JavaScript Programmer's Reference
JavaScript is one of today's most widely used scripting languages, and is an essential ingredient for building standards-based dynamic web sites and applications. While JavaScript has long enjoyed support within all major web browsers, a recent wave of browsers specifically boast significant improvement in JavaScript support and performance. This improvement, combined with new web standards such as HTML 5, makes learning JavaScript more important now than ever.This book covers the JavaScript language in its entirety, showing you how to leverage its many features to create the next generation of standards-compliant Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) using Ajax, JSON, and much more.Alexei White, a veteran programming instructor, provides you with both a practical tutorial and an easily accessible reference. The material presented reviews a range of topics from basic JavaScript syntax and core functions to advanced topics such as animation, debugging, remote server interaction, and offline storage.As you progress through the chapters, you'll advance yourJavaScript skills while gaining a strong understanding of the JavaScript language. You'll also discover new tools to solve difficult real-world problems and find numerous reasons to keep this book within arm's reach.What you will learn from this bookAll the core features of JavaScript, including types, objects, operators, syntax, and regular expressionsVarious ways to create and work with functions, including the use of closuresHow to create dynamic effects using DHTML and CSS, and how to use Ajax techniques from the ground upTips for mastering the quirks of and the differences between browsers with each new technique or feature of the languageHow to use object-oriented design principles correctly in JavaScript applicationsWays to shorten your development time by mastering one of a number of available debugging tools such as Firebug or FiddlerMethods for persisting data across web sessions using offline storageHow to avoid common traps and pitfalls like memory leaks and performance hogs to make your programs run smoother and save you timeWho this book is forThis book is written for web developers learning JavaScript for the first time, or seasoned veterans looking to brush up on the latest features of JavaScript.Wrox Programmer's Referencesare designed to give the experienced developer straight facts on a new technology, without hype or unnecessary explanations. They deliver hard information with plenty of practical examples to help you apply new tools to your development projects today.