Book review : DOM Scripting

This excellent book, which primarily targets a web designer audience, teaches you how to manipulate the DOM effectively but also other essential topics used in web development. Prior to reading this book, I already had a good knowledge of the DOM, so the technical aspect wasn’t what I learned the most from this book. And it’s also because the book won’t dig deep into technical aspects as the targetted audience is web designers (and not necessarily developers). An interesting consequence of this is that the author did an outstanding teaching work to make it easily understandable. But what you’ll learn is, according to me, way more useful than pure technical stuff : mastering concepts such as usable javascript, unobtrusive javascript and graceful degradation.

Pros

• Very well written and explained : technical concepts are vulgarised and examples are very relevant (mini websites using all the concepts that were teached).
• Excellent course about the DOM and web development practices using Javascript.

Cons

• As the book was written primarily for web designers, it might leave some developers thirsty for more. But anyway, the more important stuff is in the book so that makes the deal. Just keep in mind that you won’t go in deep technical details in this book.

Conclusion

Another instant-classic book that will not only teach you the DOM very well, but also essential concepts such as usable javascript, unobtrusive javascript and graceful degradation. If you’re working in the web and those concepts are not familiar to you, this book is a must-have on your bookshelf ! But if you already have an advanced knowledge of these things, you might prefer to pick up another, more advanced book.