DOM Scripting by Jeremy Keith

Sunday 21 February 2010 - Filed under Web design

I have been dabbling with Javascript a few times, but only at the level where I was stoked when I could create a function to convert fahrenheit to celsius. I was going to try to make a slightly more serious attempt at learning it, and bought DOM Scripting: Web Design with Javascript and the Document Object Model by Jeremy Keith of Clearleft.

Javascript has restored its name the last few years, after having lost all credibility as a serious tool due to browser wars, the DHTML disaster, pop-up dialogues and open-CD-tray scripts. Jeremy Keith sees javascript as a necessary scripting language that completes the front-end development toolkit, together with CSS and (X)HTML. Unobtrusive javascripting, unobtrusive being the keyword, offers an equal level of power to what CSS once did, when used correctly.

As for the target audience, this book was exactly what I was after:

The book is aimed at designers rather than programmers. If you’ve learned the benefits of Web Standards through CSS and you’re now ready to move on to the next level, this is the book for you.

DOM Scripting clearly introduces all the concepts that would be unfamiliar to a a non-programmer, and provides a solid history of the developments the last 10-or-so years, before diving into any scripting. Chapter two is a thorough explanation of the javascript syntax, with some half-practical examples. Next is the Document Object Model, and that’s where I’m at.

2010-02-21  »  Asgeir