects of DHTML, Javascript, and CSS. ---------------------------- NOTE: All the code in this book works, but there are a few typos. Check the addendum sheet when you get it and write in the corrections when you first get the book and you'll be fine. Mike Mitchell ...
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Summary: Suggested title: "Collection of Practical JavaScript"
Review: Being a programmer myself and programmed in assembly, C/C++, VisualBasic, HTML, etc, I found this book well organized and offers many useful Javascripts. However, if you are looking to actually completely understand JavaScript from inside out, this is not the book. One who has previous OOP experience can easily pick up a lot of the concepts used in this book by just looking at the code because it takes too much time to read through the text. Although it does cover some subtle topics to help the reader save time but it doesn't detailly explain a lot of the essential concepts behind this scripting language. Don't get me wrong, you'll understand most essential concepts behind JavaScript, but it's more like a how-to book than a fundational book. For people who are not fluent in programming, this is a good start and this is an excellent book. For programmers, look elsewhere. (JavaScript: The Definitive Guide is a good book for those who are familiar with C++/java)
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Summary: Good Book for Beginner
Review: This admirable book tells beginners how to create dynamic web pages. It teaches you the basics about JavaScript. Also, it has a nice introduction about object-oriented JavaScript.
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Summary: Excellent working Examples
Review: I have used this book for over 4 years and still find it an excellent resource for code samples and simple scripts. No, it is not a comprehensive review of Javascript. Yes, it will get you on your way to building good client side validation and simple document object manipulation.
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Summary: Great Javascipt resource!
Review: I found this book absolutely enticing in ways I can only describe as enlightening, not-too-technical and functional. Nick's explanations of Javascript and its integration with HTML is concise and clear; and the working examples are great for experimenting. I'll surely be spending lots of time with BBEdit and handcoding this couple of weeks. This book misses a full whammy 5-star rating as I found the bundled CD a little stingy on further examples and/or demo software. All in all a good book! Whether you are a complete beginner who has not used Javascript before or an experienced web designer wanting to enhance your existing site, this book should be amongst your top references for some time to come.
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Summary: Clarifying!
Review: I've taken an online course in Javascript and already owned the O'Reilly Javascript book (good, but super dense). I could do a few scripts, but only by rote. I was not understanding exactly what was going on. For my skills and abilities Designing with Javascript was right on. Nick, the young author, uses superior examples and highly detailed descriptions on what's going on at each point in the script. Very useful. Within hours of receiving this book, I wrote my first moderately complex script and actually understood what I was doing!! Way to go Nick, keep up the good work. Definitely worth the price of admission.
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Summary: Good book, but before it's time.
Review: This was a great book for an introduction to programming with javascript. The book presents everything in easy to understand methods, and examples that are practical, and real world. The only draw back is that this book came out as soon as the 4.0 browsers did, and JavaScript has undergone quite a change since then. Great book though, I look forward to the updated book coming out in December.
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Summary: A so - so guide that is not always cross-browser
Review: I am a fairly new practitioner in the world of designing with javascript and this book definitely gave me a nice primer on a lot of the things I will need. But to my disappointment, that's where it stopped. All in all I am only slightly more knowledgable and powerful in designing with javascript after reading this book. I am currently going to buy the "Definitive guide books" on javascript, css, and dhtml to broaden my horizons. CONCLUSION: If your a newbie in the world of javascript and design then this book is definitely a nice start but by no means should you expect to be well versed after this book.
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Summary: What you need to know about JavaScript and nothing more
Review: Are you a budding rose in the information rat-race of the internet? Need client side form validation that actually works? Want to add spice and vigor to your boring, 2 dimentional web site? Look no further than this book. Nick Heinle is one of the smartest people of our generation. This book takes a healthy cut of the Javascript world and serves it up in tender, meaty chunks for your digesting pleasure. The stable platform of JavaScript programming that I stand on today was designed, build, and painted to match my pants by this book. I highly recommend it to anyone who is NOT a JavaScript programmer, but needs more than a cut-n-paste solution to a problem. Advanced programmers, keep looking.
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Summary: Good book if you don't want to actually learn javascript
Review: I found this book to be geared for someone who isn't interested in learning any programming skills at all. If you want to copy code out of a book and not have to do anything else then this is a great book for you. But, I'll caution even the experienced programmers, not all of the code in this book works, and there are a lot of typos. The book should have been proof read much better, since most of the typos are in the code examples. All of the typos in the book makes learning javascript very confusing and frustrating. Especially when you copy the code letter for letter and it doesn't work due to a typo(that your friend has to find for you 2 days later). I bought the book to compliment my other O'Reilly HTML books and to start to learn Javascript. And I have taken a lot of knowledge out of this book but I also found it very useful to have another reference book on hand to explain in further detail what different pieces of the code were doing. The author has tried to make it as easy as possible by telling you that you don't need to know certain things about javascript, when in fact, you may just need that information. I think he could have included the information on one of the many sidebars ans let you and me, the readers, decide on what information we need. All in all, I'll didn't read through every page of the book because I got lost in reading other resource books , which I needed to explain the parts of javascript that this book didn't explain. I still use the book for reference but only as a guide on how to layout the code for a certain project or to get ideas on what to do next.
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