Javascript [Electronic resources] : The Definitive Guide (4th Edition) نسخه متنی

What's New in the Fourth Edition

This edition of

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
has been thoroughly updated in light of the changes I just described.
Major new features include complete coverage of JavaScript 1.5 and
the third edition of the ECMA-262 standard on which it is based, and
complete coverage of the Level 2 DOM standard.

Throughout the book, the focus has shifted from documenting
particular JavaScript and browser implementations ( JavaScript 1.2,
Netscape 4, Internet Explorer 5, etc.) to documenting the standards
upon which those implementations are (or ought to be) based. Because
of the proliferation of implementations, it is no longer practical
for any one book to attempt to document -- or for any one
developer to attempt to understand -- every feature, proprietary
extension, quirk, and bug of every implementation. Focusing on the
specifications instead of the implementations makes this book easier
to use and, if you take the same approach, will make your JavaScript
code more portable and maintainable. You'll particularly notice
the increased emphasis on standards in the new material on core
JavaScript and the DOM.

Another major change in this edition is that the reference section
has been split into three distinct parts. First, the core JavaScript
material has been separated from the client-side JavaScript material
(Part IV) and placed in a section of its
own (Part III). This
division is for the convenience of JavaScript programmers who are
working with the language in an environment other than a web browser
and who are not interested in client-side JavaScript.

Second, the new material documenting the W3C DOM has been placed in a
section of its own (Part V), separate from the existing
client-side JavaScript material.
The DOM standard defines an API that is quite distinct from the
"legacy" API of traditional client-side JavaScript.
Depending on the browser platforms they are targeting, developers
typically use one API or the other and usually do not need to switch
back and forth. Keeping these two APIs distinct also preserves the
organization of the existing client-side reference material, which is
convenient for readers of the third edition who upgrade to this
edition.

In order to accommodate all the new material without making the book
much, much larger, I've gotten rid of reference pages for the
trivial properties of objects. These properties are already described
once on the reference page for the object, and putting another
description in a reference page of its own was redundant and
wasteful. Properties that require substantial description, as well as
all methods, still have reference pages of their own. Furthermore,
the design wizards at O'Reilly have created a new interior
design for the book that remains easy and pleasant to read but takes
up less space.