So you're ready to make the leap from writing HTML and CSS web pages to creating dynamic web applications. You want to take your web skills to the next level. And you're finally ready to add "programmer" to the resume. It sounds like you're ready to learn the Web's hottest programming language: JavaScript. Head First JavaScript is your ticket to going beyond copying and pasting the code from someone else's web site, and writing your own interactive web pages. With Head First JavaScript, you learn:

• The basics of programming, from variables to types to looping

• How the web browser runs your code, and how you can talk to the browser with your code

• Why you'll never have to worry about casting, overloading, or polymorphism when you're writing JavaScript code

• How to use the Document Object Model to change your web pages without making your users click buttons

If you've ever read a Head First book, you know what to expect -- a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. Head First JavaScript is no exception. It starts where HTML and CSS leave off, and takes you through your first program into more complex programming concepts -- like working directly with the web browser's object model and writing code that works on all modern browsers. Don't be intimidated if you've never written a line of code before! In typical Head First style, Head First JavaScript doesn't skip steps, and we're not interested in having you cut and paste code. You'll learn JavaScript, understand it, and have a blast along the way. So get ready... dynamic and exciting web pages are just pages away.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 43 Ratings

The worst computer book I have ever purchased - 2009-08-11
Reviewer Rating:
If I could give this book a negative rating I would. Paul Welch summed the book up very well for chapter 2, so I'm not going to go over everything again. I will however share my experiences with this book.

I am teaching JavaScript this semester and I was looking for a suitable text book that had interesting examples that the students could follow. On the surface this book seemed to fit the bill. It had interesting chapters, it interspersed lexical JavaScript with DOM very early on and appeared to cover most of what I was planning on teaching. Apart from using deprecated method calls and writing obtrusive JavaScript I felt we could over-come these. In fact I thought it might be good to re-factor the examples so that the JavaScript sat in it's own file.

Unfortunately no one in my class can work with the book, and everything came to a screaming halt in Chapter 2. I looked ahead to Chapter 3 and realized it is just the same. There are no steps to follow, and the book appears to be written as an expository dump. Also there is no link from the code you're reading in the chapter with the code in the download. Which iRock.js file are we working with?

If I could give this book a negative star I would because I now have to re-work my lab sessions so that my students can follow examples instead of having no clue as to what the book is expecting of them. We're now going to look at each chapter, determine what the author is trying to achieve and then go ahead and write our own code. Maybe the student's will be better for it.

If you're a beginner, prepare to bang your head in frustration - 2009-07-29
Reviewer Rating:
I'm not a Javascript expert. I'm trying to learn it. This book is better than others I've seen, particularly on the concepts of the language.

But when the rubber meets the road -- the programming -- it's a disaster. New concepts can only be learned by personal effort, and I make a point of attempting the programming myself, trying to reinforce these novel concepts through repetition. But like a distressingly large number of Javascript books, the code published in the book doesn't work. Seriously: If you punch in the code on, say, page 59, the result -- even with the necessary CSS and PHP sheets -- is a buggy, incomprehensible mess. It's only when you download the code from the Head First site that you see the authors left critical commands, words and punctuation out of the script on the physical page. How are you supposed to learn by doing when you're handed script that simply won't work?

A good introduction to the underlying ideas of Javascript. Awful on the execution. Unfortunately, it's not the only book out there with these problems.

a smooth and rich introduction to javascript - 2009-09-17
Reviewer Rating:
I hadn't touched Javascript for a while and had a bit of an aversion for it while reading dry tomes about the language itself. Books like Javascript, the Definitive Guide, while helpful about the language, were dry in letting one see applications of this language. window and document objects were tackled much later there.. This book was a great remedy to that aversion. It mixes an introduction to Javascript in the web browser (so you get instant viewable satisfaction) with a steady diet of knowledge of the language sprinkled generously all over the place. This was just what I needed, motivation of seeing what i can do with the language (create interactivity, validate forms, handle mouse and other input events (onclick, onblur ...) , manipulate the DOM to add and remove content.)

For those complaining about the use of innerHTML which appeared a few times, I didn't really see that as an issue, because they acknowledged that it was not standard (page 352) and once you hit the chapter about the DOM (chapter 8), they offered you a more standardised and accepted alternative to using it, inserting content via DOM nodes . Thereafter any place that I saw a use of innerHTML, I simply modeled the html into a DOM tree, created the nodes of the tree, and appended that treed as child of the node the innerHTML would have gone to. Chapter 8 explains it well.

I also liked that they weren't afraid to delve into the more advanced and interesting uses of javascript ( function literals and function references (so as to move as much javascript from HTML and into separate javascript files to separate structure from behaviour), callback function (passed over to a sort function for sorting by an object property), prototypes for implementing class methods/properties and object methods/properties, general oop). I would have liked to see some coverage of test driven development (Fireunit, JSSpec, jsmock ) but that may be getting greedy for an intro book plus I have yet to see it in other Javascript books I've browsed.

Additionally, their sections on using firebug and debugging techniques (code commenting, a checklist of common mistakes to check when not sure what's wrong proved valuable).

Finally, a lot of this was made bearable in that great Head First teaching style filled with eye catching annotated code, great questions and answers and imaginary dialogues between two similar or contrasting concepts etc. I feel confident to tackle my next books in understanding the front end world ( for me it happens to be Object Oriented Javascript by Stefanov, and Head First Ajax)

OK but not OK - 2009-10-19
Reviewer Rating:
This book is ok if you like the "new" style of learning it tries to employ. I found it absolutely useless. The book covers some good points and has neat examples, but it teaches you something and then when you need to know another part to understand what it teaches you, it says "don't worry, we'll teach you more about this in 6 chapters." I don't know about you, but if its pertinent to the part I'm learning now, I want to know about it now, not in 6 chapters! Also, there are very important things it teaches that should be stressed a lot harder that aren't and there are things that are stressed- such as CONSTANT- that shouldn't be stressed at all. I found this book almost totally useless.

Great condition for used book - 2009-10-18
Reviewer Rating:
large book of java learning fun. Came quickly and in great condition for a used book. Many thanks. I love Head First books, they make learning very dry content quick and fun.

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