JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fifth Edition

Reviewed by Mike Hubbartt

The web has evolved over time, as newer and (sometimes) better technologies arose. O’Reilly released the fourth edition their JavaScript guide in 2001, but decided the expanded use of Ajax and other programming developments justified an update.

David Flanagan organized this 1000+ page book into four sections. The first section introduces JavaScript programming, a good starting point for people new to the language. Developers not needing to learn about libraries can skip ahead to section two, otherwise a stop at chapter 10 is worthwhile, since libraries are useful for large projects, as they help keep code organized and insure it is easy to update.

Programmers already experienced with JavaScript should go directly to section two to read about client-side JavaScript. The first few chapters in section two are interesting, however I liked Chapter 16, where the author covers CSS and DHTML - not enough information to replace books dedicated to either topic, but still worthwhile. Chapter 17 addresses events and event handling, chapter 18 covers forms and chapter 19 gives good coverage of cookies. Chapter 20 discusses Ajax, but only provides a single example. Section three cover core JavaScript reference material, and section four is a client-side JavaScript reference.

The first two sections of this book help people learning JavaScript, while the last two sections provides good reference materials to people involved with development projects.

Conclusion

This book is a handy JavaScript reference for programmers working with JavaScript and wanting to update their skills regarding Ajax. My favorite chapters were 16 (CSS and DHTML), 19 (cookies), and 20 (scripting – covers Ajax).

If you already own previous editions of this book, or want to learn about JavaScript, this book belongs on your bookshelf. If you want a lot of in-depth coverage on CSS, DHTML or other subjects lightly covered in this book, O’Reilly has books dedicated to those subjects. A good example is O’Reilly’s CSS Cookbook by Christopher Schmitt, reviewed in the February 2007 issue of macCompanion.