This book is an excellent learning book for experienced programmers. However it's index is not as complete as needed for a reference volumne. The summary at the end is comprehensive, but not detailed enough to be really useful. The online reference is more useful. It contains a couple minor errors in advanced areas that won't become apparent until you've used javascript for some time

Goodmans JavaScript Bible covers JavaScript for Netscape Navigator 3 and JavaScript 1.1 barely, just barely. Mostly the book is written for Navigator 2 and JavaScript 1.0. Unfortunately Navigator 4 and JavaScript 1.2 hit the streets quite some time ago and the book is showing its age. Further right on the cover of the book, you see the book is supposed to cover LiveConnect. Yeah right and pigs fly don't they? Theres a single chapter on LiveConnect that brushes over the technology and confuses this poor reader more than it helps.

As a JavaScript resource I to say JavaScript Bible fails to make the grade. There are lots of other good JavaScript books out there. 2 right off the top of my head are: Flanagans JavaScript: The Definitive Guide and Staneks Netscape ONE Developer's Guide. At least Flanagans book is honest when it says that it covers Navigator 3.0 beta and JavaScript 1.0. The book also takes the time to point out JavaScript bugs. To truly get to JavaScript 1.2 though you need a copy of Netscape ONE Developers Guide. The book covers both client-side and server-side JavaScript extensively.

The book is very good and fits all skill levels. Though when learning a new language a previous knowledge of another language is always good but not necessary in this case. My previous knowledge was HTML, Pascal, and a few chapters of Perl. HTML is a must of course. The book doesn't gradually increase in difficulty by chapter but they are all mixed per chapter. If he was talking about the window object in one chapter, a skill level would be indicated(i.e beginners, intermediate, or advanced). Beginners would of course stick to their level but I read all of it and found it quite comprehensible. Experimentation with the CD samples helps. I haven't finished the book yet but it has been very helpful so far. I'm on Ch14 of the 26 chapters. A few hours of daily reading dor a week will already give you a lot of ideas for your site. You get ongoing support too. The first book I tried was JavaScript for Netscape2.0 by Tim Ritchey and was frustrated with the errors. JS Bible is much better. I've only found 3 minor errors so far. The third being the publisher's fault. If you wanna know what I've learned so far, my site is at http://www.voyager.co.nz/~vag118

I use Danny Goodman's book all the time. He actually writes code (a lot of books just list features), and the code does practical things. I think I just share his pragmatic, user-focused way of thinking, so I found a natural rapport with his style.

His description of custom objects, for example, has helped me considerably, because I never learned any object-oriented programming. Other books don't give this subject much attention.

Also, the index is really helpful. I can always find what I want quickly. Our site, www.homefair.com, makes only limited use of client-side javascript, but we really make javascript do a lot of work on the server side, and I have Goodman's book right beside me when I do development.

Goodman's JavaScript Bible helped me get started with JavaScript but didn't put all the pieces together in a way that made sense. Don't get me wrong, the book was okay (it covers JavaScript 1.0 for Netscape 2 and JavaScript 1.1 for Netscape 3 beta). But in a lot of ways the book is more like a reference book that says here's what this is, here's what that is, here's what this is again, instead of explaining and teaching.

The book that helped me truly learn what I could do with JavaScript and what was beyond JavaScript is WILLIAM STANEK'S NETSCAPE ONE DEVELOPERS GUIDE. HIS book covers BOTH client-side and server-side JavaScript. HIS book also covers JavaScript 1.2 (new for Navigator 4.0) with excellent coverage of connecting applets and plug-ins using scripts with LIVECONNECT.

If you have ANY desire to learn JavaScript, then THIS is the book to buy! Incredibly detailed, easy to read (can't say that for most computer books), and your pages will come alive instantly! This IS the Bible for JavaScript programmers... Very appropriately titled

When I first got this book, I read it closely and tried to work through the examples. Although I learned quite a bit, I found that the book was increasingly being used as a drink coaster...I found that the book I used more and more was the Netscape ONE Developer's Guide and just about everyone in the shop that writes scripts concurred (as did someone who commented earlier below).

If you like Goodman's style and a just getting started, I think you will like the JavaScript Bible. To move on to advanced topics and see another (perhaps more useful) approach to JavaScript, move on to the Netscape ONE Developer's Guide. If you know a bit about scripting and Web publishing, I'd skip this one and go straight to the aforementioned book--you'll love it

The book was an okay treatment of JavaScript, but I learned tons more with Netscpape ONE Developer's Guide, which covers both client-side and server-side JavaScript. Goodman's book doesn't cover server-side JavaScript at all. The book also doesn't cover much advanced stuff...The proof is in the pudding. See for yourself

An absolutely phenomenal book! If you are an intermediate to advanced HTML scripter and want to beef up your Web Pages' capabilities and interactivity, then you will get a lot of mileage out of this volume. Mr. Goodman writes in a very one-on-one tone and all of the topics are very easy to pick up and understand - even if you have no programming experience such as C, C++, or Java. My one MINOR complaint is that (especially with a topic like JavaScript) you are bound to be given elements in sample scripts that haven't been introduced, and won't be for several dozen pages. This is inevitable, I think, and with a little industrious page-turning and skimming, it is easilly remedied. If patient, all the pieces DO fall into place near the end and you can always reread the book and use it for a valuable reference. Given the overall job done on the JavaScript Bible 2nd Edition book, Mr. Goodman handled the problem better than most could have.

Most complete reference and tutorial I've seen on the subject. -Jeffrey Trent, President Structure Software, Inc.