Since the earliest days of Internet scripting, Web developers have considered JavaScript: The Definitive Guide an essential resource. David Flanagan’s approach, which combines tutorials and examples with easy-to-use syntax guides and object references, suits the typical programmer’s requirements nicely. The brand-new fourth edition of Flanagan’s “Rhino Book” includes coverage of JavaScript 1.5, JScript 5.5, ECMAScript 3, and the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 standard from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Interestingly, the author has shifted away from specifying–as he did in earlier editions–what browsers support each bit of the language.
Rather than say Netscape 3.0 supports the Image object while Internet Explorer 3.0 does not, he specifies that JavaScript 1.1 and JScript 3.0 support Image.
More usefully, he specifies the contents of independent standards like ECMAScript, which encourages scripters to write applications for these standards and browser vendors to support them. As Flanagan says, JavaScript and its related subjects are very complex in their pure forms. It’s impossible to keep track of the differences among half a dozen vendors’ generally similar implementations. Nonetheless, a lot of examples make reference to specific browsers’ capabilities.
Though he does not cover server-side APIs, Flanagan has chosen to separate coverage of core JavaScript (all the keywords, general syntax, and utility objects like Array) from coverage of client-side JavaScript which includes objects, like History and Event, that have to do with Web browsers and users’ interactions with them. This approach makes this book useful to people using JavaScript for applications other than Web pages.
This book explains from an academic perspective the rules, usage, and syntax of javascript. It leads the reader into the depths of how javascript implements an object-oriented paradigm without getting too esoteric. It can be difficult reading at times, but the true nature of javascript programming is not that of a simple little scripting language as some would have you believe. The coding examples could have been better, with more full-sized scripts showing the language in action instead of the numerous 1-4 line code snipets. It is noted that this book was copyright 1998, so “cutting edge” javascript extensions will not be included, but the fundamental theory behind the language remains intact. With the combination of this book (theory and reference) and the visual series book.
Related Books:
- Learn Objective–C on the Mac (Learn Series) – By Mark Dalrymple
- Programming in Objective-C 2.0 (2nd Edition) (Developer’s Library) – By Stephen G. Kochan
