Javascript Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)

JavaScript Programmer's Reference documents JavaScript, JScript, and ECMAScript to the degree that they're standardized, and goes on to catalog the extensions major browser publishers have added to the languages. In essence, this book is a resource for finding out how the major browsers (Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, and Opera) implement their Document Object Models (DOMs), both standard and proprietary, and how they access DOM elements through JavaScript and similar scripting languages.

This is a reference, so don't expect it to teach you JavaScript through any sort of tutorial (though reading the object descriptions can be very illuminating, indeed). Cliff Wootton has chosen to organize his work alphabetically, like a giant encyclopedia of objects, reserved words, operators, filters, and other aspects of JavaScript and the DOM standards. A cross-reference that associates individual properties, methods, and event handlers with the objects to which they belong appears as an appendix. Once you've located the entry of the object you want, you'll have easy access to inheritance information, a syntax summary, and plain-English advice on what the object does. Tables provide implementation details for each property, method, and event handler, so you know which versions of which browsers support the language feature you want to use. There also are references to standards documents, and, sometimes, illustrations of how to use the language element in working code. Illustrations are rare but generally effective in clarifying the significance of language elements and the relationships among objects.

A cool feature is Wootton's documentation of common errors and incorrect assumptions. For example, he's included an entry on Bar.visibility, a nonexistent property sometimes assumed to exist in the Netscape Navigator object model. The correct property is Bar.visible, the author points out. The book also has some strange ways of doing things: Operators and other non-character entries don't appear up front, before the `A` entries, as is conventional. They've been transliterated, if that's the word, so you have to look up `Add` in order to find out about the + operator. Overall, this is a fine JavaScript reference, made excellent by its companion CD-ROM that includes the entire body of printed reference material (plus some extra) in searchable form. --David Wall

Topics covered: The JavaScript, JScript, and ECMAScript scripting languages, and their implementations in popular browsers as well as in standards documents. Coverage includes JavaScript through version 1.5, JScript through version 5.5, and ECMAScript through version 3. The DOM1 standard is covered fully and the DOM2 standard is covered to the extent it's implemented in Netscape Navigator 6. Effectively, this means coverage includes Netscape Navigator through version 6.0, Internet Explorer through version 5.5, and Opera through version 5. There's also some coverage of server-side JavaScript under Netscape Enterprise Server.

User review
Superb reference
While I havn't found the book useful, the CD ROM is priceless. I have used the accompanying reference for more than 5 years now, and it is still my primary reference for javascript programming being surprisingly comprehensive.


User review
Contextually Useful
This was useful in context. If you had to write crossplatform javascript for 4.x browsers, it told you what features worked in which browsers. Overall, it merits 3 stars because it saved me a lot of time back then.

The book is utterly useless if you aren't already proficient at Javasript. There are no examples. It seems like other reviewers were expecting a `how-to` book, and this was not a how-to book.

User review
Useless Tome
This book has almost no value (aside from a door stop). The information is incomplete, even for the time it was written. I applaud the effort of running scripts to ferret out `undocumented` information but even that information is presented in a useless fashion. Skip this book even when it is stacked high on the remainder pile.

User review
Very much useless
This is alphabetically arrangement of unrelated concepts that only have in common that theyre are linked to JavaScript.

This is pretty much useless if you are looking for an anwer to a meaningful question. It is only useful in the case where you know the class/method and are looking for the table `which browser does it support it`.

I definitely do not recommend it.

User review
The CD-ROM is handy
Pleasantly surprised that this book contains a CD-ROM. What's amazing is that the disk contains not only the entire book but actually has more in it than the printed material. They say they would need to print two volumes to fit all the data in.

I don't use the book anymore. Besides being (deliberately) incomplete finding items is quicker using the CD-ROM. The electronic version is styled as webpages strewn with hyperlinks (I didn't and don't even bother checking out the pdf version). If you have enough hard disk space copy the entire CD-ROM and use that copy instead. Accesing the reference is much faster that way. Create a shortcut on your desktop or on the Quick Launch bar or anywhere it's most convenient.

Please note that this is not a beginner's book! Buy this only when you've gotten up to speed on JS programming. This is purely a dictionary-like reference for JS programmers. I myself bought it while my understanding of JS was at kindergarten stage. Needless to say 'reading' it then was a disappointing experience. My fault, not Wootton's. These days I refer to it every now and then to check on syntax and usage.