JavaScript books

Most programming languages contain good and bad parts, but JavaScript has more than its share of the bad, having been developed and released in a hurry before it could be refined. This authoritative book scrapes away these bad features to reveal a subset of JavaScript that's more reliable, readable, and maintainable than the language as a whole-a subset you can use to create truly extensible and efficient code.
Considered the JavaScript expert by many people in the development community, author Douglas Crockford identifies the abundance of good ideas that make JavaScript an outstanding object-oriented programming language-ideas such as functions, loose typing, dynamic objects, and an expressive object literal notation. Unfortunately, these good ideas are mixed in with bad and downright awful ideas, like a programming model based on global variables.
When Java applets failed, JavaScript became the language of the Web by default, making its popularity almost completely independent of its qualities as a programming language. In JavaScript: The Good Parts, Crockford finally digs through the steaming pile of good intentions and blunders to give you a detailed look at all the genuinely elegant parts of JavaScript, including:

• Syntax
• Objects
• Functions
• Inheritance
• Arrays
• Regular expressions
• Methods
• Style
• Beautiful features

The real beauty? As you move ahead with the subset of JavaScript that this book presents, you'll also sidestep the need to unlearn all the bad parts. Of course, if you want to find out more about the bad parts and how to use them badly, simply consult any other JavaScript book.
With JavaScript: The Good Parts, you'll discover a beautiful, elegant, lightweight and highly expressive language that lets you create effective code, whether you're managing object libraries or just trying to get Ajax to run fast. If you develop sites or applications for the Web, this book is an absolute must.

This Fifth Edition is completely revised and expanded to cover JavaScript as it is used in today's Web 2.0 applications. 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, including:

• Scripted HTTP and Ajax
• XML processing
• Client-side graphics using the canvas tag
• Namespaces in JavaScript--essential when writing complex programs
• Classes, closures, persistence, Flash, and JavaScript embedded in Java applications

Part I explains the core JavaScript language in detail. If you are new to JavaScript, it will teach you the language. If you are already a JavaScript programmer, Part I will sharpen your skills and deepen your 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
• And much more

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 XMLHttpRequest object and the canvas tag.

More than 300,000 JavaScript programmers around the world have made this their indispensable reference book for building JavaScript applications.

"A must-have reference for expert JavaScript programmers...well-organized and detailed."
-- Brendan Eich, creator of JavaScript

Essential Skills--Made Easy!

Create dynamic Web pages complete with special effects using today's leading Web development language. JavaScript: A Beginner's Guide, Third Edition gives you step-by-step coverage of the fundamentals, including variables, functions, operators, event handlers, objects, arrays, strings, forms, and frames. You'll also learn about more advanced techniques, including debugging and security. This hands-on guide explains how JavaScript works with XHTML Transitional and covers the new features available in JavaScript. Get started using JavaScript right away with help from this fast-paced tutorial.

Designed for Easy Learning:

• Key Skills & Concepts--Chapter-opening lists of specific skills covered in the chapter
• Ask the Expert--Q & A sections filled with bonus information and helpful tips
• Try This--Hands-on exercises that show you how to apply your skills
• Notes--Extra information related to the topic being covered
• Tips--Helpful reminders or alternate ways of doing things
• Self Tests--End-of-chapter reviews to test your knowledge
• Annotated syntax--Example code with commentary that describes the programming techniques being illustrated

JavaScript is an essential language for creating modern, interactive websites, but its complex rules challenge even the most experienced web designers. With JavaScript: The Missing Manual, you'll quickly learn how to use JavaScript in sophisticated ways -- without pain or frustration -- even if you have little or no programming experience.

JavaScript expert David McFarland first teaches you the basics by having you build a simple program. Then you'll learn how to work with jQuery, a popular library of pre-built JavaScript components that's free and easy to use. With jQuery, you can quickly build modern, interactive web pages -- without having to script everything from scratch!

• Learn how to add scripts to a web page, store and manipulate information, communicate with the browser window, respond to events like mouse clicks and form submissions, and identify and modify HTML
• Get real-world examples of JavaScript in action
• Learn to build pop-up navigation bars, enhance HTML tables, create an interactive photo gallery, and make web forms more usable
• Create interesting user interfaces with tabbed panels, accordion panels, and pop-up dialog boxes
• Learn to avoid the ten most common errors new programmers make, and how to find and fix bugs
• Use JavaScript with Ajax to communicate with a server so that your web pages can receive information without having to reload

The perennial bestseller returns with new details for using the latest tools and techniques available with JavaScript

JavaScript is the definitive language for making the Web a dynamic, rich, interactive medium. This guide to JavaScript builds on the success of previous editions and introduces you to many new advances in JavaScript development. The reorganization of the chapters helps streamline your learning process while new examples provide you with updated JavaScript programming techniques.

You'll get all-new coverage of Ajax for remote scripting, JavaScript frameworks, JavaScript and XML, and the latest features in modern Web browsers. Plus, all the featured code has been updated to ensure compliance with the most recent popular Web browsers.

• Introduces you to the latest capabilities of JavaScript, the definitive language for developing dynamic, rich, interactive Web sites
• Features new coverage of data types and variables, JavaScript and XML, Ajax for remote scripting, and popular JavaScript frameworks
• Offers updated code that ensures compliance with the most popular Web browsers
• Includes improved examples on the most up-to-date JavaScript programming techniques

Continuing in the superlative tradition of the first three editions, Beginning JavaScript, Fourth Edition, gets you up to speed on all the new advances in JavaScript development.

This eagerly anticipated update to the breakout book on JavaScript offers you an in-depth look at the numerous advances to the techniques and technology of the JavaScript language. You'll see why JavaScript's popularity continues to grow while you delve through topics such as debugging tools in Microsoft Visual Studio, FireBug, and Drosera; client-side data storage with cookies, DOM storage, and client-side databases; HTML 5, ECMAScript 3.1, the Selectors API; and design patterns including creational, structural, and behavorial patterns.

Once listed in the "nice to have" sections of job postings, these days the knowledge of JavaScript is a deciding factor when it comes to hiring web developers. And rightly so. Where in the past we used to have the occasional few lines of JavaScript embedded in a web page, now we have advanced libraries and extensible architectures, powering the "fat-client", AJAX-type rich internet applications.

JavaScript is the language of the browser, but it's also heavily employed in many other environments: server-side programming, desktop applications, application extensions and widgets. It's a pretty good deal: you learn one language and then code all kinds of different applications. While this book has one chapter specifically dedicated to the web browser environment including DOM, events, and AJAX tutorials, the rest is applicable to all the other environments too.

This book treats JavaScript as a serious object-oriented language, showing you how to build robust, maintainable, and powerful libraries and applications. Along the way, we cover many of the recent innovations such as AJAX, JSON, and interesting design and coding patterns. After reading this book, you'll be prepared to ace your JavaScript job interview and even impress with some bits that the interviewer maybe didn't know. You should read this book if you want to be able to take your JavaScript skills to a new level of sophistication.

What you will learn from this book?

* Learn to think in JavaScript, the language of the web browser
* The basics of object-oriented programming, and how they apply to JavaScript
* Set up and use your training environment (Firebug)
* Master data types, operators, and flow control statements
* Understand functions: usage patterns, variable scope, and built-in functions
* Closures demystified
* Create and use objects
* Understand and use prototypes
* Reuse code with common patterns for inheritance
* Understand and work with the BOM (Browser Object Model)
* The DOM (Document Object Model) - accessing, modifying, adding, and deleting nodes
* Build responsive web pages with AJAX
* JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)
* Listen and respond to browser events
* Apply design patterns to solve common problems
* Adopt coding patterns that unleash the unique power of the language
* Make your programs cleaner, faster, and compatible with other programs and libraries
* Achieve missing object-oriented features in JavaScript such as private properties and methods

Who is this book written for?

The book requires no prior knowledge of JavaScript and works from the ground up to give you a thorough grounding in this powerful language. If you do already know some JavaScript, you will find plenty of eye-openers as you discover just what the language can do.

This book takes a do-it-yourself approach when it comes to writing code, because the best way to really learn a programming language is by writing code. You are encouraged to type code into Firebug's console, see how it works and then tweak it and play around with it. There are practice questions at the end of each chapter to help review what you have learned.

As a web developer, you’ll already know that JavaScript is a powerful language, allowing you to add an impressive array of dynamic functionality to otherwise static web sites. But there is more power waiting to be unlocked—JavaScript is capable of full object–oriented capabilities, and by applying OOP principles, best practices, and design patterns to your code, you can make it more powerful, more efficient, and easier to work with alone or as part of a team.

With Pro JavaScript Design Patterns, you’ll start with the basics of object–oriented programming in JavaScript applicable to design patterns, including making JavaScript more expressive, inheritance, encapsulation, information hiding, and more. With that covered, you can kick–start your JavaScript development in the second part of the book, where you’ll find detail on how to implement and take advantage of several design patterns in JavaScript, including composites, decorators, façades, adapters, and many more.

Each chapter is packed with real–world examples of how the design patterns are best used and expert advice on writing better code, as well as what to watch out for. Along the way you’ll discover how to create your own libraries and APIs for even more efficient coding.

• Master the basics of object–oriented programming in JavaScript, as they apply to design patterns.
• Apply design patterns to your kick–start your JavaScript development.
• Work through several real–world examples.

What you’ll learn

• How to apply object–oriented programming techniques in JavaScript
• How to take advantage of inheritance, interfaces, and encapsulation and information hiding to kick–start your JavaScript development
• How to implement several design patterns in your JavaScript projects, including factory, façade, bridge, composite, adapter, decorator, flyweight, proxy, command, observer, and chain of responsibility
• How to make your code easier to manage in a team environment, as well as on your own
• How to create your own libraries and APIs

Who is this book for?

This book will be an invaluable learning tool for any experienced JavaScript developer.

About the Apress Pro Series

The Apress Pro series books are practical, professional tutorials to keep you on and moving up the professional ladder.

You have gotten the job, now you need to hone your skills in these tough competitive times. The Apress Pro series expands your skills and expertise in exactly the areas you need. Master the content of a Pro book, and you will always be able to get the job done in a professional development project. Written by experts in their field, Pro series books from Apress give you the hard–won solutions to problems you will face in your professional programming career.

So you're ready to make the leap from writing HTML and CSS web pages to creating dynamic web applications. You want to take your web skills to the next level. And you're finally ready to add "programmer" to the resume. It sounds like you're ready to learn the Web's hottest programming language: JavaScript. Head First JavaScript is your ticket to going beyond copying and pasting the code from someone else's web site, and writing your own interactive web pages.
With Head First JavaScript, you learn:

• The basics of programming, from variables to types to looping
• How the web browser runs your code, and how you can talk to the browser with your code
• Why you'll never have to worry about casting, overloading, or polymorphism when you're writing JavaScript code
• How to use the Document Object Model to change your web pages without making your users click buttons

If you've ever read a Head First book, you know what to expect -- a visually rich format designed for the way your brain works. Head First JavaScript is no exception. It starts where HTML and CSS leave off, and takes you through your first program into more complex programming concepts -- like working directly with the web browser's object model and writing code that works on all modern browsers.
Don't be intimidated if you've never written a line of code before! In typical Head First style, Head First JavaScript doesn't skip steps, and we're not interested in having you cut and paste code. You'll learn JavaScript, understand it, and have a blast along the way. So get ready... dynamic and exciting web pages are just pages away.

If you're new to JavaScript, or an experienced web developer looking to improve your skills, Learning JavaScript provides you with complete, no-nonsense coverage of this quirky yet essential language for web development. You'll learn everything from primitive data types to complex features, including JavaScript elements involved with Ajax and dynamic page effects. By the end of the book, you'll be able to work with even the most sophisticated libraries and web applications.
Complete with best practices and examples of JavaScript use, this new edition shows you how to integrate the language with the browser environment, and how to practice proper coding techniques for standards-compliant websites. This book will help you:

• Learn the JavaScript application structure, including basic statements and control structures
• Identify JavaScript objects -- String, Number, Boolean, Function, and more
• Use browser debugging tools and troubleshooting techniques
• Understand event handling, form events, and JavaScript applications with forms
• Develop with the Browser Object Model, the Document Object Model, and custom objects you create
• Learn about browser cookies and more modern client-side storage techniques
• Get details for using XML or JSON with Ajax applications

Learning JavaScript follows proven learning principles to help you absorb the concepts at an easy pace, so you'll learn how to create powerful and responsive applications in any browser.