View Review Details
| Book: | JavaScript: The Definitive Guide | |
| Subject: | needs a real revision | |
| Date: | 2006-10-23 17:03:47 | |
| From: | Michael Newton | |
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Rating:
 
I bought this book as an experienced web developer who is transitioning to object-oriented Javascript. I'm already very knowledgeable about the DOM, and adhere religiously to the principles of unobtrusive Javascript. But I'm confounded by the object-oriented paradigm that "Ajax" is making more relevant every day. My first impression was very good, the core Javascript language is covered very well, in a readable and easily-understood manner. When I got to the 'client-side Javascript' section, it became abundantly clear that this is a fifth edition of a 10 year old book. Numerous paragraphs and subsections on obsolete code and practices are negated parenthetically, as if the author was afraid to gut too much of his text. In many places, contradictory statements are made about handling the DOM, event handlers, or window management. There were times where example code was using old techniques, while the commentary text was praising the new techniques. Some examples:
Overall, I though the book was well written and readable. The new material on DOM Level 2, "Ajax," E4X, etc was great, and the reference section is helpful as well. But the browser-specific section is suffering from the baggage of previous editions, which may be harmful to those beginners who are unaware of modern techniques. |
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