JavaScript is one of the easiest, most straightforward ways to enhance a website with interactivity. Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours, 4th Edition serves as an easy-to-understand tutorial on both scripting basics and JavaScript itself. The book is written in a clear and personable style with an extensive use of practical, complete examples. It also includes material on the latest developments in JavaScript and web scripting. You will learn how to use JavaScript to enhance web pages with interactive forms, objects, and cookies, as well as how to use JavaScript to work with games, animation, and multimedia.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 30 Ratings

Not great, but not bad. - 2008-03-27
Reviewer Rating:
The Sam's PHP books made them my preferred publisher of tech books, this book didn't live up to my expectations. If you are somewhat competent this book will frustrate you. It doesn't provide much detail on the fundamental concepts. The last third of the book goes further and is devoted to examples that have "cook book" value but not a lot of educational value.

It's not a bad book by any means. I think it may even be a great book, for the right reader. The right reader I think is someone who: knows just a bit about html, what javascript is in vague terms, and wants to get something up and working quickly. If have a basic knowledge of javascript already and are looking to strengthen your foundation this may not be the best book for you.

Book Review from Silicon Valley Web Builder (SVWB) - 2008-09-09
Reviewer Rating:
Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours

It is a very pleasant surprise to learn Sams Teach Yourself series has been improved into a very well-organized book. Each chapter is limited with 12-14 pages. It is easy to read entire chapter during short break. It includes the latest programming practices like object-oriented JavaScript, DOM Level 2 Scripting, Feature-sensing, Unobtrustive Scripting in CSS, JavaScript and AJAX. It helps you to review the content by reading Q&A and Quiz questions. Each chapter comes with good examples and sample codes.

Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours (4th Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself)

good if you know basic elements of java - 2008-03-04
Reviewer Rating:
This is not a bad book. It's really a well written book, but it does require some prior knowledge from the user. It would help if a user has some basic knowledge of Java. Some rudimentary knowledge of Java will help to understand the JavaScript object model and methods like toString(), etc.

Compare to what I consider to be the main competitor for this type of book, the O'Reilly JavaScript book, this book is superior for beginners. It explains the document object, math object, etc. simply and clearly. It gives nice examples that you can either type in as an automaton, or that you can elaborate and experiment on. Either way, the explanations are great -- assuming you have a rudimentary knowledge of Java.

I own and have used extensively over 20 of the O'Reilly books, so it's obvious I like them. The O'Reilly JavaScript book is not bad, it's just not the best to learn from. My suggestion is to learn the basics from this book, and then go to the O'Reilly JavaScript: The Definitive guide book.

Can you really learn JavaScript in 24 hours? If you follow the book word for word, page by page, and type in the examples exactly as stated, then you can finish in 24 hours. If you like to experiment and try different variations of the examples (what I do), then it can take longer. Either way the book is a nice introduction to JavaScript. At least, now I know what the document model can do !!!

Not for complete novices.... but sufficient for an introduction - 2007-08-03
Reviewer Rating:
I think a lot of us can agree that there just aren't a lot of great quality Javascript instruction books out there. Somebody make one! However, I will say that after reading this book I feel that I have a solid enough footing in the language to branch out into more complex examples. The key to learning any programming language is not simply to read these guidebooks, but to create some independent projects that reinforce what you have just learned. To get the most out of this book make sure you actually do each of the exercises at the end of each hour. The problem with this is, of course, that not all of the answers for the exercises are provided on the web site. (As a matter of fact the web site does not seem to have been updated in quite some time.) I do recommend posing questions in the website's forum, which is quite active.

TIP: If you are new to programming, don't begin your education with this book; start with an HTML/CSS primer to get you going, preferably one which gives you a taste of Javascript. Then start looking at Javascript. Having had a year-long Java course in the past, and prior knowledge of basic HTML, I'll say that this book does presume a certain level of knowledge. If I were entirely unfamiliar with syntax and terms (which the author whizzes through very quickly and often with poor explanation), then I am certain I would have been very lost about halfway through the book. The section on arrays could do with some major modification, for example. And the CSS and AJAX snippets just weren't given enough contextual treatment. All in all, if you have some basic knowledge and are looking for a guide that will give you the fundamentals, this is a satisfactory enough book.

Pretty good, but get some prior knowledge - 2009-01-16
Reviewer Rating:
JavaScript is basically a programming language. Not as powerful as C++, but still uses all of the basic programming constructs, such as variables, functions, objects, if/else statements and so on. Unless you have a good understanding of programming basics (like how to construct a for loop, what an Array is, how variables work, what a Function is and how to pass data to and fro a Function), JavaScript will be difficult to grasp.

Before I got this book, I read the following two books (in order) to give me a solid understanding of programming basics:
1. Computer Programming for Teens by Mary Ferrell
2. Head First JavaScript by Michael Morrison

The two books above tear apart what all common programming languages use to make things happen. Such as all the components of an if/else and for loop statements, what they are, and how they work. Without the two books above giving me a solid foundation, I would have not rated this book "JavaScript in 24 Hours - 4th Edition" 4 stars.

"JavaScript in 24 Hours - 4th Edition" helped me with some questions I had that the other two books did not answer. Such as there are three types of Objects in JavaScript:
1. Built-in objects
2. DOM objects
3. Custom objects
Breaking objects in JavaScript into three types, really cleared up my basic understanding of DOM.

I also found that "JavaScript in 24 Hours - 4th Edition" gives easy coding examples, so you can quickly code out and better understand how things work. For example:
In Hour 2, the book goes over a few implementations of how the built-in Date() object can be used and written to the web page. And gives the full coding in both HTML and JavaScript.

I like how the chapters are short and to the point.

This book is not for the absolute beginner, rather someone who already has a good understanding of programming basics and a little bit of exposure to JavaScript already. I highly recommend the two books I listed above as pre-reqs to "JavaScript in 24 Hours - 4th Edition."

I rate this book 4 stars because it really is not for the absolute beginner and I would like to see more coding examples. Otherwise, this book has a place on my bookshelf.

Happy Learning!

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