Javascript in Easy Steps

by Mike McGrath

use to create interactive web pages

Genres: Programming, Computer Science, Coding, Computers, Nonfiction, Website Design

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

JavaScript in Easy Steps by Mike McGrath 5th Edition
2013 is a very introductory book on the javascript
language and computer programming in general.
For seasoned programmers learning the particulars
of javascript, the book is far too elementary.
For example p. 15, "As JavaScript is a case-sensitive
language you must be sure to correctly capitalize the
getElementById() method and the innerHTML property."
And on p. 93, "Don't forget, expressions in innermost
parentheses are evaluated first."

For tyros entirely new to programming, this book will
have them telling the browser what do to in short
order. Each bite-sized exercise is only 2 pages
long, half explanatory text and half a small code
example to run on the browser for immediate feedback.
Good for young learners -- there is an example of a
simple animation of a sailboat "sailing" across the
browser window.

As of April 2021, the code examples from the 5th
edition are still available for download from
ineasysteps.com. Bravo to the publisher.

The 5th edition does have errors, and I do not
see an errata list maintained at ineasysteps.com.
Boo to the publisher.

Errata p. 48:
...the for loop, which has this syntax:
for ( initializer, condition, modifier ) { statements... }

The correct javascript syntax employs the semicolon
not the comma:

for ( initializer; condition; modifier ) ...

Errata p. 73: "do not include trailing brackets
after..." This is an error because function call
syntax does not have "trailing brackets" but instead
uses parentheses, like this: sortNums().

Errata p. 164: incomplete index. For example, neither
CSS nor Cascading Style Sheets are in the index,
yet mentioned in the text on p. 164. Some property
names eg. clientWidth are absent although mentioned
in the text.


On p. 95 we see the classic biased shuffle algorithm.
With just a bit more space, a good Fisher-Yates
shuffle can be demonstrated. A helpful illumination
of the weak randomizer algorithm's flaw:

https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/...


Review of
JavaScript In Easy Steps 5th Edition
ISBN 1840785705 (ISBN13: 9781840785708)
April 2021

[Cynthia Armistead Newman · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book isn't worth the paper on which it's printed, unless you're already a developer. If you aren't, don't bother. McGrath introduces concepts with little to no explanation, tells you to type something in, says it should do X, then moves on to the next thing. An average of two pages per concept, with the code descriptions.

He doesn't address best practices (at least, not a quarter of the way through the book). He always puts the scripts in the head of the document, which is (according to others I've been learning from) a bad idea unless there's a good reason for it.

Along with all that, there's supposed to be a web site that goes with the book, where you can download the sample code. There's no mention of the fact that the site is only accessible to those in the U.K. Why do that, then market the book in North America?

I think it deserves no stars, but GoodReads won't let me do that.

[Thomas Norstein · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not going to make a huge review of this guide, since it's not my usual "story".

I was a bit disappointed. I expected to learn a lot by reading this, but it wasn't as education as I thought. For one thing, I hated how we couldn't see the final pieces of code without inputting it into a computer every single lesson. I'm not really interested in making 100+ new files on my computer just to see how it would work.

I'd like to use the pieces of code from the guide into my own... This book made that rather hard to do. I will admit, that it did teach me a couple of new tricks that I'll be sure to use, but many websites make this much easier. Maybe I'll use the ideas from the book and learn how to do them using the Internet...

[Rachel Nabors · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book way back in 2003 because it was cheap, and I was interested in JavaScript, specifically doing "cool stuff" with JavaScript. This book, however, was not a cookbook but a primer. So I quickly grew bored with its back-to-basics examples that lacked real-world applications or flash.

Seven years later, when visiting my mother I rediscovered this book on a shelf with all my other school books at a time when I'm very keen to learn the basics of JavaScript. Now it seems like a brilliant little book, an excellent introduction. If you can look beyond its pitiful design and IE 6 screenshots, it's really quite a sweet little book. Just what I needed.

[vierslovski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible.
Instead of "Plain English" the cover should say "Robot English". In fact, even a robot could write more understandable text. I found myself looking desperately for the code sections because they were the only hope I had to understand a concept. Code that sometimes was too complicated.
No explanation for anything. Well. If you are new to javaScript just look for something else because if you think that javaScript is like this you will run away from it and give up in no time.

[Khuram Malik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just find this book a little too plain and a little too basic even if i am new to programming. I wanted something a little more involved than just brushing over the concepts.

I think it serves as a nice reference, but then again for reference, you can always use google.

[Notdorothy]

Javascript in Easy Steps by Mike McGrath (2003)

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading the first part of this book, I just decided to learn it online. I've gone through too many books that barely explain a lot.