Subscriber Reviews

Average Rating:  Based on 14 Ratings

"jQuery in Action, Second Edition" - by Anonymous on 07-AUG-2012
Reviewer Rating:
An amazing book. There are not many like this anymore. It really takes you from novice to professional in a easy way.
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"How a technical book should be written" - by Lisa Morgan on 30-SEP-2011
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At last count I had 49 technical books on my Kindle. That's not counting my print books and the ones I read on Safari Online. And of all of them, this one ranks in the top 10%. Unlike many books that tell you what they are talking about, this one shows you, then gives you a place to practice it so you really understand before the next paragraph. The companion code includes several Lab pages that allow you to try out the key concepts without creating a million little pages just to build a context for learning. The result is the perfect see-then-do approach.
The writing style is a good balance between casual and to-the-point, and the authors clearly understand the mindset of the technical reader who actually enjoys reading and working with code. The text balances examples with tables of complete information about the topic. For example, the selectors discussion first talks about what they are, then demonstrates several of the more useful ones, then gives a table of all of them. This keeps the text from getting wordy and veering off into the little-used stuff, but gives the reader a reference in case they want to use something less common.
The organization of the book is well-suited to both a newer developer and a more experienced one, because you can pick the book up at any point and move forward without losing anything. Good technical books are those you can read away from the keyboard and still understand them, but that make you want to get to your computer to try out the examples. The best technical books make you want to try the new thing you thought up based on what you've learned. By that standard, this is among the best.

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"Great introduction to jQuery" - by andrewbrown on 08-MAY-2011
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I'm returning to web development after several years' absence.  I'm finding that _jQuery in Action_ is a perfect introduction to jQuery.

You'll get the most out of this book if you have some familiarity with Javascript (including its functional and object-oriented concepts) and the DOM.  Despite the fact I haven't done anything meaningful with Javascript in a few years, I have found this book very easy to follow.

The examples are simple and easy to follow, yet discussed in the context of why you might want to use the concepts in a real-world scenario.  The examples are downloadable from the book's web site.

I'm enjoying this book through Safari much more than I would in its printed form.  The reason -- I can place the code examples in a left-hand browser window, and read the book online on the right.  This way, I can work through the examples with a minimum of fuss.
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