Reviews for Learning jQuery 1.3

1. Very good content, could use better index

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, April 12rd, 2010

   The content is very comprehensive and well-written, each chapter starting with a simple task and adding not only features, but programming elegance, to build up a complete picture. If you sit down to spend an hour or so working through a chapter you can learn an lot.
   
   However I've often been in the position of wanting to use some jQuery syntax and could remember that it was mentioned in one of the chapters I'd read, but was unable to find it because, although they're all listed in the index, they only refer to the Quick Reference in the appendix. I wanted to be referred back to the page on which the method or selector was actually used. The Quick Reference doesn't give examples.
   
   So I'd say the book's very good for learning, not so handy for reference.

2. Another Bible from PACKT

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2010

   I have only had this book for a week and I have read it from cover to cover. I just could not put it down. It is unfortunate JQuery has been updated to 1.42 as I write this, but they do have a full website to back up the book and several handy hints for those who dont know the language.
   
   I would not recomend this book to someone who has little to no knowledge of JavaScript, HTML or CSS, but if you are prepared to apply yourself it is a very well written and consise manual for JQuery. I especially liked the "Graceful Degredation" theme throughout the book, so visitors to sites without the technology to interpret JavaScript can still view an html page, just not as interactive as one with JQuery, some of the other publishers should take a leaf out of this style.
   
   I will be writing plugins galore with this book to go with the Wordpress 2.8 themes book I already have.
   PACKT publishing seem to have a very consise and relaxed sytle, which is very easy to absorb and utilise. If you need to add that little something, be true to web standards and accessibility then this book will help you a long way towards that goal.

3. Great intro to JQuery.

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, February 12th, 2010

   This book helped me to create some useful effects for a web site I was developing. Used in conjunction with the "JQuery Cookbook (published by O'Rielly)" it is an excellent source of understanding. The only complaint I have is the index which never seemed to list the particular item I needed - though a look through the chapter summaries usually led me in the right direction.
   A must for ever web designer.

4. Just what I needed.

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

   It was just the perfect book for me. Quite experienced as a developer taking my first steps in javascript and jQuery. Very hands on book with examples that I can build upon, covering most topics that I have to deal with in my day to day activities.

5. A "client" must read!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, December 12st, 2009

   This is a must for the serious web designer. I'm not a web designer myself but I know a bit of server side programming in ASP.NET so my purpose in reading this book is to create my own interactive websites and pretty much know the bigger picture in web development. I also like reusable jQuery plug-ins that are sleek and fancy. I also like how it promotes progressive enhancement and graceful degradation which basically is an unobtrusive client script manipulating the DOM. In layman's terms, it's maintainable and decoupled.
   
   I actually don't know Javascript in detail, however I do know a bit of general programming and object oriented concepts. So esoteric language features like closures discussed in the book maybe a little bit advanced for the novice reader. Closures is however explained very well in the appendix. You do need to know CSS and HTML and some server side programming. You shouldn't be reading this if you don't because the whole point of jQuery is to manipulate the DOM in the HTML document by changing the style-sheets dynamically on the client. The server-side example codes that come with the book is written in PHP. So I had to be creative in converting them to ASP.NET which to me is a good exercise for myself.
   
   The book is organized in 2 parts. The first part from chapters 1 to 6 is the tutorials. It covers the basic feature of the library and has a step by step instruction which you need to follow. These are pre-requisites of the library features including selectors, events, effects, Ajax and DOM manipulation. The second part from chapters 7 onwards is the "how-to" section. It basically creates an online bookstore using the library features you've learned from the first part. The online bookstore covers table manipulation including sorting, row highlighting, filtering, collapsing, pagination, forms validation, shufflers, rotators and image carousel. The book is simply loaded with a lot of reusable code.
   
   In terms of writing style or educational method, the way the authors explain the step by step tutorials and how-to have a thorough presentation of the library features. However, sometimes it distract the overall picture of problem solving at hand. This by no means is a criticism, however I personally do not analyse programming problems this way. The steps evolve so much that you may not see step 1 or 2 in the final code in step 10. Steps 1 or 2 are just library features that the authors are presenting to you, and thoroughly explains the better alternative solution that you need refactoring. In a way you can read how the authors reason hence you need to follow each step at a time otherwise you might get lost because I found myself reading back the previous pages as I thought they were important but actually they're not. This is merely presentation of solutions and is actually a comprehensive discussion. In this sense you can tell that the how-to exercises are well thought of and thorough albeit distracting at times.