JavaScript Definitive Guide
JavaScript is a powerful, object-based scripting language; JavaScript programs can be embedded directly in HTML web pages. When combined with the Document Object Model (DOM) defined by a web browser, JavaScript allows you to create Dynamic HTML content and interactive client-side web applications. JavaScript syntax is based on the popular programming languages C, C++, and Java, which makes it familiar and easy to learn for experienced programmers. At the same time, JavaScript is an interpreted scripting language, providing a flexible, forgiving programming environment in which new programmers can learn. JavaScript: The Definitive Guide provides a thorough description of the core JavaScript language and both the legacy and standard DOMs implemented in web browsers. The book includes sophisticated examples that show you how to handle common tasks, like validating form data, working with cookies, and creating portable DHTML animations. The book also contains detailed reference sections that cover the core JavaScript API, the legacy client-side API, and the W3C standard DOM API, documenting every JavaScript object, method, property, constructor, constant, function, and event handler in those APIs. This fourth edition of the bestselling JavaScript book has been carefully updated to cover JavaScript 1.5 (ECMAScript version 3). The book also provides complete coverage of the W3C DOM standard (Level 1 and Level 2), while retaining material on the legacy Level 0 DOM for backward compatibility. JavaScript: The Definitive Guide is a complete programmer's guide and reference manual for JavaScript. It is particularly useful for developers working with the latest standards-compliant web browsers, like Internet Explorer 6, Netscape 6, and Mozilla. HTML authors can learn how to use JavaScript to build dynamic web pages. Experienced programmers can quickly find the information they need to start writing sophisticated JavaScript programs. This book is an indispensable reference for all JavaScript programmers, regardless of experience level.
Since the earliest days of Internet scripting, Web developers have considered JavaScript: The Definitive Guide an essential resource. David Flanagan's approach, which combines tutorials and examples with easy-to-use syntax guides and object references, suits the typical programmer's requirements nicely. The brand-new fourth edition of Flanagan's "Rhino Book" includes coverage of JavaScript 1.5, JScript 5.5, ECMAScript 3, and the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 standard from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Interestingly, the author has shifted away from specifying--as he did in earlier editions--what browsers support each bit of the language. Rather than say Netscape 3.0 supports the Image object while Internet Explorer 3.0 does not, he specifies that JavaScript 1.1 and JScript 3.0 support Image. More usefully, he specifies the contents of independent standards like ECMAScript, which encourages scripters to write applications for these standards and browser vendors to support them. As Flanagan says, JavaScript and its related subjects are very complex in their pure forms. It's impossible to keep track of the differences among half a dozen vendors' generally similar implementations. Nonetheless, a lot of examples make reference to specific browsers' capabilities. Though he does not cover server-side APIs, Flanagan has chosen to separate coverage of core JavaScript (all the keywords, general syntax, and utility objects like Array) from coverage of client-side JavaScript (which includes objects, like History and Event, that have to do with Web browsers and users' interactions with them. This approach makes this book useful to people using JavaScript for applications other than Web pages. By the way, the other classic JavaScript text--Danny Goodman's JavaScript Bible--isn't as current as this book, but it's still a fantastic (and perhaps somewhat more novice-friendly) guide to the JavaScript language and its capabilities. --David Wall Topics covered: The JavaScript language (version 1.0 through version 1.5) and its relatives, JScript and ECMAScript, as well as the W3C DOM standards they're often used to manipulate. Tutorial sections show how to program in JavaScript, while reference sections summarize syntax and options while providing copious code examples.
JavaScript Definitive Guide Accessories
 CSS: The Definitive Guide
Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference (Dynamic Html)
JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook (2nd edition)
JavaScript: The Good Parts
HTML: The Definitive Guide
Learning JavaScript (Learning)
CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions
DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model
Programming PHP
Pro JavaScript Techniques (Pro)
JavaScript Definitive Guide Reviews
I would recommend following this book up with "Javascript: The Good Parts" and making sure you fully grok how to use closures to avoid namespace pollution. Pros: Technically complete, solid writing style, understandable examples, no better intro books on the market. Cons: Authors repeatedly show that they prefer class-based object systems, which Javascript is not. This is I believe the best book about basic Javascript on the market right now. Authors do not effectively teach advanced Javascript prototype-based object usage and in fact seem to view it as a nuisance to be avoided. Authors don't regularly use closures except in section on closures.
This really is the definitive book on JavaScript, even if it is two years old (which is ages in Internet time). Flanagan basically builds the whole language piece by piece, explaining the fundamentals of every aspect. I've learned a lot of tech in my time, and this book does the best job explaining the fundamentals of a language that I've ever come across. There are some more esoteric techniques he doesn't cover, but I hardly consider that a shortcoming; aside from those, he basically covers the entire breadth of JavaScript, both in its core design and in practical browser-based applications.
My recommendation is to use this book in conjunction with the w3schools website. But, the example scripts the author gives are long and deadly boring, which is why I won't give it five stars. This book is downright comprehensive and thoroughly deserves its "definitive guide" title. To "get" JavaScript, you need shorter scripts which are easier to learn from.
And that's worth five stars to me. I'm fairly evenly brained myself and I occasionally found myself zombie-reading as exciting as some of the specifics are too me. Then this bruiser when you really want get in deep. more heavily creative-brained designers).
I don't think it's for everybody personally. This is the book all the JS rockstars out there tend to recommend to people. Then I recommend Jeremy Keith's DOM scripting. Then the Complete Reference.
A good place to get a start with JS if you've never programmed is a decent class or self-teaching the basics online. On the other hand, if you want to know just about everything there is to possibly know about JS, this is the book. It's very thorough and explains JS and its various incarnations at a high level of intricacy that I wouldn't recommend to beginners who are easily distracted (i.e.
From the basics to the most advance about the language. Great book, easy read, well formated and very instrutive. You will find everything that you need about JavaScript (covering standard ECMAScript v3).
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