Reviews for JavaScript Demystified

1. An absolute bargain

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, October 12th, 2009

   I have created a few web sites from scratch using HTML and CSS, but knew nothing about Javascript before reading this book. I found it very easy to understand and yet full of useful, real-world coded examples. The best part for me was the price. I recently paid over £30 for a similar size and quality book on XHTML and CSS. This is an absolute bargain. Just buy it.

2. Excellent book for a beginner

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2009

   I tried an other beginners book out there but javascript was still a complete mystery to me. Java script demystified to the rescue. The book took me swiftly and easily through the basis of Javascript and programming in general. By the end I felt I understood how to write javascript. The examples were clear and with one exception the logic was explained in an slowly unfolding manner gradually getting more complicated. This was just what I needed as a beginner.
   
   2 points to temper my excitement though. Firstly at the end I was left with some neat little tricks that I could do on my website but nothing to transform my website like after I learnt css. Don't get me wrong there are some cool things but they are either quite specific, so there are limited opportunities to use them, or very vague so they require lots of imagination to use. As a beginner (like me) you may lack or at least find a little challenging to imagine how to use Javascript to give your website that sculptured finish. This is why I docked the star. A few extra chapters would have left me feeling like a programmer rather than a novice.
   
   The second point is that the index is a bit week. When I went back to look things up I found some of the things I wanted to look up weren't there or the reference to it that I wanted wasn't there. You will want to buy a more advanced book to use Javascript more widely and as a reference but after Javascript Demystified you will be able to understand a more advanced book.
   
   For those of you that do buy the book. I found the chapter on regular expressions to have a large jump in logic. It is the only such jump I found in the whole book so I believe it should be forgiven. I understood it after a couple of rereads but I thought you should know before you get caught by surprise. It's not just you (though it may be just me)
   
   Nonetheless I think this is a fantastic book for a beginner and would even recommend it to someone who intended learning PHP to learn the basics of programming. I've breezed through the first few chapters of my php book because of what I learnt in Javascript demystified. I have even begun to think more imaginatively about how I can use it. I have to say it is an excellent foundation in the beginnings of javascript and perfect for anyone who may be feeling intimidated of taking that programming first step.