Whether you're an old-school scripter who needs to modernize your JavaScripting skills or a standards-aware Web developer who needs best practices and code examples, you'll welcome this guide from a JavaScript master.

Other JavaScript books use example scripts that have little bearing on real-world Web development and are useful only in the chapter at hand. In contrast, Peter-Paul Koch's book uses eight real-world scripts he created for real-world clients in order to earn real-world money. That means the scripts are guaranteed to do something useful (and sellable!) that enhances the usability of the page they're used on.

The book's example scripts include one that sorts a data table according to the user's search queries, a form validation script, a script that shows form fields only when the user needs them, a drop-down menu, and a data retrieval script that uses simple Ajax and shows the data in an animation.

After an overview of JavaScript's purpose, Peter-Paul provides theoretical chapters on the context (jobs for JavaScript, CSS vs. JavaScript), the browsers (debugging, the arcana of the browser string), and script preparation. Then follow practical chapters on Core, BOM, Events, DOM, CSS Modification, and Data Retrieval, all of which are explained through a combination of theoretical instruction and the taking apart of the relevant sections of the example scripts.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 17 Ratings

Not a beginner's book - 2008-03-26
Reviewer Rating:
I bought this book because I was familiar with the author and his website, quirksmode. I figured this guy was a master of JavaScript and a book written from him would be a solid resource to learn from.

Well, I was half-right. Early on in the book he presents a script and says that you should know what it does before reading his book. Well, I knew what it was, but it's not the truth. This book is all about technique and execution. He shows innovative and great ways to implement code, but you have to know how to write javascript first. If you're not an experienced programmer or are unfamiliar with javascript, you may want to consider this book...after you've gotten a proven beginner's manual and gone through that first. Head First Javascript or Javascript in 21 days are good examples.

NOT FOR BEGINNERS - 2009-10-04
Reviewer Rating:
This book could of been A LOT better. Initially it starts out with the author stating who is is and what he as done, which serves as justification for why we should learn from his book, but comes off as something else. Especially when he states that he is only going to teach what he knows to be relevant. Who is he to say he knows what to teach someone and what not to. And if/when you can get past that, and you begin to read and try to learn, the deeper you get into it the more confused you become Too many times will he try to teach you something, brining up something completely different that he has yet to teach you, yet refers to in a future subject. If you are going to teach me one thing, first teach me what I need to know to learn it, you can't go from "A" to "C" without first going to "B", but he thinks you can teach you "C" without first teaching you "B" but only stating don't worry we'll get to it. Learning JavaScript is something that takes enough concentration without having to flipping through the book every two pages. Another really annoying thing is he is constantly referring to a few of the JavaScript code he has written for people, no not only do you have to refer to his stupid code, that of which he admits some is wrong and didn't fix(for learning purposes, in reality he was probably just to lazy to do so), to flipping through the book trying to find what he is talking about.
If you are trying to learn JavaScript for the first time, this book is definitely not for you. You are so confused just trying to find out what he is trying to show you that it is almost impossible to actually learn it.

Excellent Javascript book - 2009-05-24
Reviewer Rating:
This book is perfect for taking the basic JS programmer to the intermediate/advanced level. It is very well written and easy to read.

book from javascript Master - 2008-10-02
Reviewer Rating:
The book is wonderfull written by front end engineers guild founder peter paul koch one of the best know writers about browser incompatibilities and cross browser techniques and on his blog Tables summarize all browser differences in DOM and Core javascript as a reference for developers, in the book introduction he mentioned that the book is a way to offer an easy access to the knowledge he gained since he's been professional WEB developer , and what's interesting about his way of writing is : this code is write stick to it , and this code is wrong, why ? avoid it , by this way i learned javascript best practices for writing robust code that work on every browser , the book covers the browsers history and why developers suffer and how to solidify your javascript foundation and document object model, Browser object model, Events, CSS modification, Ajax connections , beginning from no knoledge to high level knowledge each chapter is part of eight real world exapmples peter worked on . the book must be read to gain this expert knowledge , i've gain it :)

One of my favorite books on JavaScript - 2008-08-28
Reviewer Rating:
I've been a fan of PPK's web site for sometime, and finally bought the book. I really like the way it's organized, and presents subjects within a project that will definitely improve your .js skills and the way you approach .js problems. I highly recommend it.

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