O'Reilly
December 11, 2001

New Edition of Designing With JavaScript for Designers Who Want to Use JavaScript Now

Sebastopol, CA--Hand-in-hand with their creative drive, most designers also have a yearning to try new tools and techniques, which is fortunate because the Web has presented them with ample opportunities to learn new skills. Having mastered HTML, design principles for crafting web pages, and optimizing graphics for web delivery, most designers will find themselves needing to learn one or more programming languages if they hope to achieve anything more than static web pages. The natural starting point is JavaScript--the popular scripting used to create image rollovers, pop-up windows, auto-scrolling frames and other dynamic effects. O'Reilly's newly released second edition of Designing with JavaScript (Nick Heinle & Bill Pena, US $34.95), shows designers how to achieve the effects they want without forcing them to wade through pages of dry programmer-speak about variables, operators, and functions.

A working knowledge of JavaScript is more essential than ever for web designers. Says coauthor Bill Pena, "The Internet is an interactive environment on many different levels, but if you look at most web sites, they don't actually allow much interaction other than clicking on links to load new pages. JavaScript makes web pages transcend this static library of sites by letting you make any part of a page respond to and interact with the user. Menus and features pop up when you want them, headline tickers update news and stocks, questionnaires and cookies let users save their preferences for your site on their own computer, all of which you can do without having to learn complex programming languages or forcing your users to have certain plugins installed."

Designing with JavaScript is geared toward web designers who don't come from a computer science background, but who have learned web languages and technologies as they've needed them. As Pena explains, "Our book offers these 'accidental programmers' step-by-step instruction of practical JavaScript applications, and example scripts that they can use immediately in their own sites with a minimum of previous knowledge."

"It's also aimed at people like me, who learned JavaScript several years ago, but need to refresh and relearn a lot of the advance topics, such as dynamic HTML and the DOM, to keep up with the now-dominant 6.0 generation of web browsers," Pena adds. "The last three chapters of the book have been completely rewritten to clearly teach the foundations of these technologies. This book will help JavaScript hackers keep their sites and their skills from becoming obsolete."

The first edition of Designing with JavaScript taught tens of thousands of web designers how to enliven their pages with JavaScript. This major revision demonstrates common JavaScript techniques and explains how to customize them for specific purposes. Along the way, it introduces basic JavaScript concepts, teaching the language in the context of real-world examples. By the time a designer finishes this book, he or she will have a solid foundation of JavaScript knowledge that they can apply to their own web pages.

What the critics said about the first edition:

"...very intuitive and not like other programming books you may read...this book is well written and gets my approval, if you are looking to learn JavaScript, or if you already are very experienced in it you will want to pick up the book as it will show you stuff that you didn't know you could do."
--Raymond Angel, thirdgeek.com, May 2001

"Thank you for making such a HUGELY beneficial resource available to designers who are already spread thin enough...Your pages have been leaned on and referred to hundreds of times by myself and my fellow designers here at work. Thanks."
--Joel Harris, Designer

"...a first-rate tutorial that demonstrates how to create dynamic content on your web site through a multitude of examples and explanations...The book emphasizes real-world application of its lessons, making Designing with JavaScript necessary for any budding web designer who wants to move quickly from the static to the dynamic."
--Andrew Boscardin, amazon.com

Designing with JavaScript is a book that makes going to the next level easy and entertaining...Rarely does a book come along which works so well for both beginners and experts, and yet does not talk down (or up) to either part of the audience. Designing with JavaScript is a find in that it teaches the reader its subject in an even-handed and thorough manner. The examples (taken from live sites) are meticulously documented...If you are unfamiliar with JavaScript and want to learn, or are slogging along with a less informative work, then pick this one up."
--Computing News & Review, November 1997

Online Resources:

Designing with JavaScript
By Nick Heinle & Bill Pena
Second Edition, December 2001
ISBN 1-56592-360-x, 216 pages, $34.95 (US)
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938

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