I was reading JavaScript by Example in parallel with Beginning JavaScript, 2nd Edition for a class. I found that Quigley was trying too hard to jam too much information into a small space. As someone new to JavaScript, I found her explanations difficult and her writing unclear. In comparison, Beginning JavaScript is bigger, but kinder and more comprehensible to the new reader. If weight is an issue, buy Quigley. Otherwise, you are better off with Beginning JavaScript.

I was reading JavaScript by Example in parallel with Beginning JavaScript, 2nd Edition for a class. I found that Quigley was trying too hard to jam too much information into a small space. As someone new to JavaScript, I found her explanations difficult and her writing unclear. In comparison, Beginning JavaScript is bigger, but kinder and more comprehensible to the new reader. If weight is an issue, buy Quigley. Otherwise, you are better off with Beginning JavaScript.

Terrific book, a little (editing) problems in the book, but if you have a little experience in Javascript they can be overlooked. Actually the few errors keep you on your toes!

Terrific book, a little (editing) problems in the book, but if you have a little experience in Javascript they can be overlooked. Actually the few errors keep you on your toes!

Wether or not this book is right for you, really depends on what you need from a Javascript text book. Armed with some basic knowledge of HTML, this was the perfect text to put me up to speed on the topic. There are many examples (as the title implies), giving you an exhaustive treatment of all topics. This treatment doesn't leave anything out, and though it would be nice to have the answers to the exercises, anything which stumps you can be solved by going over the examples again.

There are many explanations for every example given, but it's quite easy to skip around to what you need if you know some of the material already.

Excellent self-study tool.

A few discrepancies between the examples, explanations, and especially the CD, eg: where I think she changed a file or variable name in one place and forgot to change it in the other, so you spend some time trying to reconstruct what she meant to say.
Otherwise well paced, good for learning.

I think chapter 8 misuses the term "inheritance", which will muddy the waters for someone trying to understand inheritance. It says "Each object has a prototype whose properties it inherits". Would it be better to say "You can tack new methods or properties on to an existing class (eg: String) using the prototype property"?

Please Rate the overall value of the book from 1-5:
5=Well done! This book will be a valuable teaching and reference tool.

Please rate the instructional value of the book from 1-5:
4=I would recommend this book to someone interested in its topic.

Please rate the reference value of this book from 1-5 where:
5=A complete reference. I would not need any additional reference on this topic.

This is an excellent book for beginners of Javascript. it takes simplest of the cases without boggling the minds of the readers. when I learnt javacript more than 4 years back, Ihad a hard time reading through 'verbose' books. I wish I had this book at that time.

This author has taken the time to explain the concepts in the simplests of the ways. there are adequate screen prints to highlight the results of the executed javascript code. the author explains the document object model clearly for the benefit of the beginners and also explains different ways of identifying the items in the page.

This is an excellent reference book for intermediate javascript programmers adn this book has found a place in my reference shelf and I will be glad to recommend this book to anybody interested in learning Javascript.

JavaScript is most often used in a browser on the client side. It is a scripting language that can make vanilla HTML pages more interactive. By now it, like HTML, is very stable. And if you design web pages, it is a good addition to your skill set. Being stable and popular means that there is no shortage of books on it. So on what basis should you prefer this book?

Well, it takes its title very literally. The pedagogy really does emphasise copious examples. In a typical chapter, the examples take up over half the space. Plus each chapter includes a problem set. Yay! You need to learn by doing. Yet so many computer books omit this. Granted, some topics require so many parts to interoperate that writing problems is nontrivial. But to test JavaScript code, all you need is a browser, text editor and a web server. These days, all computers have the first two items. And, in the context of you wanting to learn JavaScript, you DO have a web server that you can load files onto, don't you?

My only quibble is that I wish there were more problems in each chapter. This could take up very little extra room, say a page per chapter. But it would roughly triple the number of problems, and give the reader an even more exhaustive exploration of the topics.

I am an intermediate programmer, and have developed an appreciation for clear, concise, and meaningful resource materials. I have had great success in gaining knowledge and insight through the use of Ms. Quigley's books; especially Perl by Example. I had the occasion to learn JavaScript, and sifted for days through the convoluted maze of obtusely written learning materials. I remembered how much I enjoyed learning Perl using Ms. Quigley's book, and found JavaScript by Example, which proved to be a clearly written, well organized, relevant, and accessible resource. JavaScript by Example was just what I needed to get the ball rolling; it kept me interested, instead of boring me to death. I highly recommend it to programmers of all skill levels. The book covers everything from beginning to advanced concepts, and includes software that is easy to use, and compliments the written material nicely. Bravo Ms. Quigley, bravissimo!

My background before I read this book, I know quite well about HTML, C, Perl and familiar basic C++ or OOP. When I read this book, it is quite easy to follow. When the author talked about DOM (Document object model.) He is very wordy and reptitive. In my opinion, he can just say one time and give all the properties and method about DOM. But he chose to repeat every single similar FORM object. It took over hundred pages.

This book can easily cut half pages. He put the Perl in the appendix. If you know Perl, the perl in this book is pretty standard and you can find in other books.

The first 10 chapters are deal with Syntax of Javacript which is extremely similar to C or C++ (I would say a over simplified version of C++ or similar to Perl OOP) So, if you know C or C++, you can read very fast. The rest of the book is all about Objects. Again, if you know about a bit OOP, it is very easy to follow. One should be able to read through this book in less than a week (Not word by word, you don't have to since it is repetitive). (Don't worry too much about the code explanation. Those codes are very obvious, I think the author may not want to explain the obvious ones. One should be able to understand by reading the codes in this book without explanation. If one cannot, he may not understand even read the explanation (Or he may not be ready to read this book).

This is not comphensive book. You may need a reference for all the DOM (properties and Methods). Inside Javascript by Steven seems a good book.

There are not many good Javascript books, either it is too wordy , bad organized, talk about something that only a few people will ever use or just give ton of examples without showing you how they work.

This book is ok. I hope the author can put the comphensive properties and methods in this book (at least the most objects we uaually use instead of unnecessary words or explanations.) I will recommend you buy this book if you start to learn Javascript.

The last 2 chapter examples on CD are corrupted. Depending on what browser you are running, some browser will only display as 'html text/raw HTML codes'. Those corrupted files have so many 'funny characters'. I guessed it may not save as text files. If you use IE, it will be fine. I use Mozilla, it does not work (I have to use Mozilla because IE cannot run on Linux.)

Compared most of other Javascript books I read at bookstore. I would say this one is good as long as you are beginner (Actually, it is much better than most others). If the author can make his book 'shorter without losing context' (I think he can easily accomplish) and more 'comphensive about Object properties and methods we usually use' in next revision. It will give much more stars. (I don't believe longer is a better book. The short and comphensive one is better. Who has so much time to read? I wish I could have such luxury to spend all the time to read.)