JavaScript: The Book

14 September 2005

10 comments

A Blue Perspective: JavaScript: The Book

It's been a badly kept secret by me, but it might come as a surprise to a couple of you that for the past four months I've been writing a book for SitePoint. It's tentatively titled "The JavaScript Anthology" and gets right into the guts of DOM scripting with practical examples that you can use on your website straight away.

I've been co-writing it with the inestimable James Edwards (Brothercake), king of accessible scripting and ultimate menuing. It's been great to work with another developer who's so in tune with Standards-based, accessible JavaScript – I think we complement each other perfectly, and not just because we both work between midnight and 8AM.

We've tried to make the book as complete as possible, covering everything from script initalisation and string handling, all they way through to application development and animation. So, as they say, it's suitable for everyone ages 5 to 95. It takes the format of a series of solutions to common questions, such as "How do I validate an e-mail address field?" or "How do I create a slider control?", so it's really easy to flick to a solution just when you need it. However, if you're more the snuggle-up-and-read type, the solutions are still grouped thematically, so you can progress smoothly through all the facets of JavaScript.

I can definitely support what every author says: writing a book is damn hard work. But I think that the research and thought that has gone into this project will make it a great reference for the new wave of client-side scripting. If for nothing else, just so I've got somewhere to look for that pesky regular expression syntax.

The last key was pressed on the first draft today, so it looks set for release early next year. Hopefully you'll find it a worthwhile and valuable addition to your book collection!

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Comments

  1. 1/10

    Dan Mall commented on 14 September 2005 @ 07:33

    Sounds great! I've been looking for a new read since I finished the <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/books/dhtml1/" title="DHTML Utopia">DHTML Utopia</a> book, and this looks like it'll be it.

    BTW, I just noticed your comment formatting buttons: great touch! I wish I would've thought of that first...

  2. 2/10

    Stuart Cruickshank commented on 14 September 2005 @ 09:32

    Wow...DOM books really seem like the hot thing right now, what with Stuart's, Jeremy's and now your own.  It's an exciting area, so I can't wait to get my hands on a copy!

  3. 3/10

    Renato Targa commented on 14 September 2005 @ 10:18

    Hey. This is something we really need!

    Langridge's and Zakas's books are good, but I think they use more JS Libs that I would like.

    I'm willing to read your book.

  4. 4/10

    Andrew K. commented on 14 September 2005 @ 11:39

    As I've already told James many times; I'm really looking forward to seeing what the combination of your mad-scientist-like brains produces :D

  5. 5/10

    Russ commented on 14 September 2005 @ 22:51

    Excellent stuff. I am sure it will be full of scripty goodness!

  6. 6/10

    Ruminator commented on 14 September 2005 @ 23:18

    Sounds like an excellent book.  Can't wait.

  7. 7/10

    Michael Koukoullis commented on 18 September 2005 @ 02:20

    I am a sucker for good reference books, never fully understood the DOM.  Sounds like I can finally rest assured with this on my bookshelf.

    Cheers

  8. 8/10

    Guest commented on 18 September 2005 @ 09:11

    Some thoughtd:
    - I thought you could never get all this information stuffed in a book.
    - There are so many different approaches all with the same language).
    - Using the DOM to address elements in a pageflow is easy, only you need to learn all the DOM related code by heart. Plus a lot of basic JS skills.
    - Programming is also not meant for anyone, you need to possess talent for that too.

    - There is only good scripting and bad scripting!!

  9. 9/10

    dusoft commented on 22 September 2005 @ 02:09

    That menu site looks very good. I could use the menu in future.

  10. 10/10

    Tootsie commented on 27 September 2005 @ 23:37

    This site is wonderful, glad I found it....wish I could go back and find my pass scores though.  I've  been able to enhance my score in interactive scrabble games by testing my skills with your game.

     

     

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Simply JavaScript is an enjoyable and easy-to-follow guide for beginners as they begin their journey into JavaScript. Separated into 9 logical chapters, it will take you all the way from the basics of the JavaScript language through to DOM manipulation and Ajax.

Step-by-step examples, rich illustrations and humourous commentary will teach you the right way to code JavaScript in both an unobtrusive and an accessible manner.

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