Reviews for Simply Javascript: Everyting You Need To Learn Javascript From Scratch

1. look for another!

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, March 12th, 2010

   been going through sample chapters of this book... the other reviewer, K. hayden is absolutely right.. I had the same experience.. "simply NOT simple enough"!! I wouldn't recommend a newbie this one. One I found out to have a better introduction is O'Reilly's Javascript: Missing Manual. Additionally sitepoint's simply javascript lacks hands-on exercises from the outset... its not engaging whatsoever - my advise; DONT START FROM THIS BOOK if you know nothing!

2. I wouldn't start with this book!

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2009

   I was disappointed with this book as I had found other sitepoint books a great way to learn (eg. if you got on well something like 'Build Your Own Website The Right Way Using HTML & CSS' do NOT expect the same from this book!)
   
   I like to think that I'm not an idiot and that I'm quite capable of grasping even quite complicated stuff if it's explained to me fully and well. But this book left me scratching my head over and over (I would agree with the other review that says that it's fine up to chapter 3 but beyond that things get murky?) Concepts are not explained fully and more than that, I think that some things are presented in an un-necessarily complicated way, I also found the writer's language and writing in general un-necessarily dense and hard to get to grips with.
   
   Instead I have purchased Beginning JavaScript (4th Edition) by Paul Wilton & Jeremy McPeak (after a pretty lengthy scrutiny of what was available) and so far, SO MUCH BETTER. If you're coming to JavaScript as a beginner as I am (though with some knowledge of HTML and CSS) I would recommend the Beginning JavaScript book over Simply JavaScript which I found to be anything but simple!
   
   I don't give up easily but this book defeated me, I may go back to it once I've got the basics from somewhere else but I really wouldn't start with this one.

3. Simply not simple enough.

   Rated 1 out of 5 stars, December 12th, 2009

   The book starts off great running through separating out your HTML and CSS and then goes into easy to follow JavaScript examples of conditions and loops. But then you run into the brick wall that is Chapter 3, Document Access. All the easy to follow examples simply disappear and you are left with lines of code and confusing reference text which you can't follow as you don't know enough about JavaScript yet.
   The book is simply not simple enough to follow for somebody who knows nothing about JavaScript. A big, big disappointment Sitepoint. So, it's back to the drawing board and the quest to find a book that will teach me JavaScript from scratch, if such a book exists.
   

4. Good but not for beginners

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, June 12th, 2009

   The first three chapters of this book are brilliant for someone trying to learn JavaScript, but beyond that it confuses the living daylights out of you. The style of writing is good and the good practices shown are laudable but for a newbie code explanation falls short in a lot of places. I would have given this book at least 4 stars but upon going through it again i realised that for a beginner it can be confusing.

5. Great Book, Great Advice, But Not For Beginners

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2008

   This is a very good introduction to Javascript and good Javascript coding practices. The examples are useful and the simple code library provided is also very useful. However if you are a beginner then you should really have a look at a simpler book. The only reason I have not given it five stars is that the marketing of the book leads one to think that it is great for absolute beginners. The ideal audience for this book is someone who has dabbled with Javascript and now wants to take a more professional and structured approach.