JavaScript: The Missing Manual

• #22 in Best Javascript Books

8 Reviews

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I thought the author's other "Missing Manual" on CSS was very good and said so. ( CSS: The Missing Manual ) I am not so sure about this one.

This book is meant to be a beginner book and it certainly does treat certain aspects of JavaScript well from that perspective. My problem is that the author has chosen to integrate a particular JavaScript framework, jQuery, into the examples, starting with the introductory chapter.

I have used jQuery and have a high opinion of it, esp. of its CSS-like selector syntax. However, I don't think I ever could have learned the basics of JavaScript using jQuery. jQuery has its own syntax and its own ways of doing things that are different from other JavaScript frameworks and certainly *much* different from generic JavaScript.

A true beginner is going to find it difficult separating what is applicable to the wide world of JavaScript from what will only be applicable in one particular circumstance.

Perhaps the book may be better labeled as a getting started with JavaScript and jQuery text.

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I have David's CSS book and was waiting for this book to come out. I can understand one of the author's reservations about this book being jQuery specific, but if you stop to think of it, is also one of its strengths. There are "n" number of Javascript books out there which are pretty good, but do not take you beyond beginning/inermediate Javascript programming.

Realistically and practically, in order to get anything useful done in a reasonable amount of time, you have to use one of the frameworks. It could be jQuery, Prototype/Scripty, Dojo, Yahoo, any of these frameworks will do. The author has chosen to use jQuery which is an excellent choice.

Actually, my nitpicking is on the other side, i.e., the author should have left beginning Javascript material to any one of the other books and simply focused on Javascript with jQuery. His presentation style is very effective and he obviously knows CSS/Javascript world very well. Even better, he can communicate it equally well.

If you are beyond the introductory phase in CSS/Javascript world and are looking to build something useful beyond the toy pages, this book along with his CSS book becomes very useful.

jQuery, without a doubt, is a superior framework. I prefer it to Prototype and Scriptaculous. I do not know Yahoo or Dojo so I cannot comment on them.

I would buy other books from David again. In fact, I would love to see an "advanced" book where he brings together all of his knowledge and communication skills for creating "professional" web front-ends. Keep the same tutorial format though.

I've been saying for years that The Missing Manual line of books is one of the best publishing lines and 'JavaScript: The Missing Manual' keeps the tradition going. The thing that jumps out at me instantly is how RELEVANT this book is the Web 2.0 world. With heavy emphasis on AJAX, JQuery, interacting with Web 2.0 sites like Google Maps and the like, this book is fantastic for any and all JavaScript developers new and old. Packed with 500+ pages of material, the chapter listing is as follows:

01. Intro
02. Javascript 101
03. Logic & Control
04. Words, Numbers, Dates
05. Dynamically Modifying Web Pages
06. Events
07. Images
08. Navigation
09. Web Forms
10. Interface expansion
11. AJAX
12. Basic AJAX
13. Troubleshooting & Debugging
14. Javascripts next steps

My only complaint with this book is that I wish they had decided to publish this in COLOR. Many of TMM books are published in color and some don't require it but I think this one should have been.

Overall an exceptional book for JavaScript developers today and in the future.

AWESOME!

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I'm a self-taught, hobbyist web developer. Therefore, I appreciate lively and, most of all, clear explanations and examples in books that teach HTML, CSS and related technologies. As should be evident from my review's title, books by David McFarland are among the best at teaching someone like me.

I've read the author's Missing Manual books on CSS and Dreamweaver CS3 and have enjoyed their clarity, helpful tips and step-by-step approach. Having gotten half-way through the new Missing Manual for Javacript, I'm delighted to say that David McFarland has "kept up the good work." Having singled, doubled and tripled with these three Missing Manuals, I hope he "completes the circuit" with a PHP/MySQL book next.

Buy, read it and enjoy one of the best writers in the field.

I had to wait for this book to be published, then chase it down when it was mis-delivered, but it was well worth the hassle. This book is well written, covers the material clearly and the tutorials allow you to practice the material that was covered in the chapter.
Once again, well done!
The book also covers jQuery in detail, so now I will be updating my resume with jQuery as well. Thanks for the wonderful resource.

As Brett mentioned, this book integrates jQuery (a popular javascript library) into examples. More than half of the book teaches you how to use the jQuery library to enhance user experiences. It won't teach you how to write XMLHTTPRequest from scrach. Instead, the book teaches you how to make Ajax requests with jQuery, which greatly simplifies the problem (1~10 lines of code). The book exposes you to real-world problems and the practical way of solving them (that is using javascript libraries such as jQuery).

I strongly recommend this book to those who know nothing about javascript/ajax or jQuery. It serves as a great introduction to both of the topics. After you finish this book, you will be quite comfortable with javascript syntax. And if you want, you can always read other books to further extend you knowledge of plain javascript (the javascript without any library).

Brett gives a 3-star rating. I feel it is worth more than three, but I agree that it would be better if the publisher named the book "Javascript with jQuery" like.

I haven't completed this book yet, so I will come back and update this review once I have, but I wanted to get something out there to convince others who might be on the fence about buying this book. First off, it's more of a jQuery book than it is a Javascript book. Sure jQuery is a library that runs on top of Javascript, but it's important to make that distinction. The first 100 pages or so of the book get you quickly up to speed with Javascript statements, variables, string arrays, functions, regular expressions, etc. The basics are covered quite well with a number of succinct and well-explained examples.

Up next the author covers the basics of modifying the document object model (DOM) or quite simply: adding, changing and removing HTML content on a page. He shows you the basic document object methods and how to do things "the hard way". He doesn't spend much time on the "hard way" and quickly introduces the lightweight, fast and widely accepted jQuery library. When I first heard about jQuery, I was skeptical. I like writing my own code. I like being able to understand the nuts and bolts of what is being interpreted or executed at runtime. Sadly, Javascript doesn't always run the same way on different browsers and different operating systems. Writing cross-browser code isn't impossible, in fact the SitePoint book Simply Javascript was a good tutorial on how to write your own "cross-browser" library, it's just that jQuery adds so much more. It adds in helper methods for selecting HTML elements on your page (the $ CSS selector syntax), cross-browser event handling, plug-in support, and much more. More and more people are starting to use jQuery and Microsoft and Nokia have even given it heavy endorsements.

Getting back to the book. I'm not quite finished yet, but gazing ahead in the chapters I see a lot of great stuff: enhancing forms input, forms validation, dynamic tooltips, sortable tables, interactive images, doing ajax with jQuery and more.

After this one, I'm going to go back to my jQuery in Action book and then tackle John Resig's (one of the primary authors of jQuery) book Secrets of the Javascript Ninja!

Whoever thought Javascript could be this much fun? I certainly didn't! I've always hated Javascript. Give me Windows Forms, WPF, Silverlight, VB6, MFC, anything... I've always despised Javascript programming. Maybe a little less now that jQuery is here... :)

Well written book. Many samples. Covers a lot of aspects of building responsive web sites with jQuery. Not an advanced book about JavaScript.