Javascript: The Missing Manual (book)

[Jackolantern]

I have been reading this book to learn to use Javascript and jQuery, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. Oh wait, jQuery? Yes, that has actually created a fair amount of complaints on the Amazon page for the book, but I can guarantee you it is for the best that the book relies heavily on jQuery. It is the future of Javascript, which is partially illustrated by the fact that even Microsoft is making massive re-writes to Visual Studio to be more compliant with jQuery. It removes all the chaotic selector logic and cross-browser compatibility issues that plague vanilla Javascript and tend to confuse new users.

The first part of the book focuses on learning the basics of Javascript, but quite soon it begins to show the reader how to leverage jQuery to easily do things in one or two lines that could take dozens or more in regular Javascript. This pays off very quickly, since the book is able to save several chapters that other JS books have to spend going over cross-browser issues, or even entire chapters dedicated to Internet Explorer. Instead, this book is able to use that extra space to go over the use of several jQuery plugins and how to use them to automate tasks even further. This turns the second half of the book almost into a recipe book, or problem-solution manual with plenty of real-world examples. In the second half, you will learn how to create modern, attractive gallery pages with Light Box, or how to simulate pop-up windows with Gray Box (which are not just for ads, since they can be used to create rich HTML info boxes when users mouse over items, etc.) and several other things.

I highly suggest this book for anyone wanting to learn Javascript for web development, and who may be struggling with learning regular Javascript techniques. jQuery really is Javascript the way it should be, and this is one of the rare jQuery books that starts from the beginning, instead of assuming you already know Javascript and just want to make your development easier with jQuery.

[hallsofvallhalla]

thanks for this review. I have been looking for a book that uses JQuery. Am getting it off amazon as we speak

[Rastan]

Sounds interesting I'll have to see if I can track it down while i hunt down a book to simplify integrating into facebook for me. I dunno why but it confuses me some lol.