Nerd Alert!
Someone please close this thread 
Nerd alert in a JavaScript thread? We aren’t talking about changing oil in a car here are we? 
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- Javascript is a subset of Java, so I will repeat one very good Java book: “Java Programming the Easy Way” by Douglas Downing, 1999, ISBN 0-7641-0752-6, $18.95 USD cover price, lists at Amazon right now for $13.27. As God is my witness, this is the only good total-beginner Java programming book I have ever found. Before you go blowing $50-$60 on the big-name thick books with ugly nerds or animals on the covers, you really need to get this one first–those monster books are not written for beginners. You don’t have to know anything about any other programming language, or object-oriented programming to learn from this book. It explains all that and covers applets and regular java programs. It doesn’t specifically deal with Javascript, but once you have worked through this (rather slim, 365 pages) book, you will be able to simply look at simpler Javascripted web page sources and understand what the Javascript is doing. This book explains and shows working examples of how to do calculations and logic, get keyboard and mouse inputs, use text and fonts, how to use images, draw raster and vector graphics, “animate” on-screen objects and play sounds.
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- Javascript is a subset of Java, so I will repeat one very good Java book: “Java Programming the Easy Way” by Douglas Downing, 1999, ISBN 0-7641-0752-6, $18.95 USD cover price, lists at Amazon right now for $13.27. As God is my witness, this is the only good total-beginner Java programming book I have ever found. Before you go blowing $50-$60 on the big-name thick books with ugly nerds or animals on the covers, you really need to get this one first–those monster books are not written for beginners. You don’t have to know anything about any other programming language, or object-oriented programming to learn from this book. It explains all that and covers applets and regular java programs. It doesn’t specifically deal with Javascript, but once you have worked through this (rather slim, 365 pages) book, you will be able to simply look at simpler Javascripted web page sources and understand what the Javascript is doing. This book explains and shows working examples of how to do calculations and logic, get keyboard and mouse inputs, use text and fonts, how to use images, draw raster and vector graphics, “animate” on-screen objects and play sounds.
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Not true. JavaScript was developed completely independent of Java. It was created by Netscape and was originally called LiveScript. It was renamed to capitalize on the hype surrounding Sun’s Java, but has nothing whatsoever to do with Java. They both share syntactic similarities to C/C++, so any similarities are because they are cousins in that regard, but they have no closer relationship than that. In so much as they share a lot of syntax rules, learning Java may help with Javascript, but Javascript is definitely not a subset of Java in the same way that VBScript was born of VB or Perlscript was born of Perl.
ccwaterback I was just joshin’ Everyone started telling stories about JavaScript and laughing and it seemed very funny to me. I mean where else do you get a buch of folks telling JS anecdotes?
Anyway, my two cents - I’ve been making Web sites for over 5 years now and have been a professional for 2 years. I know HTML like the back of my hand and have never sat down to “learn” JavaScript but I use it alot. I think your wife can get what she needs by doing alot of research online. Most of my learning came from gathering up code snippets from JS resources (like http://javascript.internet.com ) and comparing them with other folks’ code snippets (millions of them on the Web) and getting the functions to do exactly what I want to do by making changes myself. Most of the places where you find snippets also offer up tips like what browsers work with what and how to make changes for browser compatibility.
It’s important for her to know what JavaScript can do and what is the right time to use it vs. server-side scripting. If she knows how and when it should be applied, finding the right code and applying it won’t be hard.
JavaScript is quite useful on the Web when using it for DHTML. She should beef up on her CSS if she doesn’t know it well and get the two together do be able to do some really fancy stuff.
I would recommend she look online and also get herself a nice reference book that has code snippets in it and explains what they are. My friend took a class once and his text was “Teach Yourself JavaScript in 24 Hours.” He was able to pick up JS right away and make a Yatzhee game in just a week of class. Of course, he is an OO programmer but knows nothing of Web design so he’s in a different place than your wife.
The more she uses it in real-life situations is what is going to make her proficient in it. I believe Web-oriented certifications are crap. I’ve never learned anything useful in a Web class that I hadn’t already learned on my own.
Glad your wife is serious about this, though There’s enough clueless Web professionals in this world!
Oh and remember…it’s getElementById…not ID. That one trips me up every time lol
I did a really fun course on http://www.vu.org - the Virtual University.
You do need to have a good grasp of Html first.