Learning Javascript

Whether you need to learn JavaScript from scratch or just want a refresher, Learning JavaScript provides an easy path through JavaScript’s power and idiosyncrasies.

JavaScript has exploded into prominence again as a key part of Ajax, giving web sites more intelligence and more useful interactions with their visitors. JavaScript has also spread to realms of programming beyond the Web, providing a convenient scripting language for other software.

The web-based examples in this book demonstrate how to build JavaScript logic and connect it to exist¬ing object structures, as well as how to build your own libraries and take advantage of libraries other users have written.

Learning JavaScript explores:

• Basic JavaScript logic, from functions and operators to control structures
• Techniques for using JavaScript reliably in the multibrowser world of the Web
• JavaScript’s extensibility mechanisms and how they differ from “traditional” object-oriented pro¬gramming
• Handling traditional JavaScript tasks, such as form validation, DOM manipulation, and interactive styling
• JavaScript security, including the web-browser sandbox, cookies, and interaction with other objects
• Creating object libraries for handling common tasks
• Building Ajax applications with JavaScript and the XMLHttpRequest object
• Applying libraries for special effects and Ajax interactions

Whether you’re a web designer who has used bits of JavaScript for years, a programmer who needs to learn JavaScript, or someone new to development who just wants to make something work on the Web, Learning JavaScript will explain how to apply this powerful scripting language to the challenges you face today.

About the Authors
Shelley Powers has been seeking fun in technical topics from ActiveX to RDF to CSS to JavaScript to Ajax over the last decade. Recent books including Learning JavaScript, Adding Ajax, and Practical RDF. She has spent much of the last few years taking pictures, as a glance at Burningbird will demonstrate.