Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours

It is a very pleasant surprise to learn Sams Teach Yourself series has been improved into a very well-organized book. Each chapter is limited with 12-14 pages. It is easy to read entire chapter during short break. It includes the latest programming practices like object-oriented JavaScript, DOM Level 2 Scripting, Feature-sensing, Unobtrustive Scripting in CSS, JavaScript and AJAX. It helps you to review the content by reading Q&A and Quiz questions. Each chapter comes with good examples and sample codes.

Sams Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours (4th Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself)

The Sam's PHP books made them my preferred publisher of tech books, this book didn't live up to my expectations. If you are somewhat competent this book will frustrate you. It doesn't provide much detail on the fundamental concepts. The last third of the book goes further and is devoted to examples that have "cook book" value but not a lot of educational value.

It's not a bad book by any means. I think it may even be a great book, for the right reader. The right reader I think is someone who: knows just a bit about html, what javascript is in vague terms, and wants to get something up and working quickly. If have a basic knowledge of javascript already and are looking to strengthen your foundation this may not be the best book for you.

This is not a bad book. It's really a well written book, but it does require some prior knowledge from the user. It would help if a user has some basic knowledge of Java. Some rudimentary knowledge of Java will help to understand the JavaScript object model and methods like toString(), etc.

Compare to what I consider to be the main competitor for this type of book, the O'Reilly JavaScript book, this book is superior for beginners. It explains the document object, math object, etc. simply and clearly. It gives nice examples that you can either type in as an automaton, or that you can elaborate and experiment on. Either way, the explanations are great -- assuming you have a rudimentary knowledge of Java.

I own and have used extensively over 20 of the O'Reilly books, so it's obvious I like them. The O'Reilly JavaScript book is not bad, it's just not the best to learn from. My suggestion is to learn the basics from this book, and then go to the O'Reilly JavaScript: The Definitive guide book.

Can you really learn JavaScript in 24 hours? If you follow the book word for word, page by page, and type in the examples exactly as stated, then you can finish in 24 hours. If you like to experiment and try different variations of the examples (what I do), then it can take longer. Either way the book is a nice introduction to JavaScript. At least, now I know what the document model can do !!!

I think a lot of us can agree that there just aren't a lot of great quality Javascript instruction books out there. Somebody make one! However, I will say that after reading this book I feel that I have a solid enough footing in the language to branch out into more complex examples. The key to learning any programming language is not simply to read these guidebooks, but to create some independent projects that reinforce what you have just learned. To get the most out of this book make sure you actually do each of the exercises at the end of each hour. The problem with this is, of course, that not all of the answers for the exercises are provided on the web site. (As a matter of fact the web site does not seem to have been updated in quite some time.) I do recommend posing questions in the website's forum, which is quite active.

TIP: If you are new to programming, don't begin your education with this book; start with an HTML/CSS primer to get you going, preferably one which gives you a taste of Javascript. Then start looking at Javascript. Having had a year-long Java course in the past, and prior knowledge of basic HTML, I'll say that this book does presume a certain level of knowledge. If I were entirely unfamiliar with syntax and terms (which the author whizzes through very quickly and often with poor explanation), then I am certain I would have been very lost about halfway through the book. The section on arrays could do with some major modification, for example. And the CSS and AJAX snippets just weren't given enough contextual treatment. All in all, if you have some basic knowledge and are looking for a guide that will give you the fundamentals, this is a satisfactory enough book.

I like to know more detail than this book provided and by trying to keep it 'light', they weren't giving me enough information to really understand the core of what was being done. I found myself struggling through the chapters trying to keep up with the concepts and ultimately gave up.

my main problem is that some examples arent explained. and he sort of rushes through basic stuff, the book itself is not well organized. some stuff I had to reread, and some stuff I just gave up on. So I would recommend a more basic book and then tackling this one, If you wanna buy it, get it at a discount, dont pay full price like me.

This book delivers what it promises. It is not "Become a Computer Programmer in 24 Hours", and it is not a reference tome. It is for people who want to *quickly* gain a good background in client-side web development. It's well-organized, current, touches on several related technologies (the DOM, AJAX, etc), and is clearly written. I had no trouble downloading working source code from its web site.

This book is an excellent follow-on to an HTML intro, because it shows the basics of how HTML, CSS, and Javascript all work together in working real-world web pages.

My particular focus at work is database technology, but my group supports a big web application. This book gave me the knowledge I needed to understand what all those ".JS" files do. I'm confident that if I needed to continue on and master this technology, I'd need nothing further on the topic beyond a good reference book.

This review applies to the fourth edition

The good:

1. Good introductory chapters on basic javascript.
2. I've always wanted to know how to do those neat drop-down menus. Now I can.

The bad:

1. Exercises at the end of the chapters have no answers. As in, if you can't figure it out, you're out of luck. (or maybe it's on the website -- see below)
2. The neat Virtual Fish Tank screen shown on the front of the book? You don't do that. (You do have some hover buttons, but that's better done in CSS now.)
3. By the last chapters, it seems to be a bit of a reach. Not sure I really care about creating a poker game. (Especially since I'd have to type several pages of code in -- see below)
4. Being that this was released in 2006, the HTML examples really ought to have been XHTML 1.0 Strict or XHTML 1.1. There were more than a few things that would not pass validation in either of those types.

The UGLY:

The website is supposed to have the example code. It does, but having tried on two different computers, the downloaded zip file is corrupted. I've sent two emails to the publisher and heard nothing. So a lot of time can be spent doing typing instead of learning. No thanks.

Man, I have really struggled finding a book that I could learn from. I wanted a book that gave me structure, the same way I would imagine it would work in a classroom. After reading the "Javascript Bible" and "DHTML Utopia", I was still baffled and very, very frustrated.

Then I picked up "Teach yourself Javascript in 24 Hours". After reading this through the first time, I feel comfortable with the syntax, and various other parts of Javascript and even wrote a few rudimentary scripts myself.

I am reading this through a second time to make sure I didn't miss anything important.

Overall, this book is a great learning tool if you are new to Javascript and Object Oriented Programming. It does omit at least one major bit of Javascript knowledge, the Object Literal, which is apparently the best thing since sliced bread, but overall, this is a good book.

The book is a very good introduction to javascript. I recommend it.

I read the reviews after I bought the book (dumb!). As a programmer, this book is easy (boring) to follow but I can see how non-programmers would have a hard time following it. I didn't get too much out of it.
However, the examples were so trivial as to be non-interesting to pursue. I bought the book as a follow-up to the SAMS "Teach yourself HTML and XHTML in 24 Hours" so was disappointed to find that this author didn't provide examples that were XHTML compliant. And the few explanations and samples in that book were better than this whole 2nd book.

This is a great book which explains all the essential concepts very well and is ideal for a beginner with some HTML experience.

Great book for beginners - certainly no complaints as to the examples offered. Can be misinterpretted though as too much of a reference manual, when in fact, it is missing a number of important details.

No technical errors as far as I know.

This was a good book for me. I had some prior knowledge of Javascript and this really brought it all together for me and cleared up any confusion that I had. It also has a decent reference in one of the appendices in the back of the book. Helped me to learn DHTML a little bit too.

this is a good book for beginners, it takes u step by step and the way the book is written is very easy too. but if u need more advanced javascript i guess u have to turn to a more advanced book. this book is just a start, but a good start

Some people are saying this book TOO heavy for new programmers while others are saying it is NOT ENOUGH technical information. As someone who relies on technical books for the purpose of teaching myself new technologies, I should point out that most people have to buy more than one book to quickly master a new programming language. And I definitely recommend this book for persons new to javascript only or new to programming in general.

After this book, I had that really good feeling I get when a good base has been established in a new area of technical knowledge -- when the first stuff that came in got laid down right, and then, everything that comes in after that builds easily on top of that good foundation. I am remembering things I read the first time, and everything else I have been learning since sticks, too. There are a lot of browser variation and version differences issues in javascript, and that is a problem. This author copes with it well, which is tough in the chaotic world of fast-changing www standards.

I have the last version of book and the Javascript Bible, Gold (essential desk reference with 1400 pages of excruciating detail), and I definitely recommend buying THIS book as the first one. To those who wanted to find MORE information in an introductory language text, I would say that if you have the ability to read a detailed programming language book, remember all its info and methods, and start programming in the same amount of time that I can read this book and start programming while using the longer, detailed book as my desk reference, by all means do so and enjoy your photographic memory. To new programmers who wanted an EASIER book, it doesn't get clearer this, or at a sharper level of just-enough detail.

Not to discourage people from speaking up, but readers should remember that a "review" is supposed to be a sharing of informed of opinions -- actually, advice -- to help other people make purchasing decisions. Readers should probably not use this review system as a message board, a readership chat, or otherwise to discuss their own issues under the impression that having any opinion at all, and posting it as a "review" helps anyone.

For example, for this book, one reviewer states that the author explains the "&&" operator and then - amazingly - expects the reader to remember it later in the book. It sounds like that reader is looking for a book that performs the added function of making him pay attention, like a book that repeats and reinforces (There are books like that out there. But the handholding you want would make this book too long and too cluttered for an "in 24 hours" title). There is another "reviewer" who stated that he wanted more examples with more context, not just code snippets. Hello, do you know there are about a million downloadble javascript scripts on the WWW, in archives, articles, javascript websites, and so on, including embedded in almost every commercial web page you visit, like this one (for which you can "view source")?

Almost every programming book's review section is full of people saying "not enough", while others say "this is too hard", and people who say "there are typos in the examples." None of these reviews are helping others, unless the review is an informed one and states exactly how and why that opinion is meaningful.

I'm learning how to read into the newbie-bad-book posts to find the good books, and I feel bad for this very good author that he has been jumped on like this. I think that this introductory javascript book has attracted a greater proportion of liberal-arts web-developer wanna-bes, who have posted these inappropriate reviews on a great introductory programming book. Any programming book would be too hard or not right somehow. No, it won't be a fun read, it won't be easy, and you do have to remember symbols and other facts you read, such as the "&&" operator. There's a reason why the technical studies students were missing campus football parties so they could pass their classes while you were getting trashed and why they are making a lot of money now.

I agree with the computer science student. I have read programming books for introductory and advanced college courses and for teaching myself new things. This author is exceptionally good at writing an introductory programming text at a great level of detail with just the right amount of stuff explained very clearly. I am actually waiting, which I hardly ever do, for this author's DHTML book due out in December, for more info about javascript and advanced web page production.

I used this book in conjunction with their web site and found it very good. The book by itself was rather insufficient however the web site proved to be the saving grace in my opinion. This book paved the way for me to move on the the JavaScript Bible (a bit more complex).

This book is a Good Start for a beginner - just make sure to use the web site.

I have a good background in HTML, ASP w/ VBS, and SQL. JavaScript was my next step. I was really getting into the book for about the first 6 chapters, and then before I knew it, I was at the end of the book. I knew all of these symbols and "code", but I did not feel as if I knew anything about JavaScript. If I had it to do over, I would buy a different book to get started. I am going to try one of Wrox beginner books and just start over.

Full of mistakes... Some were easy for a novice programmer to figure out but as I recall nothing (or at least very little) past like hour 19 worked--not even the examples provided right on the web site. I don't know whether this is because of lack of browser support or mistakes or both. This publisher shows absolutely no shame. Don't publish a new edition if it leaves you off worse than the first one!