Javascript Programmer's Reference

Javascript Programmer's Reference, 9781861004598 (1861004591), Wrox Press, 2001

The book is aimed at people who already have some knowledge of JavaScript and need a companion volume to their daily work. It is primarily aimed at the experienced practitioner, and so does not attempt to be a tutorial for the beginner.

For a tutorial book, we suggest Paul Wilton's Beginning JavaScript
(Wrox Press, ISBN 1-861004-06-0).

Typical uses of the book include times when you:

Need to check out the specific details of a particular language construct or object property
Know what you want to do, but want to know how JavaScript helps you achieve that
Want information on cross-browser compatibility issues for your script
Have encountered a problem in your script and need help to debug it

One important motivation I had for writing this book was to reduce the amount of material I have to carry around when I'm working on projects in my clients' offices. My library now contains several shelves devoted purely to JavaScript, and in researching this book, I ended up with many megabytes of material. There have been many fine books written about JavaScript but I simply cannot carry them around on the train, even with a large rucksack! So, I set out to try and distil enough useful information into one book and organize it so that the information is easy to find. I've also put in material on issues that I've encountered in discussions with other programmers.

To make it easy to navigate through the topics, titles describe the topic content and the topic type and are organized alphabetically. Where a topic might be referred to using several headings, a brief entry in the cross-reference at the end of the book shows the main topic for that subject.

The book content was developed inside a database system, which provided tools to relate topics. The benefit is a rich source of cross-referencing links between topics. The cross-reference in the printed book is complete; that is, it also includes entries found only on the CD. The italicized crossreferences in the printed book can also be found in the printed book.

About the Author
Cliff Wootton lives in the south of England and works on multimedia systems and content management software for large data driven web sites. Currently he is developing interactive TV systems for BBC News Online in London (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news) and previously worked for other commercial broadcasters on their web sites. Before that he spent several years developing geophysical software and drawing maps with computers for oil companies.

Cliff is married with three daughters and a growing collection of bass guitars.