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ppk on JavaScript, 1 e (VOICES)
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by Peter-Paul Koch
Sales Rank: 120634
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Discount: 34 %
List Price: $44.99
$29.69
At Amazon
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Paperback: 528 pages
Publisher: New Riders Press September 20, 2006
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0321423305
ISBN-13: 978-0321423306
Product Dimensions:
9 x 7.4 x 1 inches
Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
Product Review
"ppk on JavaScript is a well-written and cleanly structured walk through useful JavaScript examples. It is extremely practical, and goes right to the core of what a web programmer needs to know about JavaScript to build real sites, right now.
In essence, it reminds me of how I learned to work on the web in the first place: careful examination of other people’s work. At its best, this book is a clearly annotated view source of Koch’s projects. It’s a comprehensive exploration of Koch’s thoughts about the problems he’s run into (problems that you’ll run into, too), how he approached them, and ultimately how he’s solved them." -- Mike West, Managing Editor, Digital Web Magazine
Book Description
Whether you're an old-school scripter who needs to modernize your JavaScripting skills or a standards-aware Web developer who needs best practices and code examples, you'll welcome this guide from a JavaScript master.
Other JavaScript books use example scripts that have little bearing on real-world Web development and are useful only in the chapter at hand. In contrast, Peter-Paul Koch's book uses eight real-world scripts he created for real-world clients in order to earn real-world money. That means the scripts are guaranteed to do something useful (and sellable!) that enhances the usability of the page they're used on.
The book's example scripts include one that sorts a data table according to the user's search queries, a form validation script, a script that shows form fields only when the user needs them, a drop-down menu, and a data retrieval script that uses simple Ajax and shows the data in an animation.
After an overview of JavaScript's purpose, Peter-Paul provides theoretical chapters on the context (jobs for JavaScript, CSS vs. JavaScript), the browsers (debugging, the arcana of the browser string), and script preparation. Then follow practical chapters on Core, BOM, Events, DOM, CSS Modification, and Data Retrieval, all of which are explained through a combination of theoretical instruction and the taking apart of the relevant sections of the example scripts.
Customer Reviews & Comments
It's funny, from looking at the title of the book, "PPK on JavaScript", you would never know it is one of the most interesting and informative JavaScript books on the market. PPK - Peter-Paul Koch is a well-known JavaScript and web developer from the Netherlands. His website [...] has pretty much been the defacto standard resource for all browser and JavaScript issues for the past few years. If there was something you wanted to know about JavaScript or some browser bug or issue you would go to his website or email him. He probably is not known unless you read some of the well-known development blog sites. He does not do public speaking at web conferences (unlike Jeremy Keith), but maybe after this book he will. And yes, most people it seems just call him PPK, not Peter so I guess that is one of the reason of the book title. Anyways, on to the book review...Since I have most of the latest JavaScript books that have been published the past year, I was hoping this would be a little different, which it was. The skill level for this book is probably leaning towards the intermediate side since many of the code-snippets that PPK talks about use DOM syntax. Though that is not to say that if you're a beginner you shouldn't buy this book, but you will need to fast-forward to the middle of the book (Chapter 5), which he gives a great background of the Core concepts of the JavaScript language. So basically the book is split into 3 sections (or how I see them separated). The first 4 chapters goes into high-level topics that are great for the basic DOM scripting who knows the basics of using the DOM but needs more instruction with usability, accessibility, standards and how the different layers (structure, content and presentation) work. These 4 chapters are the best in my opinion because most of these topics would require you to search endless articles on the web to find them. Apart from a few pages in the 5th edition of JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, I have not seen this in any other book. Chapter 5: The Core; covers all basics of the language to get anybody up to speed or use as a reference. The rest of the book covers topics such as the BOM (Browser Object Model), Events, DOM (Document Object Model), and CSS modification. The included source examples are the real gem of the book since it is real JavaScript applications that were used in real clients, not just little code examples that cannot be used in the real environment. So if you need another JavaScript book and not sure what to get, or you have bought Jeremy Keith's excellent book (DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript) and want to learn more about the DOM and accessibility or you are a newbie and want to learn the latest JavaScript standards and practices from a real developer, then this is the book for you. Go out and get it now!
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ppk on JavaScript, 1 e (VOICES)
List Price: $44.99
Discount: 34 %
Available from Amazon
Price: $29.69
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