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JavaScript: The Missing Manual |  | Author: David Sawyer McFarland
Publisher: Pogue Press
Category: Book
List Price: $39.99
Buy New: $19.00
as of 9/9/2010 07:33 PDT details
You Save: $20.99 (52%)
Seller: Samuel Deal
Rating:  38 reviews
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 544
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7 x 1.2
ISBN: 0596515898
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.133
EAN: 9780596515898
Publication Date: July 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| • | ISBN13: 9780596515898 | | • | Condition: New | | • | Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed |
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Product Description
JavaScript is an essential language for creating modern, interactive websites, but its complex rules challenge even the most experienced web designers. With JavaScript: The Missing Manual, you'll quickly learn how to use JavaScript in sophisticated ways -- without pain or frustration -- even if you have little or no programming experience. JavaScript expert David McFarland first teaches you the basics by having you build a simple program. Then you'll learn how to work with jQuery, a popular library of pre-built JavaScript components that's free and easy to use. With jQuery, you can quickly build modern, interactive web pages -- without having to script everything from scratch! - Learn how to add scripts to a web page, store and manipulate information, communicate with the browser window, respond to events like mouse clicks and form submissions, and identify and modify HTML
- Get real-world examples of JavaScript in action
- Learn to build pop-up navigation bars, enhance HTML tables, create an interactive photo gallery, and make web forms more usable
- Create interesting user interfaces with tabbed panels, accordion panels, and pop-up dialog boxes
- Learn to avoid the ten most common errors new programmers make, and how to find and fix bugs
- Use JavaScript with Ajax to communicate with a server so that your web pages can receive information without having to reload
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 38
Useful beginner book September 4, 2010
Lars Tackmann (Copenhagen, Denmark)
If you want to learn modern JavaScript development (i.e. JQuery) from scratch then this book is for you. It's written in a very friendly manner and takes you gently from JavaScript "HelloWord" to creating full dynamic web pages using AJAX. Some readers has complained that the author uses plugins to accomplish mundane tasks rather than shoving "the bare metal" - personally I consider this a plus, since I would rather download and use well tested plugin than roll my own.
The book does however have a target audience issue. The author seams split between trying to teach JavaScript to people who have never programmed before, while simultaneous trying to explain advanced web development to more experienced readers. So in the end I must conclude that this is a very good book for beginners, while more experienced web developers might want to read books like jQuery in Action or JavaScript: The Good Parts.
 Perfect for Web Designers August 24, 2010
The Dude (San Diego, CA United States)
I have just completed JavaScript: The Missing Manual. I am surprised at some of the negative reviews about this book. In my opinion, this is absolutely the best book for web designers who want to learn the basics JavaScript and also want to immediately take advantage of the most popular JavaScript library available.
I actually got interested in this book because of some of the negative reviews. I wanted to learn JavaScript quickly because I wanted to use jQuery on my web sites.
Before I bought this book, I read the introductory pages. In the About This Book section, the author says that the book will teach you the basics of JavaScript and programming, which it does. It will not teach you everything you need to know to build sophisticated, interactive Web pages. Instead the book shows you how to use jQuery and save a lot of time. So, after you learn JavaScript basics, you can start using the very cool jQuery plugins and add interactive functionality such as hiding or showing , creating cool lightbox galleries, inserting interactive google maps on the contact pages, and a lot of other things.
"Think of it this way: You could build a house by cutting down and milling your own lumber, constructing your own windows, doors, and doorframes, manufacturing your own tile, and so on. That 'do-it-yourself' approach is common to a lot of JavaScript books. But who has that kind of time? This book's approach is more like building a house by taking advantage of already built pieces and putting them together using basic skills. The end result will be a beautiful and functional house built in a fraction of the time it would take you to learn every step of the process."
So the question is: How much time do you have to learn JavaScript? If you're a web designer who wants to learn the basics of JavaScript quickly and start using very impressive js scripts, then this book is definitely for you. If you have a couple of years and want to become a JavaScript programmer, then this book is a great starting point. It's a mistake to dismiss this book because the author spends time on jQuery. If you want to be a full-fledge JS programmer, then jQuery can be an enormous help. You can download the uncompressed development version of jQuery and have great examples of sophisticated code to study, code that works and is cross-browser compatible.
You also have to be ready to learn JavaScript. If you don't have strong CSS skills, then you should first learn CSS before tackling JavaScript since CSS selectors are used to select parts of a web page to apply JavaScript (CSS: The Missing Manual is a good way to master CSS.)
One final comment. The author takes great care in clearly explaining Javascript code. The examples all work perfectly. This is a well-written technical book.
Also introduces the jQuery JavaScript framework August 24, 2010
superticker
This book not only introduces JavaScript (its prime focus), but it also introduces the popular open-source JavaScript framework, jQuery, which supports many free open-source plug-ins found on scripting archives. With jQuery plug-ins, you can code at higher levels through the use of reusable code. The jQuery framework also takes care of many incompatibilities across browsers (like for JavaScript event handling) so the user can focus on his own JavaScript applications.
 Painfully informative. June 15, 2010
Matthew H. Jensen (TUCSON, ARIZONA, US)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Before you purchase and read this book (like I have) there is one important question you should ask your self: "How do I learn new things?". If it's by simply reading the complicated overview by an expert, than this book might be for you.
However if you're like me and you need to learn, in a hands on way, by performing and piecing the material together for yourself, then I would not recommend this book to you.
McFarland is incredibly knowledgable, but his approach was far too complicated for me to follow, without constantly having to reread every page. The tutorials included with the book were very good however they do tend you baby you a bit and leave you confused about what you have just made. Also they don't cover that much of the material presented.
All in all its not a horrible book if you happen to like his style and don't mind that it is more complicated than most beginners are prepared for. All I can say is that it wasn't for me. It was way more complicated than I found it to be just working with JS for myself and I'm at a loss for almost all of what I read in this book.
 Jquery May 13, 2010
Jason Semko (Los Angeles)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
It's funny, when I first came and read these reviews I had no idea what Jquery was. But I learned. I gave it three stars because the book does not follow what it says...Javascript. Rather, it follows Jquery, a great javascript library. Now you may say, "Hey, Jquery lets you do everything you need to but even quicker and more efficient". That is true, but guess what, HTML5 is coming around the corner and it relies on Javascript coding...REAL javascript coding, and guess what? I don't know enough javascript for it because I learned the 'calculator' way of doing things without learning how to write out the math beforehand...and in HTML5, there are no calculators allowed.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 38
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