JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Amazon.co.uk: David Flanagan: 9780596101992: Books

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"Excellent, detailed guide." - Computer Shopper, February 2007

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16 Reviews

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4.1 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)

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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A needed update for an excellent guide, 15 Jan 2007

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Michele Beltrame (Maniago, PN, Italy) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (Paperback)

The 5th edition of the one and only bible of JavaScript, by the language guru David Flanagan, is not a surprise, but a beautiful confirmation. The 4th edition, which I've been using until a few days ago, was (and is) an invaluable reference even though it started to become a bit outdated. The new version is even more "biblic" than before, featuring nearly 1000 pages of in-depth explanation and reference. New sections include Ajax (of course, it's the cool thing of these years!), client side graphics (SVG, VML and <canvas>), JavaScript namespaces and communication with Flash and other embedded media.

The book can be divided in 2 sections: the guide - which occupies about 600 pages - and the reference which accounts for the remaining 400. Browsing the index of the book, it turns out the the parts are actually 4: for this article, I however merged the first two (the guide) and the last two (the reference).

The first section covers every JavaScript aspect, with a detailed explanation of the language and almost everything than can be achieved using it. What is being actually taught are the "roots" of all the JavaScript features: to build the complex things, you need to work on those roots (or to grab more high-level tutorials somewhere else). However, this book has everything you need, as you can figure the rest out!

The second section is the reason why every web coder will want to have this book on his desk everyday. The reference is detailed, accurate, thorough and very easy to browse. As I wrote above, it's divided in 2 parts: Core Language and Client-side JavaScript.

All in all, what can be said about this book? Even though I'm not fond of client side programming and prefer to script on the server, this is one of the few books for which I can really find nothing bad to say. It's well written, simple to understand, entertaining. There's also the Italian translation: there's the previous edition on the shelves in Italy at present time, but we'll hopefully see this new fantastic edition translated soon.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitive ? Absolutely, 27 Feb 2007

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A. K. C. Green "rarepleasures" (London, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (Paperback)

After many years struggling with rudimentary JavaScript and never being able to find a sensibly structured book on the subject, a colleague recommended
'JavaScript - the Definitive Guide'. O'Reilly have never really impressed me as a publishing house but this book is the best there is. The coverage is as extensive as it is complete. Especially noteworthy is its carefully documented chapters on the relationships between functions and objects which other authors shy away from. Want to be as good as Dean Edwards ? This is the book to get you there.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Perfect Reference Book, 12 Nov 2009

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M. Hobson (Sheffield, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (Paperback)

I'm a complete noob when it comes to JavaScript. So why, you may ask, did I plump for this book? Well, I'm glad you asked, because I came across the idea of buying a beginner's guide AND an expert's reference when I was scouring the review pages here in Amazon. "What a good idea" I thought, then I went ahead and ordered this book and "JavaScript in Easy Steps" at the same time. This sounds unlikely, but believe me, the two books complement each other very well, and together comprise what you might call a "crash course" in JavaScript. Obviously, I can't review this as an expert, because I'm still a noob, and I will remain so for quite some time. However, I know enough now to realise that this is going to be an invaluable reference book as I begin to delve deeper into JS (as it's sometimes called)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Ordered this for well under the price for new and got a second hand as-new item. Ordered it and received it two days before the delivery estimate. Read more

Published 7 months ago by TerryB