DOM Scripting by by Jeremy Keith brought me back to JavaScript. My first JavaScript book was the Book of JavaScript by David Thau. I got it when it first came out in 2000 and was thrilled, at least for a while. Interactivity is cool. And turning a web page into a simple program seemed like such a good idea. But what a mess. The need to write JS for two different browsers was annoying. When Netscape 6 came out, that grew to three and I gave up. Great idea but the browser wars forced me to be a non-combatant.

I turned my scripting to the server side and learned a little PHP and went my merry way. Flash was an alternative and I play with it a little but it still has accessibility hurdles and when a client hears Flash often they think of Flash intros, which I hate for all the obvious reasons. Oh, for the simple promise that JavaScript offered but never fulfilled.

But the browser makers moved closer to web standards, at least enough to make the document object model (DOM) a reasonable basis for client side scripting. I kept thinking of getting back to JavaScript, someday.

Then along came AJAX. People began doing some really cool things by mixing JavaScript, CSS, XML and server side scripts. None of the pieces was new but the ways people are combining them has been really innovative. All the hype got me thinking about getting my JavaScript chops back. AJAX and Web 2.0 may be more noise than not but beneath the glitter there is some substance.

Where to start? Well, DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model by Jeremy Keith turned out to be just what I was looking for. It isn’t AJAX. It’s JavaScript, from a solid standards based model, that promotes well formed XHTML and CSS. It’s good scripting build on top of good code, which is a good thing.

If the book simply promoted “best practices” it would be worthwhile. But this is a damn good teaching text, too. The last feature is so rare that I bow to Mr. Keith. So often programming texts are written by and for alpha geeks and are opaque to mere mortals. I can actually understand this book the first time through.

DOM Scripting is written, not to programmers but to designers, albeit designers who are competent hand coders, but designers, none the less. The examples make sense. The projects are ones I actually will use. And terms are described in plain English, with no assumptions of some core, pre-existing knowledge. What makes this book even friendlier is that fact that it isn’t a doorstop. At less than 400 pages, including appendices, it’s not so intimidating that it will never get read.

If you read and work this book, you will have a solid foundation in client side, interactive web design. If you need to do AJAX, you will have a good handle on how to work its basic tools in your web pages.

If you already know JavaScript and simply want to get current on the DOM, you should find this a quick read and not a reference.

DOM Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Mode

by Jeremy Keith

Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: friends of ED (September 20, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN: 1590595335

Ease of use: 5
Features: 4
Value for Money: 4
Writing Quality: 5

Highly Recommended

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