Comments about oreilly JavaScript: The Missing Manual:

There are not clear illustrations of completed code.

Not enough examples to give clarification.

Limited or no explanation of how a snippet of code is actually placed on the page.

I learned very little from this book.

Comments about oreilly JavaScript: The Missing Manual:

I was trying to get into Javascript for about a year. I bought John Resig's JS book ('Aee... Prototyping? Paradigm? How about grammar basics?'). I bought David Flanagan book ('Yeeah, great, but when shall I be able to code something by myself?').
And after that I suddenly happened to get David McFarland's Missing Manual. Now I understand language grammar, I know how to do what I need or where to look for. I know that jQuery is a great lib and it covers most of my needs. And I am ready to go further in JS, if I need to =)
I am happy.

Comments about oreilly JavaScript: The Missing Manual:

[...].What´s great about the book:-It does contain some useful information about JavaScript. -The chapters are well structured and indexed and you can find the theme you´re looking for very quickly. -The first chapters are ok for beginners, and deliver the basics of JsvaScript pretty accurately.What´s not so great:-The content (as expected) gets more complicated, but the way to present it also. I found myself having to re-read entire pages trying to figure out what the author was trying to say.-Not enough "hands-on" material. I´ve found it is is normal for this kind of books to not provide that much tutorial material as one would like. Nonetheless i think more materials and examples could still be added to this one, as the examples in the book were pretty straightforward and didn´t bring you to think for yourself the solutions to the problems.I do love the missing manual series (i find dreamweaver cs5 and css really awesome books) this one let me a bit dissapointed. It is not a total waste of money of course, there are great tips in it as well, but i think it could have been better.

Comments about oreilly JavaScript: The Missing Manual:

the author is not trying to prove he is genius... (he's writing the book isn't he?!) best writing to convey info. anticipates a lot of questions NEVER addressed in most other computer related manuals

Comments about oreilly JavaScript: The Missing Manual:

An excellent introductory material for those who want to understand javascript... but it doesn't stay raw and instead introduces you to jQuery, a javascript library which still employs methods and tricks learned from early chapters - good stuff! Personally I feel raw javascript was lucking as i expected to learn to code most of the things instead of using a library of pre-coded methods. However it taught me jQuery which is not too bad. I still recommend it to anyone who wants to learn JS from scratch! 4 stars tho'

Comments about oreilly JavaScript: The Missing Manual:

For me, this book filled in and consolidated all of the information I needed on Javascript. Additionally, I have really enjoyed learning about the jQuery framework after dabbling in other less well documented javascript frameworks. Thanks for providing me with a must have "go-to" reference anytime I want to put some zing in my projects!

Comments about oreilly JavaScript: The Missing Manual:

I feel the Kasper's review is overly negative so to be fair and balance things up I give this book 5 stars - granted, I have only read the first 5 chapters but so far the writing is engaging, concepts are explained clearly and the material seems to be well organised and the tutorials are entertaining and its clear some work has gone into them. As a book for getting things done it excels - if a library exists eith the code you need why waste time reinventing the wheel? If you need an exhaustive account of javascript's features there is 'the definitive guide'. On the strength of the first 5 chapters I bought David Mac Sawyer's 'CSS, the missing manual'. If you're looking for a book to get you into javascript and and putting it to work making your sites look good I say go for it. When I have finished the book I'll try to give an updated review, time permitting.

Comments about oreilly JavaScript: The Missing Manual:

Personally, I was having high expectations of JavaScript: The Missing Manual. I was hoping for an improvement on my client-side scripting, an aspect of webprogramming on which I have always been lacking skills. Unfortunately, this book failed to do so. Contrary to what is on the front or back of the book, it's main content is how to use a javascript framework (i.e. jQuery) to implement certain nice and/or useful features on your website. However, I was already using a framework (prototype/script.aculo.us) to get those neat 'web 2.0 artwork', but I wanted to be able to write my own framework. Besides that, why would I switch from prototype/script.aculo.us to jQuery?

So, in the end, only the first few chapters which explain in general the working and syntax of JavaScript were good for me. I had already read some about that, but it was a good opportunity to freshen up that knowledge. But if you're really looking for something to learn JavaScript from, leave this book on its shelf. However, if you're looking for a way to get fancy websites fast using jQuery, this could be just the book for you!