Need to learn JavaScript fast? This best-selling reference’s visual format and step-by-step, task-based instructions will have you up and running with JavaScript in no time. In this completely updated edition of our best-selling guide to JavaScript, leading Web and computing experts Tom Negrino and Dori Smith use crystal-clear instructions and friendly prose to introduce you to all of today's JavaScript essentials. Along the way, you'll find extensive coverage of Ajax and XML techniques, current browsers (Opera, Safari, Firefox), and more.

Visual QuickStart Guide--the quick and easy way to learn!

• Easy visual approach uses pictures to guide you through JavaScript and show you what to do.

• Concise steps and explanations get you up and running in no time.

• Page for page, the best content and value around.

• Companion Web site at www.javascriptworld.com offers sample scripts, updates, and more!

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 19 Ratings

Should be called: JavaScript (& a chapter on AJAX) - 2008-03-27
Reviewer Rating:
This is my first QSG book. I assume the layout is "feature" of the series, if so this will be my last.

Bottom line first: the title is a lie, this is a book about javascript with a chapter on AJAX; this book has good content, but the presentation will drive you insane while you read it.

Layout:
The book has a good concept but doesn't execute it well. Each page is divided into two columns, the example code is in one column, the text describing that code is in the other. This really is a great concept. It's used in analytic copies of a number of Shakespeare's plays and works well there. It works because they are conscientious about pagination, include line references, and use facing pages not columns.
Columns are a problem because each line has about three words before wrapping. The dot syntax of javascript is particularly hard to read with such short lines.
The pagination / line reference is really the biggest problem in the QSG's execution. They let the text and code flow through the columns across pages without much attention. This means you are constantly flipping forwards and backwards to see the code as you read. Without line references the flipping is not just annoying it's really more of a search.
They make two attempts to address the pagination problem: first, the code being talked about is highlighted in red; second, they reprint the code block being talked about in the text column. Neither of these is helpful. Half of the code ends up being highlighted red - at most you can scan the red blocks to figure out what that code is an example of, and what is just there to support the example. If they are going to reprint the code anyway why not just go over to a normal layout? My suggestion: use facing pages for the next edition!

AJAX:
This is not a book on AJAX. This is an introduction to javascript that includes a buzz word in its title to jump off the shelf at people. It's not even an introduction to javascript from an AJAX prospective. In fact AJAX isn't covered well in the book. For example there is very little discussion of how to navigate returned XML using javascript. AJAX is mentioned in the intro and then 'taught' in chapters 15 and 16. (Chapter 16 is just a discussion of available libraries!) You can't give AJAX top billing and then devote 10% of the actual book to it.

So why 2 stars?

I was looking for a book that assumed very little or no knowledge of javascript. I was hoping for something that would address canonical javascripting, best practices, and a bit theory behind the topics being covered. I'm self taught and wanted to see how things should be done instead of how they can be done. This book would be a darn good intro for a beginner. The theory and best practices parts were not explicitly addressed as often as I would have liked; however, they were demonstrated and covered at times.

4 star content, less 1 for layout, less 1 for title.

Interesting collection of examples, not good for learning - 2008-03-08
Reviewer Rating:
I've been learning JavaScript off and on, with some success, for three months. In doing so, I've skimmed about a half-dozen books and tried the following three, so far, "graded" below:

Learning JavaScript (Powers B-)
VQS JavaScript and Ajax (Negrino & Smith C+)
O'Reilly JavaScript Pocket Reference (Flanagan B)

It's hard to find good books on this because the subject matter is new and the books are often dashed off quickly. VQS JavaScript and Ajax is essentially a collection of well-explained examples of well-organized code. It's written more to fill pages than flesh out the subject, however. The explanations are unnecessarily wordy and the broader coverage of concepts, context and how to, you would want to include in a teaching book are missing.

Strangest of all perhaps is the author's choice of leaving out how html talks to Javascript or the details of how they link. Since JavaScript's purpose is to interact with html and pass things back and forth, it's sort of like doing marriage counseling and only focusing on what the woman's thinking. Unfortunately, they're not the only authors that make this oversight.

The VQS format is great and they do a good job of using color to highlight the portions of code they're referring to. This a great, annotated collection of code examples. It's something I've found to be only marginally helpful in getting started.

JavaScript & AJAX - 2008-03-09
Reviewer Rating:
The book arrived quickly. I is new quality. I intend to increase my knowledge of DOM, JavaScrip anf AJAX.

excellent book easy to read - 2008-11-25
Reviewer Rating:
Excellent book and easy to read. Filled with examples and references. Loved reading it.

Great Book - 2008-11-19
Reviewer Rating:
This book was recommended to me by a teacher, there are not many JavaScript books that describe things in an easy to understand level, this one does. It's also helpful that the script is all available online, typing it helps to understand it, but if you type it wrong at least you can copy the online script and get it right then work out what went wrong.

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