August 28, 2006; 09:29 AM
Recently JavaScript has gone from being the ugly
duckling of web scripting languages to being the force behind such Ajax
powerhouses as Gmail and Backpack. The language has grown in importance
and the size of scripts has ballooned.
As David Flanagan, author of the JavaScript: The Definitive
Guide (Fifth
edition, O'Reilly, US $49.99) notes, "After the fourth edition of my
book
was published in 2001, the world of client-side web development
entered a
four-year period of relative stability. JavaScript was stable and well
supported at version 1.5. The W3C DOM was stable, and reasonably well
supported by developers. I grew complacent...there never seemed to be
the
need to update the fourth edition.
"Then Google released their Gmail application and people noticed that it
didn't behave like the web sites they were used to. And Jesse James
Garrett published his seminal essay on this new style of web
development,
which he christened Ajax. All of a sudden, the world of JavaScript had
changed."
So Flanagan set himself to overhauling the classic, bestselling guide to
JavaScript (with more than 300,000 copies sold). He explains, "The new
edition has been thoroughly updated so that it covers JavaScript the way
it is used today, rather than the way it was used in 2001. These changes
appear throughout the book. But the most important new material are the
new chapters on scripted HTTP and XML manipulation: these are the
cornerstones of Ajax applications, and these two new chapters explain
them, with detailed examples.
"Almost as important are the rewritten chapter on JavaScript classes and
the new chapter on JavaScript namespaces. For today's web applications,
JavaScript developers are writing programs that are an order of
magnitude
longer than the scripts that most of us were writing five years ago. The
new material on classes and namespaces explains how to structure
JavaScript programs and offer techniques for successfully using
JavaScript
for 'programming in the large.'"
This book is both an example-driven programmer's guide and a
keep-on-your-desk reference, with new chapters that explain
everything you
need to know to get the most out of JavaScript.
Part I explains the core JavaScript language in detail. Those who are
new
to JavaScript can learn the language from this section. Experienced
JavaScript programmers can read it to sharpen their skills and deepen
their understanding of the language.
Part II explains the scripting environment provided by web browsers,
with
a focus on DOM scripting with unobtrusive JavaScript. The broad and deep
coverage of client-side JavaScript is illustrated with many
sophisticated
examples that demonstrate how to:
Generate a table of contents for an HTML document
Display DHTML animations
Automate form validation
Draw dynamic pie charts
Make HTML elements draggable
Define keyboard shortcuts for web applications
Create Ajax-enabled tool tips
Use XPath and XSLT on XML documents loaded with Ajax
Part III is a complete reference for core JavaScript. It documents every
class, object, constructor, method, function, property, and constant
defined by JavaScript 1.5 and ECMAScript version 3.
Part IV is a reference for client-side JavaScript, covering legacy web
browser APIs, the standard Level 2 DOM API, and emerging standards
such as
the XMLHttpRequestobject.
Flanagan is pleased with the new volume's coverage, "Many JavaScript
developers have started to write longer programs and use more
sophisticated programming techniques, such as closures and namespaces.
This fifth edition has been fully revised for the new world of Ajax and
Web 2.0 technologies. I was surprised to discover that I had almost
twice
as many examples as I did in the fourth edition and the examples are
more
than twice as long."
More than 300,000 JavaScript programmers around the world have made this
their indispensable reference book for building JavaScript applications.
This updated version will lead them and others into the new world of
JavaScript programming.
About O'Reilly
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computer technologies. The company's books, conferences, and web sites
bring to light the knowledge of technology innovators. O'Reilly books,
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