Why it's taking me forever to finish consuming this — 5 years ago
This book [4th ed.] is huge (900 pages).
Not many projects I have worked on have required JavaScript, since I program in Java.
Whenever I have needed to do anything with the DOM or JavaScript itself, this book has proven invaluable.
Sometimes I used the pocket-sized version of it too. Despite having a surprising amount of info in the pocket book, nothing beats this full-sized book for completeness.
Through August 2006, I have made due with the 4th edition version of this book – which only covers JavaScript 1.5, IE 5 or 6, and a really old version of Mozilla.
IE has not really changed much since this book comes out but Firefox, which is the new torch-bearer for the M"ozilla":http://www.mozilla.org/ line, has revolutionized the web since it came out a couple of years ago. So it would be nice if the book included information about using latest version of JavaScript to program SVG, XSLT, and the new Canvas element designed to handle graphics
Version 1.5 of Firefox runs JavaScript 1.6 and has support for E4X, which quite simply makes pieces of XML first-class data in “JavaScript:”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript (E4X).
Interest in AJAX exploded in 2005 and is still white hot. It relies on a new object for making asynchronous data requests from the browser. Neither this object nor the technique for using it are described in the 4th edition of this book.
No Firefox or Safari information, of course – since they did not even exist until several years after the 4th edition.
I received an email from the author, David Flanagan, in mid-2006 that a 5th edition would be coming out soon. Most or all of the shortcomings will be addressed by the 5th edition.
I just ordered a copy of the 5th edition of JavaScript: The Definitive Guide from Amazon. The site says I will receive it in September 2006.
The 5th edition of this book has grown to 1018 pages. That is 118 pages (more than 10%) bigger than the 4th edition, to which this page refers.
There are still lots of compatibilities between different browsers. Mozilla Firefox staying up-to-date with the W3 and ECMA standards with Opera and Apple Safari trailing just behind has not helped much.
That is because #4 in the browser in the race to stay up-to-date is so far behind the rest.
I will have to wait until September to see if the beta of their next version gets its features described in the 5th edition or not.
Anyway, 4th edition is pretty dated, unless you are using IE 5 or 6. If you are getting lured/dragooned into writing some AJAX code, client-side XSLT programming, or any reasonably modern stuff using JavaScript – get the 5th edition.