JavaScript Programmer’s Reference
My book finally came out this month and I got my hands on the finished product. I have to say I’m pleased with the finished product. I devoted about a year of my life to this. I really wanted to capture some of the most important and current topics in JavaScript development, including:
- All the basics (of course). Types, syntax, and all the little quirks that differentiate JavaScript from languages like Java and C#.
- Explain clearly how developers can take advantage of first-class functions, context, and various dynamic features of the language.
- How to design your programs using object-oriented patterns like inheritance, multiple inheritance, and how to use expando’s, and do things like object inspection.
- What tools you should be using to do development.
- How to avoid common performance pitfalls and how to generally speed up your applications.
- How to do wicked-awesome DHTML and CSS magic.
- How to store data offline for later retrieval.
- How to take advantage of some of the cool features in HTML 5.
About 2/3 of the book is instructional, and the rest is in-depth reference material of all standard and non-standard JavaScript objects and features (including DOM). This is complete with code examples and explanations.
If you’re learning JavaScript as a beginner and not sure if you should get this book or something more basic – get this. The first few chapters tell you everything you need to know from the perspective of somebody totally fresh to the language. If you’re an experienced developer wanting to get a desktop reference, this is for you too – but you’ll probably focus on the last 1/2 of the book.
I’m really looking forward to hearing some feedback from anyone who’s taken a look at it – good or bad. So feel free to post your thoughts if you’ve bought it and had a chance to form an opinion.
Tags: book, javascript, reference
