As has been said in a previous review, this book already seems quite dated after only the first two chapters. Having completed the book, I can say it only got worse. Much of the basics are covered fairly well, but as the book progresses into more complicated areas, where more detailed explanations are really needed, it fails to deliver. Some of the example code will not even run without error. It seems the book is a "best of" compilation thrown together from bits of previous books, but purported to be a new work.

Firstly, when a book is about a constantly changing web-programming technology like AJAX, you expect it to be up-to-date, right?

Well, two chapters in, and I've already spotted several typographical errors. What's worse is the outdated nature of some of the technologies depicted in the book. Let me illustrate:

Chapter 1: When illustrating assorted web browsers the text uses IE6. I'm sorry, but IE7 has been officially released for nearly two years now, and you couldn't be bothered to upgrade the screenshots in that time? This book was published June 2008, with a 2009 copyright, and you're using screenshots that were outdated in 2006?

Further, the fact that the screenshot of Firefox in the first chapter shows that at the time of the screenshot, Firefox 1.0.7 was the current release shows that that was taken mid-2005, as Firefox 1.5 was released November 2005.

I'm sorry, but these over-two-years-old screenshots of antiquated technologies featured in a text, and the fact that it seems to feature IE6 throughout already has me somewhat turned off to the book. If this is the attention to detail that they have paid thus far, what will have slipped through the cracks in the programming portions, and what other techniques were already antiquated by the time this book was published?