J. McGroarty said
A fantastically complete reference to Javascript. This is not a "learn Javascript" book, however - but a reference. The examples are not as detailed as in other "learning" books - but as a reference guide it cannot be beat. It is extremely rare that I can't find what I'm looking for in that book. I am using the 5th edition of the book, which is much better than the older editions - and I feel is the new standard for what should be called a "Definitive Guide". Pitfalls, quirks, browser differences and a complete (as of 2006 at least) property/function reference for both core and DOM javascript objects. Highly recommended.
psulover901 said
I bought this book because I wanted to learn JavaScript, and it is doing just that!!! There is so much stuff packed into this book that it is amazing, and I can't believe I only payed $32 for it! It covers everything you need to know. It goes into more detail about JavaScript than any book on any other language I have seen. And all the pages are not little flashy examples. It is a real reference for those who are serious about learning JS.
Ken A. Collins said
I've been using the JavaScript 1.1 version of this book by David Flanagan for years, but it was becoming less and less useful to me as I increasingly needed to look up new additions to the language that were missing from the older 1.1 book.
I took the plunge and purchased the new 5th edition of the book. Flanagan still only provides mediocre examples, like when he explains parseInt() he only shows integer arguments so it's no big surprise that he gets back integers. It would be much better, say, if he showed how parseInt(2.5) returns 2 so it really can't be used to validate that the input argument is an integer.
My boss has the "JavaScript Bible 6th Edition" by Goodman, but that book merely teaches the language, if you have that kind of time. You can't really look things up in that book. Where this book by Flanagan excels is in its reference, but I hate the new arrangement. Flanagan provided an A to Z reference in the 1.1 book, but not any more.
I nicked this review down a star because Flanagan now groups content in the reference by whether it applies to what he calls "core JavaScript" vs. "client JavaScript". Who cares? Speaking as a developer who jumps among multiple languages -- JavaScript, CSS, DHTML, HTML, LotusScript, @formula language, Java -- to support several web applications, when I need to look something up in JavaScript, I just want an alphabetical reference.
I don't really care if something is "DOM Level 1 Core JavaScript". I don't even know what the heck that means! I'm not a JavaScript purist. JavaScript is just one of the tools I employ. Flanagan needs to realize that his technical books are not novels, we don't read them from start to finish.
Despite my frustrations with the book, it's still a worthwhile purchase, I don't regret it.
Gary N. Walters said
Flanagan has provided me with all I need to know about JS. I have not read the book cover to cover, but refer to it often. The information I have needed has been easy to find and the examples have saved me hours of tinkering. He hasn't failed me yet on JavaScript issues.
Andrei Mouravski said
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by David Flanagan is probably the best reference possible for this extremely useful, but complex language. I came to this book with absolutely no knowledge of Javascript, and so this book was my first real taste of the language. The first part of the book deals specifically with syntax and foundations of Javascript, so anyone with programming experience can read the first part of this book and be comfortable with programming in Javascript. This section is integral for understanding the nuanced complexities of a language without having to struggle with hard to find errors. Simple distinctions of types and values were very helpful to me.
The second part of the book is a by-examples tour through the intermingled worlds of Javascript and web browsers. Here you'll learn DOM scripting, AJAX, DHTML events, and more to make appealing interactive webpages. Personally, I found this section a little harder to use, and I would have preferred a, perhaps simpler, or at least more atomic explanation of AJAX as I am still confused by the whole concept. In either case, this section covers everything you need to know about Web 2.0.
The last two sections of the book are straight reference about everything in the core of Javascript and in client-side Javascript. This is a very well organized section of the book and it helps when you need to know exactly how a certain method or class works and this section alone is worth the cost of the book.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a taste of Javascript or for anyone who is looking towards Javascript as a way to access web programming. The book is not for everyone, but I would argue that Javascript is a very important language to learn in this web-centric age.
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