JavaScript Books Help

[satya prakash]

somewhere i read about this:

Object-Oriented JavaScript
Packt publishing
Author: Stoyan Stefanov.

[felgall]

somewhere i read about this:

Object-Oriented JavaScript
Packt publishing
Author: Stoyan Stefanov.

That book does cover JavaScript from an entirely different viewpoint than any of the other books previously mentioned and so would make a worthwhile addition to anyone's collection of JavaScript books.

[Stomme poes]

Hm, that book mentions AJAX, goes over JSON, and goes through Crockford's private properties and methods techniques...
Ha, Amazon offers it with Good Parts and Rhino for $83 as a group package thingie. Lawlz. Andrew, do you live in a dollar-country?

The "worst" review from Amazon seems unhappy that it's for beginners (which is stated on Packt's book description):

The book is very well written and contains a lot of great information, but if you're looking to learn how "Create scalable, reusable high-quality javascript applications and libraries", it is nearly useless. There were a total of two chapters that I found useful to a non-novice. One covered inheritance options in incredible details (which is great, since there are so many), and the last chapter gives lip service to covering common OO patterns with javascript. That's about it. "Introduction to creating objects and simple OO patterns in Javascript" would have been a much more apt title.

Sounds like a book I may want in a few months, depending on what I end up doing with JS.

[AndrewCooper]

Hm, that book mentions AJAX, goes over JSON, and goes through Crockford's private properties and methods techniques...
Ha, Amazon offers it with Good Parts and Rhino for $83 as a group package thingie. Lawlz. Andrew, do you live in a dollar-country?

The "worst" review from Amazon seems unhappy that it's for beginners (which is stated on Packt's book description):


Sounds like a book I may want in a few months, depending on what I end up doing with JS.

Lawlz Stomme, thanks for the heads up! Amazon.co.uk does that book, Good Parts and Pro JavaScript Techniques for £52! Buuuuut I don't want that cause I ain't a Pro at JavaScript.

I checked for Good Parts and then Rhino and they both have the same offer of them two together for £32 which is a fairly good deal! I want to order them both right now...But I'll have to wait until May for the next edition of the Rhino book! It's hard not to click Order!

On the other hand, when I check the Rhino (6th Edition; May 2010) it costs a lot more than the current edition (Go figure!) so it'll cost me around £44 for the Rhino book and Good Parts! It's a price I'm willing to pay for two of the best books on JavaScript though!

I checked Amazon.com for the same deal you mentioned and I can't use my bank card for it! But I'll go have a chat with ze bank of Dad! Hehe

I should have some money in my bank now though cause I just cleared a huge £15 debt to iTunes! Soooo I'm thinking I'll order Head First JavaScript today and I'll get it by 1:00PM tommorow! Brilliant!

Andrew Cooper

[RLM2008]

Andrew,

Over the last few months, I've picked up various javascript books so like you I can get to grips with scripting. Likewise frameworks have been put on the backburner.

Being that it's been a long long time since I was last at school, I've also picked up a couple of books on Algebra. Headfirst Algebra and algebra II for dummies.

I need to give those a bit more time and attention, but I think they are certainly a worthy addition.

Another book to add to the list, albeit advanced and one for the future is Pro Javascript Patterns. Certainly an interesting read, and about the only book I've seen so far that covers patterns like chaining in any sort of detail.

RLM

[paul_wilkins]

I've heard that The Book Depository does free shipping to most location around the globe, including New Zealand where I am.

Let's compare Amazon to The Book Depository when ordering the three afore-mentioned books. For the sake of consistency, I'll use US dollars here.

Amazon
31.49 The Definitive Guide
19.79 The Good Parts
31.57 Object-Oriented JavaScript
82.85 Subtotal

24.95 Standard International Shipping (cheapest)
102.81 Total


The Book Depository
37.68 The Definitive Guide
24.11 The Good Parts
39.44 Object-Oriented JavaScript
101.23 Total


So it's clear to me that even when the costs of Amazon shipping is spread across 3 books, that The Book Depository is the preferred place to go.

[ralph.m]

I've got several JS books, and the only one I've successfully waded through so far is Keith's DOM Scripting one, which is masterful.

I also have Scriptin' by Wyke-Smith, which I bought because I liked his CSS book, but I don't like this one much, so I'm pleased you removed it from your list. It tries to cover too much, gets into Ajax far too early in the book, and seems to dive blindly into jQuery too. A bit of a hotch-potch.

I might check out the Head First book, but I've avoided it because I find their other books far too chatty and fluffy... even though I appreciate the theory behind that approach. (Gawd, sometimes whole pages are full of fluff and whitespace... too much!)

[Jason__C]

A book I am reading currently, Beginning JavaScript - by WROX, is a very, very good book. Also, very new, released within the past 3 months.

[bulevardi]

I really liked the book 'Unobtrusive Javascript' by P.P. Koch.

I liked the writing style of Jeremy Keith in his book Bulletproof Ajax... but I'm not working with ajax anymore...

Overall, I like Peachpit press

[RLM2008]

Any advice on books for design patterns?

I've been reading bits of Javascript Patterns and Pro Javascript Design Patterns, and it's very interesting. The only real issue is I'm still not sure where and when to use these patterns.

The gang of four has been mentioned a few times in Javascript patterns and an amazon search comes up with Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software and Head First Design Patterns.

Would these be worth a purchase? I realise that they're more geared at classical inheritance.

RLM

[paul_wilkins]

The gang of four has been mentioned a few times in Javascript patterns and an amazon search comes up with Design patterns : elements of reusable object-oriented software and Head First Design Patterns.

Would these be worth a purchase? I realise that they're more geared at classical inheritance.

I must admit that the Head-First series is very good at presenting the information with easy to understand concepts.

One of the benefits of design patterns is that they are highly portable. Once you understand the concept for each pattern and why it's used, you can apply that as and where needed.

The only issue is that javascript is not a class-based language, it's a functional one instead. So getting a good grounding with some easy to understand patterns from Head-First, and then refining that knowledge with a javascript specific book is I think a good idea.

[RLM2008]

Cheers for that pwm57. Your comments make a lot of sense.

RLM

[sheferd]

Sorry if its waaay to late to post here but didnt feel my question required a whole new thread...

I have recently aquired javascript the definitive guide 4th ed ( thinking it was 5th ed but oh well it was very cheap). It covers upto js 1.5 but my question is whether this book is too far out of date to learn from or will the bulk of it still be relevant. I am a complete beginner so only need this book for the basics untill the 6th ed.

Thanks

[paul_wilkins]

You'll be fine with that 4th edition. The 4th book's page has errata info and other changes, which may be of help too.

[satya prakash]

Sorry if its waaay to late to post here but didnt feel my question required a whole new thread...

I have recently aquired javascript the definitive guide 4th ed ( thinking it was 5th ed but oh well it was very cheap). It covers upto js 1.5 but my question is whether this book is too far out of date to learn from or will the bulk of it still be relevant. I am a complete beginner so only need this book for the basics untill the 6th ed.

Thanks

That book read is best bet on JS learning according to my research on net. Almost everyone agrees on that book as a text book.

[AndrewCooper]

Glad to see that this thread is still useful for other people too! Regarding the book JavaScript: The Definitive Guide - I've been waiting for the 6th Edition to be released for just over a year now on Amazon, they keep pushing the date back and back and back! I'm patient enough though to wait it out until it's released, even if it is another year!

All the best to my fellow JavaScript beginners!

Andrew Cooper

[sheferd]

Thank you for the helpful advice on JS definitive guide.

[paul_wilkins]

Glad to see that this thread is still useful for other people too! Regarding the book JavaScript: The Definitive Guide - I've been waiting for the 6th Edition to be released for just over a year now on Amazon, they keep pushing the date back and back and back! I'm patient enough though to wait it out until it's released, even if it is another year!

Well good news - David has just finished editing the 6th edition. It could be a while though before it gets through production & print though.
http://www.davidflanagan.com/2011/02...cript-the.html

[paul_wilkins]

Any advice on books for design patterns?

It seems that Javascript Patterns is a favourite for covering that subject.

In fact, Rey Bango's blog post on What to Read to Get Up to Speed in JavaScript looks to be a very good resource, where he breaks them down in to Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced books.

[reybango]

It seems that Javascript Patterns is a favourite for covering that subject.

In fact, Rey Bango's blog post on What to Read to Get Up to Speed in JavaScript looks to be a very good resource, where he breaks them down in to Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced books.

Thanks for referencing my post, Paul. JS Patterns is a fantastic book. The great thing about it is that Stoyan reached out to a ton of VERY smart JS folks to tech review his book so you're really getting well vetted content.

Rey

[paul_wilkins]

There is now a free ebook from O'Reilly called JavaScript Bibliography that provides summaries for many of the JavaScript books that are out there, and links to their online version of each book should you wish to read more of them.

So far as gaining full access to the Safari content, many local libraries provide free access (my local example), even over your local web connection. So if you need to, get in touch with your own local libraries to find out how they can help.

[ralph.m]

Thanks for that, Paul. (Gah, I hate it when you have to log in to download something free, though.)