Product Description

JavaScript is one of the easiest, most straightforward ways to enhance a website with interactivity. Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours, 4th Edition serves as an easy-to-understand tutorial on both scripting basics and JavaScript itself. The book is written in a clear and personable style with an extensive use of practical, complete examples. It also includes material on the latest developments in JavaScript and web scripting. You will learn how to use JavaScript to enhance web pages with interactive forms, objects, and cookies, as well as how to use JavaScript to work with games, animation, and multimedia.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #398816 in Books
• Published on: 2006-07-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 456 pages

Download Description
Updated edition of a clearly written, practical introduction to JavaScript. Third edition updates the book to include coverage of JavaScript 2.0. An entry-level tutorial for the reader with absolutely no programming background. JavaScript continues to evolve and grow in importance as a key Web development tool. JavaScript is one of the easiest, most straightforward ways to enhance a Web site with interactivity. Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours serves as an easy-to-understand tutorial on both scripting basics and JavaScript itself. The book is written in a clear and personable style with an extensive use of practical, complete examples. The Third Edition of Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours includes material on the latest developments in JavaScript and Web scripting. Readers will learn how to use JavaScript to enhance Web pages with interactive forms, objects, and cookies. They will also discover how to use JavaScript to work with games, animation, and multimedia. Michael Moncur is owner of Starling Technologies, a company specializing in networking and the Internet. He is also a freelance Webmaster and author, and has written Sams Teach Yourself DHTML in 24 Hours, in addition to several other best-selling books on Novell networks and MCSE training.

Book Info
Contains 24 lessons to becoming proficient in JavaScript programming languages. Teaches skills such as building dynamic Web pages, creating rollovers and animations, creating shopping cart scripts, and debugging applications. Softcover.

From the Author
When JavaScript was first introduced, it made Web pages interactive - and got me excited about programming for the first time in years. It's a fun language to learn and use, whether you're an experienced programmer or a beginner. I wrote this book to try to pass on some of this excitement. This book starts with the basics, and ends with games and applications that take full advantage of JavaScript. If you create Web pages, this book will help you add fun and functionality with JavaScript. --Michael Moncur

Customer Reviews

Not great, but not bad.
The Sam's PHP books made them my preferred publisher of tech books, this book didn't live up to my expectations. If you are somewhat competent this book will frustrate you. It doesn't provide much detail on the fundamental concepts. The last third of the book goes further and is devoted to examples that have "cook book" value but not a lot of educational value.

It's not a bad book by any means. I think it may even be a great book, for the right reader. The right reader I think is someone who: knows just a bit about html, what javascript is in vague terms, and wants to get something up and working quickly. If have a basic knowledge of javascript already and are looking to strengthen your foundation this may not be the best book for you.

good if you know basic elements of java
This is not a bad book. It's really a well written book, but it does require some prior knowledge from the user. It would help if a user has some basic knowledge of Java. Some rudimentary knowledge of Java will help to understand the JavaScript object model and methods like toString(), etc.

Compare to what I consider to be the main competitor for this type of book, the O'Reilly JavaScript book, this book is superior for beginners. It explains the document object, math object, etc. simply and clearly. It gives nice examples that you can either type in as an automaton, or that you can elaborate and experiment on. Either way, the explanations are great -- assuming you have a rudimentary knowledge of Java.

I own and have used extensively over 20 of the O'Reilly books, so it's obvious I like them. The O'Reilly JavaScript book is not bad, it's just not the best to learn from. My suggestion is to learn the basics from this book, and then go to the O'Reilly JavaScript: The Definitive guide book.

Can you really learn JavaScript in 24 hours? If you follow the book word for word, page by page, and type in the examples exactly as stated, then you can finish in 24 hours. If you like to experiment and try different variations of the examples (what I do), then it can take longer. Either way the book is a nice introduction to JavaScript. At least, now I know what the document model can do !!!

Not for complete novices.... but sufficient for an introduction
I think a lot of us can agree that there just aren't a lot of great quality Javascript instruction books out there. Somebody make one! However, I will say that after reading this book I feel that I have a solid enough footing in the language to branch out into more complex examples. The key to learning any programming language is not simply to read these guidebooks, but to create some independent projects that reinforce what you have just learned. To get the most out of this book make sure you actually do each of the exercises at the end of each hour. The problem with this is, of course, that not all of the answers for the exercises are provided on the web site. (As a matter of fact the web site does not seem to have been updated in quite some time.) I do recommend posing questions in the website's forum, which is quite active.

TIP: If you are new to programming, don't begin your education with this book; start with an HTML/CSS primer to get you going, preferably one which gives you a taste of Javascript. Then start looking at Javascript. Having had a year-long Java course in the past, and prior knowledge of basic HTML, I'll say that this book does presume a certain level of knowledge. If I were entirely unfamiliar with syntax and terms (which the author whizzes through very quickly and often with poor explanation), then I am certain I would have been very lost about halfway through the book. The section on arrays could do with some major modification, for example. And the CSS and AJAX snippets just weren't given enough contextual treatment. All in all, if you have some basic knowledge and are looking for a guide that will give you the fundamentals, this is a satisfactory enough book.