Reviews for AJAX Patterns & Best Practices (Expert's Voice)

1. Not getting much out of this

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, August 12th, 2007

   I've been struggling through this book for the last week. I don't seem to be getting a lot out of it so I'm giving up. I don't know if it's the book, or me. I thought it would be a lot about REST and Ajax (see title) but there's not a lot of REST, a little bit of Ajax, and a lot of stuff about HTTP, dynamic HTML, and just a lot of paragraphs which seem to go on and on and say very little. I feel that the practical, applicable content could have been delivered in a book a quarter as long.

2. DHTML best practice, with a sprinkling of AJAX

   Rated 2 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2006

   Take note of the Amazon title for the book, not the one on the front cover, which doesn't mention "REST".
   
   Bought this in a hurry and was disappointed ... the first chapter gives some background to AJAX, the second gives basic practical techniques - enough to start you coding - but the rest of the book is not really focused on AJAX: more general DHTML best practice with a grudging references to AJAX.
   
   The book is flagged on it's back cover as "intermediate to advanced" where I would place it as "intermediate with very strong leanings to beginners". The technical content is not poor - it's just not targetted and it's difficult to see who would get good use out of the book. The writing style is readable but there are irritating quirks like illustrative screen-shots of amazon.ch ... OK, so I read German, but it's hardly a lucid example for an English-language book.
   
   If you already know a little about dynamic web programming, and want to learn how best to lever AJAX functionality in a professional fashion, you won't get much out of this book.