Rating: 
Summary: Not recommended
Review: I bought this book to learn how to write JavaScript, and all it does is show me the ones that you CAN do if you want to copy and paste it into your web page. If you want to actually learn it and be able to write your own scripts this book is not for you.
Rating:
Summary: Good for copying code you need but not learning JavaScript
Review: I have to agree with Robert from Philly above -- this book is good for copying code that you need for your site but NOT for teaching you how to use JavaScript, despite the fact that the front cover claims that you can "teach yourself JavaScript the quick and easy way!... You'll be up and running in no time!" Well, you cannot teach yourself JavaScript with any depth of understanding with this book and the only way you can be "up and running" is by copying their code into your HTML document. Right at the beginning of the text there is a brief section (5 pages) describing what objects, properties, methods, event handlers, and variables/values are, but then the text jumps right into complex code for specific functions with general explanations of the details and barely any explanation of the syntax, as if the authors just EXPECT that you will want to copy the code for your own personal use instead of understand it. I was very, very disappointed in this book that was recommended to me by a JavaScript teacher.
Rating: 
Summary: SCRIPTS DON'T WORK
Review: I have two other Javascript books and have used on-line resources from time to time. I found this fifth edition to be a worthy addition. It isn't intended to be the ultimate comprehensive book, nor does it target the advanced scripter who wants the latest in tips and tricks. As it says in the introduction, the authors "concentrate on showing you how to get useful tasks done with JavaScript without a lot of extraneous information." The "Where to Learn More" section directs you to an excellent sampling of on-line resources that more than adequately addresses what you might find lacking in this book. There are lots of practical examples and there is a companion site on-line where you can check out the examples and access the code for copy and pasting. Since there are so many different ways to do things with JavaScript, you may or may not like the choices the authors make in the examples but you can't go far wrong imitating their style. The language is clear and easy for me to understand, which really helps. Javascript can be really frustrating compared to some other languages because there is zero tolerance for error and the error messages generated are of such little help in identifying the problem. The tips this book offers on debugging are worth way more than the price of the book!
Rating: 
Summary: Great for newbies and seasoned pros
Review: I will never need to buy another JavaScript book. This book covers all the basics and provides understandable examples with explanations. It also provides full program examples such as building a slide show and random images. There is an easy-to-follow object flowchart to help you remember the order objects are called as well as a list of reserved words. The comprehensive index also makes it easy to access information on a specific subject -- whether you are new to JavaScript or you use it for a living. Great learning and reference tool.
Rating:
Summary: This is the book to read first
Review: If you know basic HTML, and want to get a start on JavaScript, this is absolutely the best book to get. It leads you gently through the basics, providing lots of useful and thoroughly explained example scripts. I've used this book to teach non-programmers, humanities students who were building web pages for their classes, and it really works. Smith and Negrino are not just good programmers, they're good writers and teachers, and they keep the companion web site up to date. Their book is a fabulous foundation for JavaScript, and you can start using JavaScript almost immediately, even if you only use their example scripts. They're also unusual, as JavaScript book authors, in that they teach good scripting habits, as well as the usual nuts and bolts.
Rating:
Summary: Examples+ Learning-
Review: If you want to just copy code from the book and paste it on your websites, this is the book for you. In which case, you may as well download JavaScripts from some website. It does have line-by-line explanations for the scripts, but the explanations are not that great. it's not organized in the best manner, either. I never understood loops reading this book until I started learning Perl and used a book that explained it. Then I understood how to use them in JavaScript. If you want to actually learn to code, rather that just copy code, I'd suggest a different book.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect JavaScript Book for a Newbie Web Site Designer
Review: If, like me, you already know a little basic HTML but you're still pretty new to designing web sites, then this book will be perfect for you. I decided to try it because I'd had good experiences with two other books from the Visual QuickStart series published by Peachpit Press. This one also proved to be a winner - easy to understand and fun to use. In just a very short time, I learned enough to make by web pages much more interactive and exciting. The sample scripts are great. I've downloaded and customized half a dozen of them. Just the section on "More Effective Rollovers" would be worth the entire price of the book, but I've also learned a lot about working with frames, controlling the size and position of new windows, creating pull-down menus, validating information obtained by forms, and using DHTML to create special effects. I only started learning HTML and publishing web pages about two years ago. Before that, my computer skills consisted of nothing more than being able to use a word processing application and a spreadsheet program - that was all - I had no programming experience. As a web page author, I'm entirely self-taught and not a techie, so if I can use this book to good advantage, then almost anyone can! I recently got my first paying job as a web site designer, largely on the strength of some pages which I had "jazzed up" with JavaScripting from this book. I heartily recommend it! (The other two excellent books from this same series are "HTML for the World Wide Web, 4th Edition" and "Perl and CGI for the World Wide Web, 2nd Edition," both by Elizabeth Castro. I recommend them also!)
Rating:
Summary: SCRIPTS DON'T WORK
Review: It seems to me that most of these scripts don't work. I'm in IT and also a web site administrator, and I still can't get them to work as they are written. I give the authors a 3 for being motivated enough to write the book, though. It seems that they have good intentions.
Rating: 
Summary: Blast From the Past
Review: Most books on JavaScript are packed with examples of how to do several simple tasks. Kinda like a cookbook; you can make several different individual items, but there's very little or no guidance at all on how to make a nice dinner or meal made up of several items that blend nicely. Or, more importantly, no explanation of *why* certain items should go together and others should not. An average teacher shows you "how" to do it; a great teacher tells you "why" it's done that way. "JavaScript For The World Wide Web" tells you "why" JavaScript works the way it does, and points you to several web sites that further clearly explain it's finer points.
The examples are very informative and cover a wide range of situations and techniques.
Each chapter is full of easy to understand examples, and the appendix that covers the JavaScript object table is a gold mine
all by itself. The best part about this book is that you are shown how to write cross-broswer compliant JavaScript that isn't huge and confusing. This book is so important to me that I keep it next to my PC, right beside my O'Reilly JavaScript book (the one with the rhino on the cover). If you have never programmed a line of code in your life, this book will help get you started. Don't be afraid of writing code that won't work; there's lots of places on the WWW that are full of experienced programmers willing to help. This book is great place to start. :)
Rating:
Summary: An accessible, well designed quickstart guide. Get it!
Review: There are a gazillion books on JavaScript and short tutorials, etc. in various books about the Web, but "JavaScript for the WWW (Visual Quickstart Guide)" just jumped right out of the crowd, and I knew it was the right book for me. I think I have a pretty good sense of usability, and I know that my gut feeling about books is generally right on. This one is excellent!! I'm not much for programming and scripting, although I have done it (FORTRAN and Basic, some years ago), and I do understand the concepts for object oriented programming (I designed the documentation for Microsoft's C/C++ 7.0). The layout of this book, with it's two equal mirrored columns (on facing pages); one for graphics and one for text, is my favorite design for a Quickstart Guide. I'm not intimidated by the idea of scripting with JavaScript, now that I have this book. I've even taken to reading it in the bathtub, a sacred rite, usually reserved for novels by Walker Percy, etc. I've been designing software documentation for about 8 years, a good portion of that at Microsoft (Windows 3.0, MS-DOS 5, networks, Multimedia Development Kit, etc); over 100 books for more than 25 products. Tech Docs R Us! I've never written to anyone, telling them how much I like their books, but I had to write Tom and Dori. There's so much garbage out there that a good technical doc deserves a good review. This book gets 5 mice and a hardy hand clasp. My own learning style tends toward experimentation: I'll read a part of a manual that seems interesting, even if it's in the middle of the book someplace, then try it out on my Mac, make mistakes and go back and reference the text again, and give it another try. The design of this book allows me to do this easily, and I really appreciate that. I learned how to use the first versions of PageMaker and FreeHand by scanning the manuals while riding BART between Berkeley and San Francisco every day. Wading through walls of text, with a token graphic thrown in here and there, is not my idea of a good time. This book does it right. The numbered procedure lists, only a couple levels of heads, a simple check mark and bullets to indicate tips, usable bleed tabs and an excellent index makes it very easy to scan. I love it! If you're a Web designer and you'd like to add some true interactivity to your work, but you're a "script-o-phobe" like me, get "JavaScript for the World Wide Web (Visual Quickstart Guide) 2nd Edition." The only thing I'd change about this book, is the length of the title... Gary Bastoky
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