1.9 Using the Rest of This Book
The rest of this book is in five parts. Part I, which immediately follows
this chapter, documents the core JavaScript language. Chapter 2 through Chapter 6 begin
this section with some bland but necessary reading -- these
chapters cover the basic information you need to understand when
learning a new programming language:
Chapter 2 explains the basic structure of the
language.
Chapter 3 documents the data types supported by
JavaScript.
Chapter 4 covers variables, variable scope, and
related topics.
Chapter 5 explains expressions in JavaScript and
documents each of the operators supported by JavaScript. Because
JavaScript syntax is modeled on Java, which is, in turn, modeled on C
and C++, experienced C, C++, or Java programmers can skim much of
this chapter.
Chapter 6 describes the syntax and usage of each
of the JavaScript statements. Again, experienced C, C++, and Java
programmers can skim some, but not all, of this chapter.
The next five chapters of this first section become more interesting.
They still cover the core of the JavaScript language, but they
document parts of the language that will not already be familiar to
you even if you already know C or Java. These chapters must be
studied carefully if you want to really understand JavaScript:
Chapter 7 documents how functions are defined,
invoked, and manipulated in JavaScript.
Chapter 8 explains objects, the most important
JavaScript data type. This chapter discusses object-oriented
programming in JavaScript and explains how you can define your own
classes of objects in JavaScript.
Chapter 9 describes the creation and use of
arrays in JavaScript.
Chapter 10 explains how to use regular expressions
in JavaScript to perform pattern-matching and search-and-replace
operations.
Chapter 11 covers advanced topics that have not
been covered elsewhere. You can skip this chapter the first time
through the book, but the material it contains is important to
understand if you want to become a JavaScript expert.
Part II explains client-side
JavaScript. The chapters in this part document the web-browser
objects that are at the heart of client-side JavaScript and provide
detailed examples of their use. Any interesting JavaScript program
running in a web browser will rely heavily on features specific to
the client side.
Here's what you'll find in Part III:
Chapter 12 explains the integration of JavaScript
with web browsers. It discusses the web browser as a programming
environment and explains the various ways in which JavaScript is
integrated into web pages for execution on the client side.
Chapter 13 documents the most central and
important object of client-side JavaScript, the Window object, as
well as several important window-related objects.
Chapter 14 explains the Document object and
related objects that expose the contents of an HTML document to
JavaScript code.
Chapter 15 documents the Form object, which
represents HTML forms. It also documents the various form element
objects that appear within HTML forms and shows examples of
JavaScript programming using forms.
Chapter 16 illustrates the use of cookies to save
state in web programming.
Chapter 17 explains the core pieces of the W3C DOM
standard and shows how a JavaScript script can access any element of
an HTML document.
Chapter 18 explains the portions of the W3C DOM
standard that allow a JavaScript program to manipulate the style,
appearance, and position of the elements within an HTML document.
This chapter shows how you can create many DHTML effects with CSS
properties.
Chapter 19 covers JavaScript events and event
handlers, which are central to all JavaScript programs that interact
with the user. This chapter covers the traditional event model, the
W3C DOM standard event model, and the Internet Explorer proprietary
event model.
Chapter 20 explores the important issue of
compatibility in JavaScript programming and discusses techniques you
can use to write JavaScript programs that run correctly (or fail
gracefully) on a wide variety of web browsers.
Chapter 21 enumerates the security restrictions
built into client-side JavaScript and explains the rationale for
them.
Chapter 22 explains how you can use JavaScript to
communicate with and control Java applets. It also covers how you can
do the reverse -- invoke JavaScript code from Java applets.
Part III, Part IV, and Part V are reference sections that document the objects
defined by the core JavaScript language, the objects defined in
traditional client-side JavaScript programming, and the objects
defined by the new W3C DOM standard, respectively.
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