JavaScript And Jquery: Interactive Front-End Web Development (2014) - Plot & Excerpts
I have tried Code School, Lynda, Thinkful and Code Academy. I've read through the first few chapters of "Eloquent JavaScript" (which is NOT for beginners) as well as "JavaScript The Definitive Guide" by David Flanagin (which is also not for beginners) and have found all of them lacking in one way or another. I have also used Treehouse; it is by far the best online tutorial I've found to date.There are four reasons why I was unable to get what I wanted out of the above sites and books:1) With some of them, I made the assumption that they were for beginners (even after being told that the books were for beginners). They most definitely were not. The Definitive Guide and Eloquent JS are both more applicable as reference tools for people who already have an understanding of JS. I have found that most of the cheerleaders for these books (especially Eloquent JS) were people who were already experienced in JS. If you read the reviews on Amazon, you'll see I'm not alone in holding this opinion.2) In each case it was obvious that the authors or presenters (in the case of videos) knew the subject matter but inevitably they presented the material with gaps in the content, leaving me scratching my head trying to fill the gaps on my own. There would be a leap from one point in the material to another, where I'd be thinking, "How the F did you get there from where you were and what was that new statement/expression?"3) They also had an inordinate lacking in problems and exercises to work through. No matter what type of math or science you are working with, it is inevitable that you will need to practice, practice, practice certain fundamental exercises to the point that it is rote in order to move on to higher levels of the science. With the exception of Code Academy, none of the others provided ample exercises to work through.4) You could study these sites and books for weeks and not have an understanding of how JavaScript integrates and works with HTML. You can learn all the for-loops and if/else, else/if statements you want, till you're bleeding out your ears but none of the above sources have you connect the dots of HTML/CSS and JavaScript, so the reader is left wondering how what he or she just learned is practically applied to a web page.Though I'm not yet done with Duckett's book, for the most part, Duckett does an excellent job in explaining the fundamentals (starting from the ground up), connecting the dots and leaving the reader confident that they completely understand a concept before moving on. Although there are no actual problems or exercises to work through, there are plenty of examples to copy into your text editor for you to play with to help solidify the concepts. I highly suggest this book for entry level JavaScript wanna-be programmers. As I wrote for ‘HTML & CSS: Design and Build Websites’ written by Jon Duckett, I should start this review with same words that ‘JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development’ by same author is simply beautiful book to go through. And again, though design by itself should not be a reason to buy any book, Duckett again created book for which all visual learners will be thankful – making the learning process easier to follow, featuring interactive graphics in order for reader to realize how things should look like on the webpages.While in the previous book the main subjects were HTML5 and CSS3, this time author discusses JavaScript and jQuery teaching methods how to make your pages simpler in terms of coding, while on same time more interactive and interesting for end user. The only constant things in ever changing web design world is change, though JavaScript and jQuery which appeared almost 20 and 10 years ago were able to impose due to their variety and available options from one web generation to another.As was the case with his previous book, Duckett again doesn’t disappoint in terms of design resources – inside numerous samples of codes and user exercises can be found that enable novice Java web designer to start working instantly.Beside first general chapter, the book is divided in additional twelve chapters which respectively deal with following subjects:- Basic JavaScript- JavaScript functions, methods and objects- Decisions and loops- DOM (Document Object Model)- jQuery- Using Ajax and JSON- Using APIs- Debugging and dealing with errors- Content Panels- Filtering, searching and sorting- Form enhancement and validation Though the book shines in the field of design and interactivity, the only drawback for more experienced users will be the lack of content for the more demanding, though this book is still primarily mode for the new and intermediate users, while the more experienced can use some of the other JavaScript titles that I have also previously reviewed, such as ’JavaScript & jQuery: The Missing Manual’ or ‘JavaScript: The Definitive Guide’.Therefore, looking overall ‘JavaScript and JQuery: Interactive Front-End Web Development’ is fantastic book for new to intermediate user in world of JavaScript and jQuery, and must-buy for self-taught students or as required read in the school design departments.
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The information is beautifully presented and in such a way to maximize learning.
—idekfaggot
