Any good JavaScript books?

RWB

I'm nearly complete with my "PHP Game Programming" by Matt Rutledge, and I must say it has been great at helping me become a PHP Gawd. I now want to begin furthering my knowledge of JS, I haven't used it much, but I know it a bit more than a beginner with JS.

Anyone know of a good book on it? I'm looking through amazon.com right now.

RWB

OK, while looking through Amazon I saw a book that I could swear looked familiar and it was in the top sellers list. Turns out I have that book, which was given to me by the school and i just never used it, thus why I forgot I had it

So far it looks fairly good, though not as interesting to read as PHP Game Programming...

Straight_Man

The series by O'Reilly & Associates is consistently very good to excellent. If you want SUN Javascript, the best place is virtual, SUN has online courses for developers of SUN Java applets, sometimes also called JavaScript because it is scripted calls plus extensions. O'Reilly handles pubs of SUN Java mostly as JAVA books.

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/

Some times http://www.bamm.com/ has books on discount fron O'Reilly also, and last I heard (yesterday), a greater than $25.00 USD purchase entitles orderer to a free ground shipment of same.

RWB

It seems you think I want JAVA, when I want JavaScript... two very different things. Unless Sun actually made it's own version of JavaScript which my initial google searches has not found anything related yet. Nor does the Sun website show anything related to JavaScript for it's technologies or products.

Though I will look into those O'reilly books as I never read one of their books yet.

a2jfreak

IIRC, JavaScript was developed by Netscape.

RWB

What is IIRC???

primesuspect

IIRC = If I Remember Correctly..

Java and Javascript are totally different.

RWB

Well just becuase I wanted to(and budget allowed) I went ahead and picked up:

Macromedia Flash Advanced: Visual Quickstart Guide; to further my ActionScript knowledge

Creating Web Sites 2nd Edition: Bible; reference and for my lack of commerce experience

JAVA 2 Game Programming; becuase it was in the cheap book pile, and I want to know JAVA as well. Although I thought the book I bought was the one I saw on Amazon that showed you how to make games for Cell Phones and stuff.

And yes, JAVA IS NOT JAVASCRIPT... probably annoys me as much as some of you when someone gets the two confused.

Straight_Man

Well, when JAVA had one class for what has matured into apps now, the beans were scripts. AND JAVA WAS NOT fully compiled by default.

With multiple classes needed by a compilable, that changed.

The Open Source is that parsables which are not compiled are scripts.

One thing to note, MS Javascript, given the Sun acceptance of a MS settlement offer, m ight lead to SUN Javascript again being scriptable (what are .dll files??? Partly they are script, folks.).

Pure def of script-- something written, parsed and used without compilation. By this definition, interpreted code is script. Source code in a language that can interpret and not require compilation is also script.

Correct, MS did morph Java 1 and make it uniquely MS Javascript, but underlying use of Sun functions long after what Sun sold usage rights of those is what brought on both suit b y Sun and settlement which got Sun a large fee and a rights payment plan. And some dll and inf files are pure script as defined above. Other examples of script:

Perl executables that do not have compiled extensions embedded in them or are not compiled;
Some interpreted C++ code, is script through the base Alpha dev subprocess dev state;
BASIC, before compiling, and early BASIC code sometimes was interpreted only;
Visual basic during GUI build time, GUI can be parsed-only code, or combos of hex embedded plus interpreted code-- the first is script;
Uncompiled Fortran;
Dev of Sun Java, at Alpha dev stage, can be script.

So, def of script excluded from Java only is not purely sans script also-- look at the Sun Java script examples in thier dev newsletter sometime. Most Java Code is now compiled, right, though, these days.

RWB

What are you talking about and why? I know you're trying to talk about JAVA being a script, but what's your point? Sorry if this sounds rude, I just couldn't find a better way of asking.

Last I heard JAVA is an Object Oriented Programming Language that came before it's time and has developed much over the past several years since it's introduction changing every year at least. It's not yet a fully implemented language becuase it's not fully compiled and is also the reason it's not as fast as other languages becuase it's similar to script. But I'd hardly call it a script. Granted all this I learned recently, with the exception of the big differences between it and JavaScript, so I don't know what the language was like when it first began. However, I don't see how that applies. I don't even know what the lawsuit was between Microsoft and Sun Microsystems was about. The book I got is appearently older than I thought as it mentions it "came out so soon after the release of XP to know the full impact this suit has[or something along these lines]".

Still I'd like to know what your post is about.

Straight_Man

Correct-- Java is not just script. In alpha stage of dev, Java is also often scripted and interpreted. Thus, some folks refer to the alpha code as JavaScript-- not Javascript, which is used for the MS Javascript. IMHO, you can do much more with Java which can use client side code base, and also have more secure code.

Moreover, expect SUN Java in MS products to return to Windows at some time starting a year from now (next gen of Widnows, I would expect to see some Java embedded-- note also that the Java (from SUN stuff) WAS in Widnows 98, the kernel was JAVA for build 1801 of the windows kernel in Windows 98 and it was the BEST and most stable such kernel and was one reason for the settlement monies being so high. MS licensed JAVA for five years as well as paying settlement monies.

What I am saying is that Javascript as it stands now will not work on non-Windows boxes right. Java will. If you build a SUN Java set of executables they will be faster than if you use Javascript, and be more future-usable.

What I was actually offering was an alternative, not a misunderstanding of script. Today's SUN Java script and compiled code will be around a long time-- Sun even offers an OS based on Linux+Java, the Sun Java Desktop. I write zero Javascript, BUT am writting some tiny pieces of SUN Java to learn it.

BTW, Sun JAVA was dicussed in the early 80's as a language that woudl last probably-- source was Byte Magazine from that era as both I and the college I was going to had subscriptions-- I read it at college, then subscribed fora few years. Byte was one of the premier mags then.

Linc

http://www.dannyg.com/ref/javavsjavascript.html

http://www.devx.com/projectcool/Article/20066/0/page/2

http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/j_vs_js.html

Yes, Netscape did create Javascript. It works in almost any web browser on any platform because it's embedded in HTML.



I use Visual Quickstart Guide: Javascript for the World Wide Web by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith (5th Edition, Student Edition). It's more than adequate and VQS guides are all-around excellent

RWB

General Keebler wrote:

http://www.dannyg.com/ref/javavsjavascript.html

http://www.devx.com/projectcool/Article/20066/0/page/2

http://www.htmlgoodies.com/beyond/j_vs_js.html

Yes, Netscape did create Javascript. It works in almost any web browser on any platform because it's embedded in HTML.



I use Visual Quickstart Guide: Javascript for the World Wide Web by Tom Negrino and Dori Smith (5th Edition, Student Edition). It's more than adequate and VQS guides are all-around excellent

That's the same book I had from school