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Book Review -- JavaScript: the Definitive Guide, 6th Edition
Michael J. Ross writes "Released during the early days of the Web, in 1995, JavaScript has come a long way: Initially a client-side scripting language typically (mis)used for decorative effects, it is now an essential part of countless major websites. Its increasing capabilities and popularity are due to several factors, including the development of libraries that resolve earlier stumbling blocks that held the language back (such as inconsistencies among the implementations in different vendors' browsers). JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, authored by David Flanagan, was first published just one year later, in 1996, with several significant updates made since then."
Read below for the rest of Michael's review
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition
author
David Flanagan
pages
1100 pages
publisher
O'Reilly Media
rating
9/10
reviewer
Michael J. Ross
ISBN
978-0596805524
summary
The most comprehensive treatment of JavaScript yet published.
The book is now in its sixth edition, under the ISBN 978-0596805524, and was published on 10 May 2011 by O'Reilly Media (who kindly provided me with a review copy). At 1100 pages, it certainly feels heavier than its advertised 2.6 pounds — but that may only be a side effect of the thought of wading through over a thousand pages of technical explanations and example code. Yet one could argue that the size is justified, considering the amount of information the book conveys, and its obvious aim to be a comprehensive treatment of the language. The material is organized into four parts, including 22 chapters. On the publisher's Web page, visitors will find a brief description, the complete table of contents, a few consumer reviews, reported errata (seven as of this writing, and none confirmed), the example code used in the book, some free content (the first chapter), and links to purchase the print and e-book versions.
The book commences with a multipart introduction, which begins with the sentence "JavaScript is the programming language of the Web." Even though that statement is not true — since there are many other Web programming languages — it does hint at the importance of the language in the mind of the author, and his willingness to put so much effort into creating such a detailed monograph. The introduction is also the first point in the book where one sees the clear demarcation made by the author between core JavaScript (i.e., the language definition, regardless of its runtime environment) and client-side JavaScript (i.e., usage of the language within Web browsers, including the use of libraries). Both areas are covered in great detail in the first two parts of the book, in quasi-tutorial format, while the last two parts cover the same areas, but in a purely reference format.
Specifically, the first part of the book, "Core JavaScript," offers almost a dozen chapters that explicate the basics of the language: its lexical structure; types, values, and variables; expressions and operators; statements; objects; arrays; functions; classes and modules; regular expressions; JavaScript subsets and extensions; and server-side JavaScript. At almost 300 pages, this part alone could form its own volume. The manner in which the author dives into the technical details, and the amount of example code, immediately make it evident that the book is intended for readers who have experience programming, although not necessarily in JavaScript. In fact, some readers — especially newbie programmers — may become frustrated with those places in the narrative where the explanation is not entirely clear. For instance, on page 7, the "points array from above" refers not to any code on that page, but instead refers to an array defined two pages earlier. Fortunately, such stumbling blocks are infrequent. For experienced JavaScript programmers, these chapters could provide a comprehensive review. For readers new to JavaScript, the material may seem overly dry, but the illustrative code should be quite helpful.
The ten chapters that compose the second part of the book, "Client-Side JavaScript," show how to work with the language within a Web browser. This includes learning how to embed JavaScript code in HTML files; differences among browsers and the versions thereof; the security of JavaScript code; the Window object; how to access and manage the elements within the Document Object Model (DOM); scripting CSS styles; events, and methods of handling them; scripting HTTP, and its use in Ajax (reflected in this edition's subtitle, "Activate Your Web Pages"); the jQuery library; techniques for storing data on the user's computer; how to use JavaScript to dynamically create and manipulate graphics, audio, and video content, as well as charts and drawings; and, lastly, the use of several HTML5 APIs. Speaking of that last topic, probably the most significant changes in this edition, versus the previous one, is the coverage of ECMAScript 5, as well as the new objects and methods introduced with HTML5. Naturally, some of these enhancements do not work in any version of Internet Explorer but the most recent, so the author discusses workarounds, if available.
As noted earlier, the third and fourth parts of the book constitute the purely reference material, with the first part focusing on core JavaScript, and the latter on the client-side aspects of the language. Every chapter is organized into a series of entries, each devoted to a particular class or object, ordered alphabetically. For each entry, the reader is given a brief synopsis, description, and in some cases example code and references to other entries. Each class entry also includes information on its properties and methods, where applicable. Each single method entry includes information on its arguments and any return value. The book concludes with what is arguably the longest and possibly most valuable index I have ever seen in a computer book.
There are only a few immediately-evident weaknesses of this book: Firstly, there are some phrases that may be clear to the author, but likely will prove baffling to the typical reader — e.g., "nonlinear cross-reference problem" (page 8) and "the jQuery gives a synopsis of each method" (page 523). Secondly, some of the example HTML code could have been written better, such as the use of an HTML table for defining the layout of a simple form, with labels and fields (page 13). Finally, despite the claims of the marketing copy that this title is suitable as both "an example-driven programmer's guide or a complete desk reference," it would serve better as the latter, and not as a tutorial for learning the language. Clearly, the more comfortable one feels with computer programming — especially JavaScript itself — the more that one could get out of this book.
On the other hand, there are far more pluses than minuses. One of the real strengths of the book is how the author does not hesitate to use (sometimes lengthy) blocks of code, with explanatory comments for almost every line, to clarify the language — as opposed to paragraphs of text, which could have easily doubled the length of the first two parts (which comprise roughly the first two thirds of the book). Also, in conjunction with the narrative and code fragments, the author makes effective use of figures whenever needed — particularly in Chapter 21, in demonstrating how to work with graphics and multimedia content.
Evolving with the language itself, and again brought up to date, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide still retains its crown as the ultimate reference resource for JavaScript programmers.
Michael J. Ross is a freelance website developer and writer.
You can purchase JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
The book commences with a multipart introduction, which begins with the sentence "JavaScript is the programming language of the Web." Even though that statement is not true — since there are many other Web programming languages — it does hint at the importance of the language in the mind of the author, and his willingness to put so much effort into creating such a detailed monograph. The introduction is also the first point in the book where one sees the clear demarcation made by the author between core JavaScript (i.e., the language definition, regardless of its runtime environment) and client-side JavaScript (i.e., usage of the language within Web browsers, including the use of libraries). Both areas are covered in great detail in the first two parts of the book, in quasi-tutorial format, while the last two parts cover the same areas, but in a purely reference format.
Specifically, the first part of the book, "Core JavaScript," offers almost a dozen chapters that explicate the basics of the language: its lexical structure; types, values, and variables; expressions and operators; statements; objects; arrays; functions; classes and modules; regular expressions; JavaScript subsets and extensions; and server-side JavaScript. At almost 300 pages, this part alone could form its own volume. The manner in which the author dives into the technical details, and the amount of example code, immediately make it evident that the book is intended for readers who have experience programming, although not necessarily in JavaScript. In fact, some readers — especially newbie programmers — may become frustrated with those places in the narrative where the explanation is not entirely clear. For instance, on page 7, the "points array from above" refers not to any code on that page, but instead refers to an array defined two pages earlier. Fortunately, such stumbling blocks are infrequent. For experienced JavaScript programmers, these chapters could provide a comprehensive review. For readers new to JavaScript, the material may seem overly dry, but the illustrative code should be quite helpful.
The ten chapters that compose the second part of the book, "Client-Side JavaScript," show how to work with the language within a Web browser. This includes learning how to embed JavaScript code in HTML files; differences among browsers and the versions thereof; the security of JavaScript code; the Window object; how to access and manage the elements within the Document Object Model (DOM); scripting CSS styles; events, and methods of handling them; scripting HTTP, and its use in Ajax (reflected in this edition's subtitle, "Activate Your Web Pages"); the jQuery library; techniques for storing data on the user's computer; how to use JavaScript to dynamically create and manipulate graphics, audio, and video content, as well as charts and drawings; and, lastly, the use of several HTML5 APIs. Speaking of that last topic, probably the most significant changes in this edition, versus the previous one, is the coverage of ECMAScript 5, as well as the new objects and methods introduced with HTML5. Naturally, some of these enhancements do not work in any version of Internet Explorer but the most recent, so the author discusses workarounds, if available.
As noted earlier, the third and fourth parts of the book constitute the purely reference material, with the first part focusing on core JavaScript, and the latter on the client-side aspects of the language. Every chapter is organized into a series of entries, each devoted to a particular class or object, ordered alphabetically. For each entry, the reader is given a brief synopsis, description, and in some cases example code and references to other entries. Each class entry also includes information on its properties and methods, where applicable. Each single method entry includes information on its arguments and any return value. The book concludes with what is arguably the longest and possibly most valuable index I have ever seen in a computer book.
There are only a few immediately-evident weaknesses of this book: Firstly, there are some phrases that may be clear to the author, but likely will prove baffling to the typical reader — e.g., "nonlinear cross-reference problem" (page 8) and "the jQuery gives a synopsis of each method" (page 523). Secondly, some of the example HTML code could have been written better, such as the use of an HTML table for defining the layout of a simple form, with labels and fields (page 13). Finally, despite the claims of the marketing copy that this title is suitable as both "an example-driven programmer's guide or a complete desk reference," it would serve better as the latter, and not as a tutorial for learning the language. Clearly, the more comfortable one feels with computer programming — especially JavaScript itself — the more that one could get out of this book.
On the other hand, there are far more pluses than minuses. One of the real strengths of the book is how the author does not hesitate to use (sometimes lengthy) blocks of code, with explanatory comments for almost every line, to clarify the language — as opposed to paragraphs of text, which could have easily doubled the length of the first two parts (which comprise roughly the first two thirds of the book). Also, in conjunction with the narrative and code fragments, the author makes effective use of figures whenever needed — particularly in Chapter 21, in demonstrating how to work with graphics and multimedia content.
Evolving with the language itself, and again brought up to date, JavaScript: The Definitive Guide still retains its crown as the ultimate reference resource for JavaScript programmers.
Michael J. Ross is a freelance website developer and writer.
You can purchase JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 6th Edition from amazon.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Because while JavaScript may be generally the same, the libraries available have changed. jQuery is excellent. The DOM has probably changed a bit since 1995 too.
which is totally what she said
Because it is both authoritative and exhaustive but only at the moment it is written.
Cut him some slack... his definitive guide to the English language probably hasn't been updated in a while.
Sorry, my english is not good. Who is this man Coward? I see him all time, and always talks to him self.
I rarely respond to comments. Also, don't ask for clarifications: a brain and Google are faster, believe me!
It's sad how few web programmers have read this text. Don't be intimidated by its size, most of it is simply reference material, and not part of the tutorial chapters. If you read this book cover-to-cover (well, except for the hefty reference pages), you will be a JavaScript expert.
If you are a web programmer, and you can't answer any of the following questions, consider reading this book.
1.) What does the "new" keyword actually DO in javascript (hint: if you don't say about .prototype you are wrong).
2.) How would you implement a hash in Javascript? Related questions, how are Arrays and Objects different and similar? What is the shorthand notation for them? What does hasOwnProperty do? What is the difference between writing "obj.property" and "obj['property']", when "obj = {}" ?
3.) Explain how scope works in Javascript. How does this relate to closures?
Javascript gets a bad repuatation mostly because it is misunderstood.
The problem is the subset of pages that are useful differs from developer to developer.
Yet, somehow, his point came through...
Grammar nazis are to this community what excrements are to gold.
Yeah, I'm sure Kernighan and Ritchie wrote 'for dummies' books. Sorry, maybe they are the only thinner computer books that you are familiar with.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
You have to deal with not just ECMA Script changing, but also the different implementations of it (JavaScript, JScipt, ActionScript, etc.) and then there's the issue of how it behaves in HTML3 vs. HTML4 vs. XHTML vs. HTML5.
I've got an older version, but there were a lot of useful sections about the dfferent implementations in each browser, and how to deal with something as simple as getting a script to fire before the user does stuff. (as Netscape and IE handled things differently, and for some things, you had to wait for the page to be rendered before you could modify it, etc.)
Much of that complexity's been dealt with by various JavaScript libraries, but then you have to explain what the ideosyncracies of the libraries are.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Publishers love those books because they're more visible on retail shelves than thinner ones. I fought the "let's keep it brief, do no padding" battle with publishers a couple of times, and lost. Publishing is a crazy business, busily committing suicide as we speak.
So he's one of those people that updates Wikipedia changing color to colour?
(sorry!)
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
At 20 pags a day you could read this cover to cover in less than two months. Weigh that against having the knoweledge in your head for much longer. You won't remember everything, of course, but you will know a lot more about javascript than you did before. Read 40 pages a day and you are done in less than a month.
Sorry about the mess.
"Initially a client-side scripting language typically (mis)used for decorative effects"
I remember using it back in the old days for client side input validations. As in the Pre-Ajax days if you were to submit a form and then get the page back with errors over a 14.4k modem took a while. Having Javascript as the first line of defense really help speed things up.
The visual effects were used as mostly toys to show off your skills as a web developer (back in the 90's if you were a good web developer that can do all sorts of gui you could make big bucks) Most serious sites kept that type of stuff down.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
No.
But if you need a reference, you should have one that includes jQuery, given how widespread it is, don't you think? There are only 43 pages that cover jQuery directly, so it's only a quick intro anyway.
SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
I like the fact that the definitive guide is in its 6th edition. It's just like the Windows Ultimate Edition.. it won't need any updates or upgrades. Ever again. Or the movie Final Destination.. which got four sequels. Awesome.
- Henrik
- when the Shadows descend -
Hint: if the book says "Definitive" in it's title, it's probably going to be big.
You're probably either looking for "Javascript: The Good Parts" or a moderate weight-training program.
SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
typically (mis)used
Oh, stuff it. Some day you purists will learn that the street finds its own uses for things, and that it's OK to do so.
Thank you, Mr. Serious Grammar Nazy. No, wait, I think that was me... I'm confused now. :S
Perhaps I'm trolling, perhaps I'm not.
The size of the book (I have the last edition) really is an indication of the fragmentation in Javascript implementations. In the edition I have, the authors spend an inordinate amount of time enumerating compatibility issues from one web browser to another. The K&R C book deals only with the core language and standard library, and it had the advantage at the time of having been written by the language designers/compiler writers themselves on the canonical platform (UNIX). ANSI C really was just a formalization of the design that had already happened, plus a few revisions for fixes and software engineering tricks learned along the way. Javascript has no such canonical implementation, and it definitely suffers from "design-by-committee"-ism, which means that even people involved in its development don't really know what the language's "vision" is.
My advice is: pick a Javascript library (I like JQuery) and pretend that you're writing in that "language". Trying to deal with browser idiosyncrasies yourself is a very deep rabbit hole. Also-- it helps if you can adopt some code style conventions, especially if you are on a team with varying abilities, because Javascript can turn into a truly horrible mess if you aren't careful.
Read 40 pages a day and you are done in less than a month.
Or... I could play Angry Birds for an hour, instead!
Perhaps I'm trolling, perhaps I'm not.
...I'm getting off of it.
Seriously, you may have noticed that this is a book review targeted towards Javascript developers. The GP was discussing that topic to stimulate thought and conversation amongst like-minded individuals. Is that what you call "demonstrating smarts via elite knowledge"? Perhaps you're reacting negatively because you don't have adequate familiarity with the language. (Honestly, "tart up"?)
How's your buggy-whip business doing?
I only post comments when someone on the internet is wrong.
jQuery and the DOM have no place in a book on javascript.
Based on the 5th edition, which I read a few years ago - about half the book is a 'reference' which makes for pretty dull and unproductive reading easily replaced by web sites like w3schools and quirksmode. Part 1 on core JavaScript on the other hand is well worth the reading and greatly enhanced my understanding of the language. I would recommend the book just based on that part.
jQuery and the DOM have no place in a book on javascript.
jQuery? No, certainly not. DOM? Of course it has a place. The vast majority of people using javascript are doing DOM manipulation of some sort, and it would be a gross oversight not to include at least an explanation of it, if not a comprehensive reference.
If you can believe this metric, http://trends.builtwith.com/javascript, jQuery is used in over 40% of the top websites. It has a strong developer community and is well-documented for the most part.
The book does not devote too many pages on jQuery, but it makes a few mentions.
If it's "The Definitive Guide", how can there be a 6th edition? I mean, a first edition would suffice if it was truly definitive...
Mod the parent up. This is funny! :-)
I wish I could have stopped after the first edition!
Dojo and YUI are too big to cover in one chapter. I mention them, but do not cover them. jQuery is small enough to cover comprehensively in this book. And it is probably more popular than the larger alternatives, so I covered it. Many readers will find that chapter quite helpful. Those who don't want to use jQuery can skip the chapter. I don't use jQuery elsewhere in the book. (The jQuery material is also available in standalone form as jQuery Pocket Reference.) There is just one chapter on server-side JavaScript. Half covers Rhino and half covers Node. Just enough to give readers a taste of server-side programming. And the reference sections don't include reference material for Rhino or Node.
My Ruby book is explicitly modelled after K&R. The JavaScript book is also, though not quite so obviously. If you just look at the first 300 pages, the comparison would be more apt. Try to imagine K&R expanded to cover all of the major libraries that C developers have to use today. That would come out at over 1100 pages, too.
After you get through the first 5 chapters, you can kind of pick and choose what to read. Most chapters are 30-50 pages, and you should be able to work through them in an hour or two. Chapter 6, for example, covers objects (including ES5 extensions) comprehensively in 35 pages, and you'd probably come away after reading it feeling like you learned enough to make it worth your time.
Javascript is verbose, has annoying quirks and an ugly c-like syntax that hides the underlying elegance of its functional capabilities and object model.
But now we have Coffeescript, a source to source "transpiler" offering a beautiful, pleasant to write and read syntax inspired in Python and Ruby.
The more I play with it, the more I love it.
O'Reilly offers the book for sale in a variety of DRM-free ebook formats if you prefer to read it that way: http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596805531/
All you mostly read about JavaScript is in the browser. There are however project that take JavaScript beyond the browser.
Are there any people who have experience with a project like Gluescript? It's on http://gluescript.sourceforge.net/ and it provides GUI programming, server side JavaScript, and maybe other things.
I just found out its existence today. Just wondering about opinions.
Well, don't worry about that. We can get you back before you leave. (Dr. Who)
My kingdom for a Canadian/British programming languages just for that fact!
Thanks!
Yea, should it not be the "The Penultimate Guide". Prolly not a good title for moving copies out the door.
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
One of Iain Banks sci-fi Culture Ships called itself "Ultimate Ship The Second". :-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_(The_Culture)
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Somewhat offtopic, but kudos for the book (although I've only read the 5th edition, but I suppose the fundamentals are the same). Javascript is very much a misunderstood language, and material on it seems mostly to be either incomplete, outdated or downright wrong, especially on the web but in book form also. Your book is the only one I personally reccommend.
I really do not understand the point of huge library references in books anymore, particularly if the language is a VERY web centric language. Who in the hell is programming JS without an internet connection? I mean really, does ANYONE use a book for reference like that anymore?
The Ruby book you reference, I presume is "The Ruby Programming Language" and yeah, it's very good.
jQuery is a de facto standard in client-side JS development today, whether you like it or not. Any general-purpose book about JS will have to reflect that fact.
I intend to get the $4.99 e-book upgrade, I think I want this in both formats.
Regular books are still very useful, they free up a load of screen space and have excellent portability.
SYS 64738 NO CARRIER
I know David Flanagan when he was in Divine Inc.
Brilliant guy.
Slashdot = Sarcasm