I bought three books about JavaScript to get me started and I have to say that this was by far the best. The other two books I bought were the Visual Quickstart Guide by Peachpit Press and O'Reilly's Definitive JavaScript Guide. I used the Quickstart Guide to get a basic understanding for the language but soon noticed that I didn't actually learn it, but was rather just copying the examples in the book. With the Definitive Guide the exact opposite was the case. It was simply to hard to understnad as a complete novice.

The official Netscape Guide is the ideal book for starters: It takes you through the learning process step by step, starting with the easy stuff and then becoming harder and more complex. It also shows you the annoying parts about JavaScript (bowser incompatibilities) and how to deal with them.

Overall an absolutely cool book to get you started!

Good to see this book is coming back onto the shelves. Had to scrounge around recently to find my copy. Recommended to me by a JS pro. Purchased two other books previously that will soon collect dust in the used book store.

The Kent brothers REALLY explain JavaScript and and provide a good introduction to the nuances (= annoyances) of object based syntax. If you think you have to buy four or five bad references to find a good one, this is the ONE good one on JS. (Better than anything in the O'Reilly catalog.)

This is THE book many developers turn to in lieu of sharp objects and alcohol when fumbling with JavaScript. Why? It's in English and is well organized. Plus, instead of clunky CDs, you can access/copy the book's scripts over the web as you read the book.

The fact that the Online Companion disappeared was a real problem. When the publisher, Ventana, merged with Coriolis, the Online Companion -- hundreds of scripts from the book -- was taken down. This book generaly gets very good reviews. Posted is the Online Companion at the Top Floor Publishing Web site. Amazon's review policies don't allow the posting of URLs, so if you need to know where the Online Companion is, simply e-mail JavaScriptOLC@TopFloor.com to get an autoresponse that will tell you the URL.

Also, note that the book will be available again very soon. I've retrieved the rights to the book, and will be providing copies to Amazon for sale any day now.

Out of a large library of JavaScript books, this one is the only one that never gets shelved. I've seen novices find out how to do all the things they were looking for, and I've personally used it to expand my own knowledge. If I were to own just one JS book, this'd be it.

I have purchased many books that claim the word beginner. This is by far the best yet. These guys should write more books about other topics. As you start to advance this is also an excellent reference. If you want to learn the fundamentals of javascript, this is the purest start that you will find.

Not only has Peter Kent's fabulous source book, "Making Money in Technical Writing," catapulted me from a $43,000 salary as a full-time technical writing captive, to a $85,000(+) technical contract writer within only one year, he's also written a great book on writing Javascript and developing interactive Web pages. Following Kent's advice in the technical writing book, I landed a great contract that required me to develop Web pages. With absolutely no knowledge of Javascript, I anxiously solicited all the advice I could from other technical writers and, hands down, the recommendation was unanimous. Get Peter Kent's book! I've since completed at least a half dozen Web pages and have increased my marketability as a technical writer/Web designer by 50 percent. Of all the book reviews I've read, all the numerous thick volumes written on Javascript I've flipped through in bookstores, and all the information I culled from numerous technical writing listserves, I found Kent's book to be the most highly readable, clearly written and useful guide for a beginner intent on writing Javascript. And as for the online companion resource section to the book that other reviewers sadly lamented not being available any longer on the Web, do some research people! I found the online companion. Netscape Press has a support page specifically for this publication. A Great book! A Must buy

I found this book to be a very readable guide the beginning Javascript user. However the "Online Companion", an internet site that the authors are constantly referring to is no longer available. So unless you want to key in all of the scripts by hand I would recommend a book with an included CDROM. - R*N

This is a great book for beginners. It uses useful examples and explains things very well. It says it is for non-programmers but when you finish this book you will know enough JavaScript programming to write impressive scripts. I spent hours reading other highly rated JavaScript books but found them all lacking, especially JavaScript: The Definitive Guide.

I think this is the best (and most current) javascript book out, especially for beginners. This book and it's companion reference book are all you need to start writing javascript.

I bought this book because I was a bigginger. I bought a couple of other books to help me. I found that this book is the most frequently used book. It is very simple sometimes too basic but has everything I needed to complete my project. I recommend this book to anyone trying to learn Java Scrip