I realize this is slightly off-topic, but since there''s so much fun Ajax stuff going on in Rails, I thought I''d ask here. Can anyone recommend good books to learn more about JavaScript? There are some Ajax effects I''d like to implement but prior to Google''s use of JavaScript I''ve always thought of it as more annoying than useful, so I never learned much about it ... Thanks! Jen
jennyw <jennyw@...> writes:> Can anyone recommend good books to learn more about JavaScript?I find the rhino book very helpfull; http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jscript4/
On Thursday 21 July 2005 17:59, jennyw wrote:> I realize this is slightly off-topic, but since there''s so much fun > Ajax stuff going on in Rails, I thought I''d ask here. Can anyone > recommend good books to learn more about JavaScript? There are some > Ajax effects I''d like to implement but prior to Google''s use of > JavaScript I''ve always thought of it as more annoying than useful, so > I never learned much about it ...The book "Professional JavaScript for Web Developers" by Nicholas Zakas is solid and current. See <http://www.nczonline.net/>. It''s not much of a reference, for that you''d have to refer to the old classics, Flanagan''s "JavaScript. The Definitive Guide" and Goodman''s "Dynamic HTML". All of these books have in common that they don''t go very far, unfortunately. Scripts in the wild, in particular things like prototype.js, script.aculo.us, rico, DWR can be considerably more involved than what is covered in the books. I''m still waiting to get Stuart Langridge''s "DHTML Utopia Modern Web Design Using JavaScript & DOM", thus can''t comment on it. Michael -- Michael Schuerig You can twist perceptions mailto:michael-q5aiKMLteq4b1SvskN2V4Q@public.gmane.org Reality won''t budge http://www.schuerig.de/michael/ --Rush, Show Don''t Tell
On Jul 21, 2005, at 11:59 AM, jennyw wrote:> I realize this is slightly off-topic, but since there''s so much fun > Ajax stuff going on in Rails, I thought I''d ask here. Can anyone > recommend good books to learn more about JavaScript? There are some > Ajax effects I''d like to implement but prior to Google''s use of > JavaScript I''ve always thought of it as more annoying than useful, > so I never learned much about it ...I am now reviewing "Ajax in Action" in its (near) final form, so I suspect it may be out even earlier than it says here: http://www.manning.com/books/crane It''s quite good. While not an introduction to JavaScript, it does cover it in the context of Ajax. Erik
On Thu, 2005-07-21 at 16:38 +0000, Remco van \''t Veer wrote:> jennyw <jennyw@...> writes: > > > Can anyone recommend good books to learn more about JavaScript? > > I find the rhino book very helpfull; > > http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/jscript4/+1 -- this is a *very* informative and comprehensive book. It certainly isn''t a ''learn JavaScript in 24 hours'' cookbook, and is not what I would consider ''an easy read'' though (depending on your programming skill level), which is not a bad thing, by any means.
jennyw wrote:> I realize this is slightly off-topic, but since there''s so much fun > Ajax stuff going on in Rails, I thought I''d ask here. Can anyone > recommend good books to learn more about JavaScript? There are some > Ajax effects I''d like to implement but prior to Google''s use of > JavaScript I''ve always thought of it as more annoying than useful, so > I never learned much about it ... > >fwiw, according to Doug Crawford(who the creator of Javascript, Brendan Eich, seems to mostly agree with) there are only two javascript books worth their salt. Quote included below: http://www.crockford.com/javascript/javascript.html> > Bad Books > > Nearly all of the books about JavaScript are quite awful. They contain > errors, poor examples, and promote bad practices. Important features > of the language are often explained poorly, or left out entirely. I > have reviewed dozens of JavaScript books, and* I can only recommend > two*: /JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (4th Edition)/ > <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596000480/wrrrldwideweb> by > David Flanagan and /Dynamic HTML (2nd Edition)/ > <http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0596003161/wrrrldwideweb> by > Danny Goodman. Both are from O''Reilly <http://www.ora.com/>. >I myself know nothing about javascript, just remembered seeing this related article on slashdot a month or so ago, so ymmv to how well these or other books serve your needs.
+10 for Flanagan. It will teach you how the language really works, so you won''t end up writing horrible skript-kiddie stuff. And the thing is, JS is actually a really good, elegant language if you don''t abuse it. It won''t have you writing DHTML tomorrow (that part is so out of date as to be useless). For writing good, modern cross browser scripts, you need to read about DOM2 scripting online. The specs (the equivalent of the API docs for Ruby) are here: http://www.w3.org/DOM/DOMTR You''re interested in the DOM level 2 core, HTML and (later) events - read the ECMAScript binding sections. That''s fairly heavy going, so you might like to start with these first: http://www.scottandrew.com/weblog/articles/dom_1 http://www.scottandrew.com/weblog/articles/dhtml_ns6 http://www.scottandrew.com/weblog/articles/cbs-events http://www.brainjar.com/dhtml/intro/ They''re old, but will give you the basics of what you need - this stuff hasn''t changed much since IE5. Cheers, Colin On 7/21/05, Erik Hatcher <erik-LIifS8st6VgJvtFkdXX2HpqQE7yCjDx5@public.gmane.org> wrote:> > On Jul 21, 2005, at 11:59 AM, jennyw wrote: > > I realize this is slightly off-topic, but since there''s so much fun > > Ajax stuff going on in Rails, I thought I''d ask here. Can anyone > > recommend good books to learn more about JavaScript? There are some > > Ajax effects I''d like to implement but prior to Google''s use of > > JavaScript I''ve always thought of it as more annoying than useful, > > so I never learned much about it ... > > I am now reviewing "Ajax in Action" in its (near) final form, so I > suspect it may be out even earlier than it says here: > > http://www.manning.com/books/crane > > It''s quite good. While not an introduction to JavaScript, it does > cover it in the context of Ajax. > > Erik > > _______________________________________________ > Rails mailing list > Rails-1W37MKcQCpIf0INCOvqR/iCwEArCW2h5@public.gmane.org > http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails >