Aimed at the HTML designer with or without previous programming experience, the JavaScript Bible, Fourth Edition, brings a popular text up to date with a full tour of using JavaScript with all of today's Web browsers. Smart, very approachable, and filled with many useful tips, this book can put JavaScript development into the reach of just about anyone.

After presenting a solid tour of basic programming in JavaScript, the book centers in on the issues of developing JavaScript applications for real browsers. This means truly comprehensive coverage of the document object model (DOM), HTML, window and frame objects, forms, and style sheets that are available today. In about 1,000 pages (and almost 30 chapters), you learn what's available in today's JavaScript standard with a reference listing every object, API, and property, plus tips on how to use each feature. All this material makes this text an extremely worthwhile desktop reference for everyday JavaScript development. In particular, we liked that support (or lack thereof) for every feature is clearly documented across the full range of today's browsers from Netscape Navigator 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 to Internet Explorer 3 through 5.5.

Later chapters move toward the JavaScript language itself, with material on strings, math functions, and dates. The author discusses techniques for adapting JavaScript to particular browsers as well as providing cross-browser support where appropriate. Short exercises end each chapter, and the book presents sample solutions in an appendix. Additional CD-ROM chapters move beyond the whopping 1,200 pages of printed material.

In all, the author's patient, clear writing style and real-world advice for creating great-looking Web pages with JavaScript make this title a winner. Readers of previous editions of the JavaScript Bible will appreciate the updated focus on current browsers. For anyone who wants to learn JavaScript for the first time, this edition is arguably an unbeatable choice. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

• Introduction to JavaScript and HTML
• Targeting different browsers (with DHTML, style sheets, and other features)
• Basic JavaScript language tutorial (including variables, operators, expressions, flow control, forms, and built-in APIs)
• Script tags
• Error handling
• Arrays
• Window and document objects
• Form processing with JavaScript
• Tutorial and reference for the String, Math, and Date classes
• Frames
• Images (including rollover support)
• Comprehensive JavaScript reference
• ECMAScript
• Detecting different browsers
• Document object model (DOM) for Netscape 2 through 6 and IE 3 through 5
• Generic HTML objects
• Window and frame objects
• Location and history objects
• Document and body objects
• Body text objects
• HTML directives
• Link and anchor objects
• Image and map objects
• Form and form control objects
• Working with buttons and text in HTML forms
• Select and option elements
• Table and list objects
• Netscape Navigator and environment objects
• Event objects
• Style sheet reference
• Positioned objects
• JavaScript operators
• Functions and custom objects
• Sample programming exercises and answers