Book Description

What is this book about?

The VBScript standard has changed over time, and several new things have been introduced since this book first published in 1999. The current standard for VBScript is 5.6. The script debugger, script control, and script encoder have all changed and the Windows Script Component Wizard, regular expressions, and remote scripting have been introduced. Windows Script Host technology has also matured over time and gained in both effectiveness and popularity.

VBScript Programmer's Reference, 2nd Edition begins with discussion of the general syntax, functions, keywords, style, error handling, and similar language-specific topics and then moves into an expanded reference section covering the object models in detail. The book combines a comprehensive overview of the VBScript technology and associated technologies with practical examples at every stage from beginner to advanced user.

Specific topics include the following:

Variables and Data Types
Procedures
Error Handling and Debugging
Windows Script Components
Script Encoding
Remote Scripting
Data Objects
Coding Conventions

Download Description

What is this book about?

Specific topics include the following:

Variables and Data Types
Procedures
Error Handling and Debugging
Windows Script Components
Script Encoding
Remote Scripting
Data Objects
Coding Conventions

Customer Reviews:

2nd Edition is outstanding as a tutorial and as a reference.......2006-06-10

I owned the first edition of this book, and although somewhat confusing, I was able to learn VBScript from it with some time and patience. Thus, I just expected the second edition to be an update of the first. I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the second edition had been greatly improved. There are clearer and more frequent examples, the text is an easier read, and there are frequent and illuminating illustrations.

Chapter 1 covers the basics of VBScript and is also a crash course in programming basics, since the authors realize that nonprogrammers such as network administrators and web designers might need to work with VBScript. Chapter 2 talks specifically about what VBScript can and cannot do, and points out that VBScript is part of a bigger programming world - that of Visual Basic. It points out what can be done with VBScript in the world of both client-side and server-side web scripting. The next seven chapters are a detailed tutorial on all aspects of the VBScript language - data types, variables and procedures, flow control, error handling, objects, classes, and regular expressions.

The application section of the book begins in Chapter 10 with client-side web scripting by showing how Internet Explorer and VBScript can be combined on the client-side to create interesting HTML pages for website visitors. The book goes as far as introducing scriptlets, behaviors, and HTML components. However, since these subjects are broad and deep the book focuses on small examples and covers only the major techniques. Internet Explorer does not allow a script to interact with the local computer unless the user explicitly sets these permissions, and by doing so, enables enormous security risks. Thus, Windows Script Host is discussed next with illustrations as to how it gives VBScript more power without the security risks. The authors show how Windows Script Host is used to provide Windows platforms with a powerful scripting platform that can be accessed from the Windows GUI and the command prompt. Next, the book explains Windows Script Components, which are XML-based files that contain script code. Within these files you can use any of several scripting languages, including VBScript. The script components are interpreted at runtime, so that they appear as compiled COM components to the calling application.

The next major topic covered is remote scripting, which makes Web applications more closely resemble client/server applications developed in high level languages such as C++. Thus, remote scripting enables a client page to execute a method on an ASP page without navigating away from the current page. Server-side web scripting is the final major topic covered, showing how your applications can become very powerful and reusable modules within the enterprise. To this end, the chapter first discusses the HTTP protocol, followed by a tutorial on Active Server Pages.

In summary, I highly recommend this book both as a reference and a tutorial for the VBScript language as well as a practical guide on its application.

Good book for starters.......2005-08-14

I bought this book, as I wanted to write some simple VBScripts to help automating some laborious manual process for my job. This book is so easy to browse through and as I already have some knowledge of VB Programming and so I can easily browse through the chapters. Even for a beginner this is a good book to start with. I could start writing the scripts I wanted for my job and I like this book so far.

Great book, be sure to buy the 2nd Edition.......2005-02-04

This is an outstanding book. At first I was confused by some of the older reviews, until I realized that Amazon is still selling the old 1st edition, and many folks are buying that one instead of the newer, much better Second Edition.

Be sure you're buying the Second Edition! That book's ISBN is 0764559931. It's the one with the picture of three authors on the cover.

Make Sure You Get the Second Edition!.......2004-12-23

The 2nd Edition of the VBScript Programmer's Reference is a total rewrite of the first edition. Unfortunately, a lot of people are confused because both the first and second editions are for sale, and it can be hard to tell which one you are buying. Do not buy the old first edition! The new second edition is a much better book. I am a co-author of both editions, so I can say that with confidence.

Please check the page you are on and make sure you are purchasing the Second Edition. You can identify the Second Edition because the cover has three faces on it, and because there are only three authors, not a dozen. The Second Edition of the VBScript Programmer's Reference is the best VBScript book available. You won't be disappointed!

for browsers.......2004-10-07

Perhaps the most common use of VBScript is for client side scripting for browsers. Given IE's 90%+ dominance of this market, and that it supports only VBScript and JScript, you can well see the need for a book like this one.

The authors point out that VBScript has broadly equivalent functionality to JavaScript and JScript. It makes sense to choose VBScript or JScript over JavaScript if you are coding to browsers. But why VBScript over JScript? The book suggests that if you are hailing from a VB background, then the transition to VBScript can be relatively painless. Helped of course by these authors.

Hopefully, you should not have too much trouble with VBScript, whatever your background. It is a simpler language than C++, Java or C#. Plus, the style of the typical problem tackled in the book is such that a program of 100 lines or less usually suffices. You may not notice it, but such choices of problems are strategic. If solutions were thousands of lines long, then stronger procedural or object oriented techniques would be useful, leading to other languages.

Perl in A Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (2nd Edition)

Average customer rating:

I've used Perl for several years and love this book
A handy reference, but...
Great reference!
High Level Descriptions with Few Samples
Missing basic syntax rules. I wonder if the authors use Perl

Perl in A Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (2nd Edition)
Ellen Siever , Stephen Spainhour , and Nathan Patwardhan
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596002416

Amazon.com

Perl in a Nutshell strives to be a perfect set of socket tools for the active Perl programmer. By and large, it succeeds, providing endless and well-thought-out lists and tables on the language's modules, flags, and extensions. The authors briefly address basic learner's questions--such as the difference between a hash and an array--but these concepts are not the purpose of the book. (Those new to Perl would be better off with others in the O'Reilly Perl series, such as Learning Perl, while programmers making the switch to Perl can pick up the nuances of the language with Programming Perl.) This book is pure Perl reference, briefly covering Perl/Tk (for GUI Perl programs on Unix and Windows 95/NT) and Perl for Win 32.

The authors do start at the very beginning, and even in a self-described "desktop quick reference" find the time to comment on less urgent--but still interesting--Perl-related matters (like how to find online help amidst the "Perl culture"). The format of the book makes sections on topics such as Perl debugging easily understandable, illustrating how to make an interactive and timesaving environment.

Of particular convenience is the outstanding section on the standard Perl modules. A four-page "quick look" allows you to easily scan through short definitions of all the modules and find the entry you're looking for. An index with full definitions for each module follows, showing you how to use each module and providing a more in-depth explanation (and often, examples). Perl in a Nutshell concludes--as you might expect--with an excellent and well-cross-referenced index. --Jennifer Buckendorff

Book Description

This complete guide to the Perl programming language ranges widely through the Perl programmer's universe, gathering together in a convenient form a wealth of information about Perl itself and its application to CGI scripts, XML processing, network programming, database interaction, and graphical user interfaces. The book is an ideal reference for experienced Perl programmers and beginners alike. With more than a million dedicated programmers, Perl is proving to be the best language for the latest trends in computing and business, including network programming and the ability to create and manage web sites. It's a language that every Unix system administrator and serious web developer needs to know. In the past few years, Perl has found its way into complex web applications of multinational banks, the U.S. Federal Reserve, and hundreds of large corporations. In this second edition, Perl in a Nutshell has been expanded to include coverage of Perl 5.8, with information on Unicode processing in Perl, new functions and modules that have been added to the core language, and up-to-date details on running Perl on the Win32 platform. The book also covers Perl modules for recent technologies such as XML and SOAP. Here are just some of the topics contained in this book:

Basic Perl reference
Quick reference to built-in functions and standard modules
CGI.pm and mod_perl
XML::* modules
DBI, the database-independent API for Perl
Sockets programming
LWP, the library for Web programming in Perl
Network programming with the Net modules
Perl/Tk, the Tk extension to Perl for graphical interfaces
Modules for interfacing with Win32 systems

As part of the successful "in a Nutshell" book series from O'Reilly & Associates, Perl in a Nutshell is for readers who want a single reference for all their needs. "In a nutshell, Perl is designed to make the easy jobs easy, without making the hard jobs impossible." -- Larry Wall, creator of Perl

Customer Reviews:

I've used Perl for several years and love this book.......2004-05-03

Exactly as advertised, "Perl in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference" is a great reference book if you already have a basic understanding of Perl. Although it does have a section that it refers to as an "Introduction to Perl" it is actually a pretty cursory introduction and there are better books for learning the basics of Perl.

The book does have an excellent section on installing Perl including installation on both the Unix and Windows platforms. I've worked with both platforms and the installation process is well documented including how to install modules. This brings us to the large chapter on getting and installing Perl modules. I have spent hours sometimes trying to find an appropriate module for a special situation. This chapter lists all the most common modules and includes descriptions of what they do. This alone makes it a valuable resource for anyone involved in Perl.

The authors also include a lot of technical information including command line options and environment variables as well as a section on program structure, data types, special variables, operators, expressions, subroutines, filehandles, and just about anything else that you might need a quick refresher on.

Functions are listed both by category and by alphabetical order with descriptions and syntax information. I had a couple of problems on a large project recently and it took three days to get an answer through the forums on the Internet. The answers to all of them are right here and I could have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had had this book then.

A lot of other information is available in the book including CGI programming, Webserver programming, database programming, SOAP, Network modules including Net, Mail, NNTP, FTP, and LDAP, Perl/Tk, Win32 Modules and Extensions, OLE Automation, and ODBC Extensions. This book will be the one I keep close at hand when working with Perl and deserves its location on my desktop instead of in the library. "Perl in a Nutshell" is highly recommended for Perl programmers from basic to advanced level.

A handy reference, but..........2003-12-14

This is a handy reference, but if you have a limited budget you should probably go with Programming Perl and the Perl Cookbook before this one. This is a fine reference but it doesn't have the depth that the other books have and the information on the modules is available online through CPAN. I have the entire Perl library on my bookshelf and I hardly ever pick this one up.

Great reference!.......2002-09-06

I am not a beginning programmer nor am I what you would call an expert. Having a background in PHP made Perl easy to learn, so I didn't need a book that would "teach" Perl. All I needed was a good reference to figure out the differences between PHP and Perl. This book did exactly that! I was able to start programming within a day and I have referenced this book more times than I can count during my most recent development efforts. The binding is nearly worn out! I recommend this book to intermediate programmers that only need a small boost to get to work. If you're a beginner, buy this book to use after you learn the basics and you'll find it to be one of the most valuable tools on your desk!

High Level Descriptions with Few Samples.......2002-07-24

This book is full of alphabetical high level descriptions (which are always ambiguous) of Perl language statements with few or no illustrative examples (which always help clear up ambiguity).
It is a waste of money.

Missing basic syntax rules. I wonder if the authors use Perl.......2002-04-30

My 2-star review is from the perspective of an intermediate Perl user. From my exp. with 'Unix in a Nutshell', I expected this book to be all I needed in my briefcase at work. As it turns out, I'll take the "Camel" (Programming Perl) and leave this uninspiring book at home.

Let me give you an example: I was poring over a (slightly) complicated regular expression, trying to figure out what was going on...there seemed no rhyme or reason to it.....there were way too many spaces and yet the pattern was matching!! I then noticed the "x" option on the end of it: /reg-ex/x Thinking this could be the culprit, I broke out Perl:NUTSHELL...I found the appropriate table and it said: this option used to Enable Extended regular expressions. Ah-ha! But wait, what are Extended regular Epressions, and what is the deal with all these extra spaces in my reg-ex? I forwarded a bit and found the section about Extended Regular Expressions. And I found.........nothing. As it turns out (after looking in the Camel), the "x" means that all whitespace in the pattern is ignored, hence all the darn spaces. I made a point to look (again) for this bit of syntactic info in Perl:NUTSHELL, and it is not there. So what is the use of this book then, considering it is missing such a BASIC SYNTAX rule? Good question.
Another gripe: where's the freakin examples? While I don't expect NUTSHELL books to EXPLAIN the examples tutorial style, I do expect some basic usage examples to help me with commands I havn't used (again, see Unix in a Nutshell)!!

Another quick example for you Perl non-gurus (like myself): I came upon the Perl "filetest" operator "-t"....but the test had no following argument (e.g. the file's name), so I was confused. Off to the Nutshell. Oops. Nothing there except the shortest little description possible. Sigh. Back to the Camel, where I found that this particular file test operator defaults to a filehandle, , and not the usual variable which is $_ (perl's typical default). Hello? This isn't important!? Totally ridiculous for a supposed "reference" book.

In conclusion, this book seems to have zero "learning" value, being so terse (not to mention boring) and having so few examples, and only mediocre reference usefulness. Don't buy this one, buy the other O'Reilly books on Perl (Learning Perl and Programming Perl are high quality, as is Perl Cookbook). You might have to lug the Camel around (dromedaries are heavy), but it is superior to this inconcise man-page in every way (has a big reference section + a big 'learning' section).

Book Description

This invaluable resource offers tutorials and real-world examples as well as thorough language references for Web markup languages (HTML/XHTML and CSS), and popular scripting languages (JavaScript, Perl, and PHP)
Examines the role of JavaScript, CGI (with examples in Perl and Python), and PHP on the Web and shows how to best use them all
Includes a valuable reference section on each technology that can be used for review and consultation

Customer Reviews:

Great beginners reference book for beginners!!.......2007-05-25

This is a great reference book for beginners... I myself am a seasoned systems analyst and already had books that covered most of the basic topics discussed in this book. There were no real world examples and nothing about the pitfalls of using web standards before they are even supported by popular browsers. Like I said at first, it is a really great reference book; and if you need one to get started, this is it! You will still need a book dealing with the methodology variations in coding.

Web standards?.......2006-08-08

This is a good book to refresh yourself on the syntax of each language, but don't try to learn web standards from this book! It spends about 10 pages in the HTML language section talking about how wonderful tables are when used to control the layout of your entire site. Anyone with any experience in HTML knows that this is a very bad idea. The Perl section had a few things wrong in the code as well. Overall, I was not impressed with this book. I probably could have gotten better tutorials for free on the internet.

replaces 6 books [one for each language].......2005-08-09

How the Web has grown! In doing so, and aiding its growth, has been the use and development of several languages. Naturally, Schafer starts with the language that birthed the Web - HTML. Actually this needs its dual ("twin") on a server, http. But Schafer discusses http in a later chapter devoted to CGI.

Hopefully, you should be able to appreciate that HTML is simple. In fact, of all that the book discusses, HTML is the simplest language. Several initial chapters walk you through HTML. It must be stressed that mastery of HTML is needed to make sense of the rest of the book.

The later languages either extend the scope of an HTML file, or they generate the file, roughly speaking. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) lets you easily factor out common definitions that are used across multiple web pages, where you can imagine that each web page corresponds to a file storing it. Schafer explains how to use CSS to simplify management of a set of HTML files. A centralised way to set common fonts and the like. More robust.

But HTML is a declarative language. Good, because laymen can more easily understand and write such languages. It's easier to say what should be done, than how to do it. But for the times when you need more expressive power on the browser, Schafer offers JavaScript. A procedural language that actually has nothing to do with Java. [The coincidence in names was a marketing ploy.]

Schafer does not ignore the server. CGI is given, as the first generation attempt at server side code. Its limitations spawned the use of Perl, PHP and Python for easier parsing of user input and generation of new dynamic pages.

Each of these languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, PHP and Python) is often the subject of its own book. No surprise then that Schafer explaining all 6 gave us a book of this length!

ASP.NET AJAX Programmer's Reference: with ASP.NET 2.0 or ASP.NET 3.5

Average customer rating:

ASP.NET AJAX Programmer's Reference: with ASP.NET 2.0 or ASP.NET 3.5
Shahram Khosravi
Manufacturer: Wrox
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 047010998X

Book Description

Ajax is one of the hottest changes in Web development methods in years; Microsoft's ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX (formerly known as "Atlas") provides Ajax add-ins for ASP.NET developers, and this comprehensive Wrox reference offers coverage of all the ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX pieces
Readers will find the hands-on, code-based technical discussions they need on ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX client-side Framework, writing OO-style JavaScript code, using ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX client-side controls, ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX XML, and advanced ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX topics including how ASP.NET 2.0 AJAX uses the ASP.NET 2.0 server control architecture
ASP.NET developers will learn to add Ajax techniques into the ASP.NET applications by prebuilding some of the underlying components and using a standardized tool-set

Average customer rating:

Well done
Very Useful Desk Reference
good reference, but seems abandoned by authors
Meets a real need
Not a How-To, But a Complete Reference

The Web Programmer's Desk Reference
Lazaro Issi Cohen , and Joseph Issi Cohen
Manufacturer: No Starch Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1593270119

Book Description

The complete web programmer's cross-reference.

HTML, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and JavaScript are the three basic web programming languages that web programmers use to build functional, attractive, and interactive web sites. HTML creates the text, images, and other content on a web page; CSS formats and positions those elements; and JavaScript adds interactivity to websites by responding to user choices. The Web Programmer's Desk Reference is the only book to serve as a single point of reference to all three primary web programming languages. It begins with a web programming primer that gives beginning and intermediate programmers an understanding of the core elements of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, then moves on to a reference section that lists every element of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Each listing includes the latest syntax and functionality, compatibility with other elements, and cross-browser compatibility issues. Whether you are a professional web programmer, professional web designer, or a recreational webmaster with a dynamic web site, this will be the book that you use whenever you need to know how to use a particular HTML element, JavaScript object, or CSS style.

Customer Reviews:

Well done.......2007-01-28

The book arrived in a short amount of time and packed well and in good shape. I'm sure the contents must be good as our son-in-law seems to really use it.
Barbara

Very Useful Desk Reference.......2006-06-30

The Web Programmer's Desk Reference is like a dictionary for a web programmer. Whenever I need to know what attributes an HTML tag has and how those attributes can be set I turn to it. Same for setting selectors in style sheets or using Javascript functions.

good reference, but seems abandoned by authors.......2005-07-06

Good reference with advanced CSS and Javascript coverage. HTML coverage is good as well, but less thorough on cross platform support details. Also the HTML is HTML and not XHTML which you would probably be using with the latest and greatest CSS and Javascript.

There seems to be no maintained errata for the book which has a pretty bad error on page 7. Contextual selectors like:
h1 em ul { color: red; }

apply to an h1 tag that contains an em tag that contains a ul tag.

text

And not what the book states which is that it is equivalent to:

h1 { color: red; }
em { color: red; }
ul { color: red; }

The code equivalent to the three separate rules is not a contextual select, but just three separate rules that can be written as:
h1, em, ul { color: red; }

Despite this error early on in the book, I find it overall a useful reference.

The author's unmaintained website is at:
http://deskref.softsmartinc.com

Meets a real need.......2004-11-08

Some books present new information, others organize old information. This is an exceptional example of an organizing book.

The intended reader already uses HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and maybe some Microsoft-only technologies, and has references on them. Those references may show which HTML elements allow STYLE values, but not what values have meaning for that element. They may show what JavaScript methods and properties exist, but not which HTML elements support which ones, and so on. Details like which particular properties apply to which particular elements in which versions of Internet Explorer are critical to complex web sites, but generally hard to find - unless you look here.

This book is the missing link. The subtitle really says it best: "A complete cross-reference to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript." This supplements the references you already have, it doesn't supplant them. You'll still need other books for the how and why of each topic, and beginners may not even understand the problem that's being solved here.

I have very few complaints about the content. One is that it's not very explicit about versions of the HTML, CSS, or JavaScript standards that define each feature. Another is that it discusses Internet Explorer and Netscape, but disregards other browsers. And, as expected in a new title of this size, there are a few formatting glitches and typos. None of those problems interfere much with the book's value. A web reference to its many brief examples would have been helpful, too, but seems to be missing.

This isn't a tutorial. There are no "coolness" tips or slick demos. This is for people with plenty of coolness of their own, but lots of hard problems to solve in bringing it to life. Perhaps you've already got a stack of web development manuals, but an ongoing "The answer is in there SOMEWHERE" frustration. In that case, you probably want this book - maybe the answer won't be here, but this book will probably tell you where it is.

//wiredweird

Not a How-To, But a Complete Reference.......2004-10-28

This book has a lot going for it. No Starch Press does some very good stuff. They have a style and a way of putting a book together that suits my reading style very well.

This book is no exception. The world of putting together a web page has changed. Not too many years ago, you learned HTML and you pretty well had a handle on doing a web page. Not true any more. The simple font statement controlled what font you used and various modifiers to the command gave additional things like color and size. This has been replaced with Cascading style sheets. Java and JavaScript have come in to provide a programming capability that didn't exist before.

Here in one volume are the three main web programming languages. It is not, quite possibly, the best introductory text you could find. It is, as the title says, a desk reference. It doesn't say this is HTML and if you want to do a web page start here and try this tag, then let's use that tag. It has every HTML tag, every attribute in HTML and CSS, collections, classes, methods, etc. They are arranged alphabetically, so you can find them easily if you know what you are looking for. Finally, it's up to date with the latest standards so it is probably more current than the individual books you bought earlier.

You don't have to save much time to justify having this book on your desk.

Average customer rating:

The best portable desk reference
Good idea - too many errors

JavaScript Programmer's Reference
Christian MacAuley , and Paul Jobson
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0072192968

Book Description

Get essential programming information at your fingertips! You'll learn to use JavaScript to create customized, interactive Web sites and get quick tips for implementing JavaScript across different browser platforms. This handy guide offers expert tips, language verification, and cross-platform instruction--making this the perfect companion for the serious coder.

Customer Reviews:

The best portable desk reference.......2002-02-28

I just finished the JavaScript Programmer's Reference. I must say that I have been wrestling with Javascript on different browsers since it came out and all my other references are dog-eared and worn out with all the wear they have received while trying to find out why things don't work (the way I think they should). This book is GREAT! It is clear, portable, and facile. I'm impressed. I wish I had something like this for all the areas I need.

Please say thanks to the authors for me.

- Bob Giuli, Internet Architect

Good idea - too many errors.......2002-02-17

This book attempts to provide a concise description of the JavaScript language plus the associated browser objects. It is probably not suitable for beginners who need detailed explanations, but should be useful for experienced programmers who know the basics and want a quick reference. The biggest flaw is the number of errors - I came across at least 8 in my first casual read through (if the publisher reads this, p38, 39 have a couple of particularly bad mistakes). Most of these errors are so blatant that you can easily infer the real meaning, but it smacks of poor editing. I wonder if any programmers reviewed the text before printing? For this reason, I would look elsewhere or wait for the next edition.

Javascript Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)

Average customer rating:

Superb reference
Contextually Useful
Useless Tome
Very much useless
The CD-ROM is handy

Javascript Programmer's Reference (Programmer to Programmer)
Cliff Wootton
Manufacturer: Wrox Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 1861004591

Amazon.com

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.

Book Description

JavaScript is the scripting language of the Web. Its widespread use in web applications, and support in all modern browsers and in server-side and administration environments, make it an essential part of the programmers' toolkit.

Complexity and confusion in JavaScript come not from the language, but from the number of different implementations, each with widely varying support for different APIs and standards. Written from extensive programming experience gained in developing components for a major website, this book helps you navigate those difficulties.

The accompanying CD not only presents this entire book in PDF format, fully hyperlinked and viewlable with Acrobat Reader (tm), but provides a cross-referenced, lexical reference that includes over 3500 entries, giving an even more comprehensive, browser-based companion to the book.

Customer Reviews:

Superb reference.......2006-11-23

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.

Contextually Useful.......2005-12-20

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.

Useless Tome.......2003-07-19

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.

Very much useless.......2003-05-20

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.

The CD-ROM is handy.......2002-05-02

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.

Book Description

Each entry includes syntax, usage, values, and parameters. Provides readers with quick and easily accessible information through alphabetically sorted references to all JavaScript 1.2 terms, through cross-references, and through detailed jump tables that act as an index. Includes a thorough discussion of programming techniques with JavaScript 1.2.

Customer Reviews:

The Reference Bible.......1998-08-08

This book covers the basic concept of Javascript functions, methods, and properties in the beginning chapters. It also explains constructor functions and event handlers really well but focus too much on basics. 2/3 of this book is a big detailed dictionary of all the functions, methods, and properties. Even though only 1/3 of the book explains concept, its content beats any thick, expensive, beginning Javascript book. I bought this book last year but started reading now and found those other books I bought were pretty much useless.

With this book, one can just study examples off the web. All the names of the functions, methods, and properties are individually explained. I highly recommend this book as a reference on top of any other Javascript books or keep it as a bible to do programming. Writing and studying Javascript can never be confusing with this book.

If the author would write an advanced book explaining how to use the functions, methods, and properties in useful examples. I will buy that book as well.

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