Most programming languages contain good and bad parts, but JavaScript has more than its share of the bad, having been developed and released in a hurry before it could be refined. This authoritative book scrapes away these bad features to reveal a subset of JavaScript that's more reliable, readable, and maintainable than the language as a whole—a subset you can use to create truly extensible and efficient code. Considered the JavaScript expert by many people in the development community, author Douglas Crockford identifies the abundance of good ideas that make JavaScript an outstanding object-oriented programming language-ideas such as functions, loose typing, dynamic objects, and an expressive object literal notation. Unfortunately, these good ideas are mixed in with bad and downright awful ideas, like a programming model based on global variables. When Java applets failed, JavaScript became the language of the Web by default, making its popularity almost completely independent of its qualities as a programming language. In JavaScript: The Good Parts, Crockford finally digs through the steaming pile of good intentions and blunders to give you a detailed look at all the genuinely elegant parts of JavaScript, including: Syntax Objects Functions Inheritance Arrays Regular expressions Methods Style Beautiful features The real beauty? As you move ahead with the subset of JavaScript that this book presents, you'll also sidestep the need to unlearn all the bad parts. Of course, if you want to find out more about the bad parts and how to use them badly, simply consult any other JavaScript book. With JavaScript: The Good Parts, you'll discover a beautiful, elegant, lightweight and highly expressive language that lets you create effective code, whether you're managing object libraries or just trying to get Ajax to run fast. If you develop sites or applications for the Web, this book is an absolute must.

JavaScript is an essential language for creating modern, interactive websites, but its complex rules challenge even the most experienced web designers. With JavaScript: The Missing Manual, you'll quickly learn how to use JavaScript in sophisticated ways -- without pain or frustration -- even if you have little or no programming experience. JavaScript expert David McFarland first teaches you the basics by having you build a simple program. Then you'll learn how to work with jQuery, a popular library of pre-built JavaScript components that's free and easy to use. With jQuery, you can quickly build modern, interactive web pages -- without having to script everything from scratch! Learn how to add scripts to a web page, store and manipulate information, communicate with the browser window, respond to events like mouse clicks and form submissions, and identify and modify HTML Get real-world examples of JavaScript in action Learn to build pop-up navigation bars, enhance HTML tables, create an interactive photo gallery, and make web forms more usable Create interesting user interfaces with tabbed panels, accordion panels, and pop-up dialog boxes Learn to avoid the ten most common errors new programmers make, and how to find and fix bugs Use JavaScript with Ajax to communicate with a server so that your web pages can receive information without having to reload

For JavaScript developers working on increasingly large and complex projects, effective automated testing is crucial to success. Test-Driven JavaScript Development is a complete, best-practice guide to agile JavaScript testing and quality assurance with the test-driven development (TDD) methodology. Leading agile JavaScript developer Christian Johansen covers all aspects of applying state-of-the-art automated testing in JavaScript environments, walking readers through the entire development lifecycle, from project launch to application deployment, and beyond. Using real-life examples driven by unit tests, Johansen shows how to use TDD to gain greater confidence in your code base, so you can fearlessly refactor and build more robust, maintainable, and reliable JavaScript code at lower cost. Throughout, he addresses crucial issues ranging from code design to performance optimization, offering realistic solutions for developers, QA specialists, and testers. Coverage includes • Understanding automated testing and TDD • Building effective automated testing workflows • Testing code for both browsers and servers (using Node.js) • Using TDD to build cleaner APIs, better modularized code, and more robust software • Writing testable code • Using test stubs and mocks to test units in isolation • Continuously improving code through refactoring • Walking through the construction and automated testing of fully functional software The accompanying Web site, tddjs.com, contains all of the book’s code listings and additional resources.

Now that Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) have finally come of age, web designers can take complete control of the appearance of their web pages. This text clearly explains this powerful design tool and how to use it.

Cascading Style Sheets can turn humdrum websites into highly-functional, professional-looking destinations, but many designers merely treat CSS as window-dressing to spruce up their site's appearance. You can tap into the real power of this tool with CSS: The Missing Manual. This second edition combines crystal-clear explanations, real-world examples, and dozens of step-by-step tutorials to show you how to design sites with CSS that work consistently across browsers. Witty and entertaining, this second edition gives you up-to-the-minute pro techniques. You'll learn how to: Create HTML that's simpler, uses less code, is search-engine friendly, and works well with CSS Style text by changing fonts, colors, font sizes, and adding borders Turn simple HTML links into complex and attractive navigation bars -- complete with rollover effects Create effective photo galleries and special effects, including drop shadows Get up to speed on CSS 3 properties that work in the latest browser versions Build complex layouts using CSS, including multi-column designs Style web pages for printing With CSS: The Missing Manual, Second Edition, you'll find all-new online tutorial pages, expanded CSS 3 coverage, and broad support for Firebox, Safari, and other major web browsers, including Internet Explorer 8. Learn how to use CSS effectively to build new websites, or refurbish old sites that are due for an upgrade.

No matter how much experience you have with JavaScript, odds are you don’t fully understand the language. This concise yet in-depth guide takes you inside scope and closures, two core concepts you need to know to become a more efficient and effective JavaScript programmer. You’ll learn how and why they work, and how an understanding of closures can be a powerful part of your development skillset. Like other books in the "You Don’t Know JS" series, Scope and Closures dives into trickier parts of the language that many JavaScript programmers simply avoid. Armed with this knowledge, you can achieve true JavaScript mastery. Learn about scope, a set of rules to help JavaScript engines locate variables in your code Go deeper into nested scope, a series of containers for variables and functions Explore function- and block-based scope, “hoisting”, and the patterns and benefits of scope-based hiding Discover how to use closures for synchronous and asynchronous tasks, including the creation of JavaScript libraries