neandrake

Professional Ajax 2nd edition by Nicholas Zakas, Jeremy McPeak, and Joe Fawcett - is another book which I was able to have covered as a work expense. I've read through several sections (and also skipped over others). This book serves as a good introduction ti Ajax with examples, and a few case studies on more advanced applications (AjaxMail, and a few others). Covers the history and usage of ajax, along with a chapter on typical design patterns (like implementing a priority queue for requests). Overall it's a pretty good book, but as I have another reference for JavaScript (which includes small sections on Ajax), I don't find much extra use in this, perhaps a few chapters out of the entire book. Covers libraries (such as the .Net Ajax extensions, and others). The cover price is $40, and I would value it at $15-$20, rated 3.0/5. Worth taking a look at, but really look at it before buying to see if it will help you.

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MK27

I have "Professional Javascript for Developers" by Zakas (the guy in the front of that picture) out from the library. It is kind of amazing that someone managed to write 800 pages about javascript, and I very much doubt that anyone has ever needed to read it all. Zakas is very clear and informative, but I think does a half-assed jobed organizing material, and so ends up with way too much of it. I guess these things are intended as exhaustive references.

I also have "Ajax on Rails" (Scott Raymond) out. That is a freaking great book by a very good writer. I'll probably read the whole thing.

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brewbuck

Hmm. Maybe I could refer to that book to figure out how to write a web server in JavaScript.

...

Think about that

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MK27

Quite a challenge without any file i/o to work with.

Probably the book would only be half as long if microsoft and netscape were not constantly trying to cut one another out with intentional incompatibility.

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MK27

I take that back. This (Ajax on Rails) is an okay book by twerp. I got seduced by the introduction and chapter 1, and I must have been pretty drunk. It seems to be going down hill fast; the upside is I won't be reading the whole thing, since there is plenty of irrelevant commentary that can be skipped*. (The truth may be somewhere in the middle).


*How's this for pure filler: a section on the Appropriate Use of Color. Just the information I was looking for! What a prick...

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MK27

I've actually decided to set Ruby on Rails aside (perhaps permanently) and investigate embedded perl server systems/frameworks, so I can at least say to myself I tried more than one method of accomplishing more or less the same sort of task. I think this would have been difficult if I hadn't done RonR first, because it makes a lot things easy and gave me an understanding of what a web framework is and how it works.

Before I forget, tho, I want to correct myself and say my final opinion on "Ajax on Rails" (which I've now read most of it) is the same as my first impression: it is unusually well written and organized, esp. by comparison to some of the other rails and ajax books I've had the opportunity to peruse. It is not a complete introduction or reference to rails (or ajax); the focus is on the intersection of the two -- which rails aims for a lot of integration with prototype and script.aculo.us. The book includes a complete reference to both of those *and* the various rails helper functions related to them*.

So all apologies to Mr. Scott Raymond for calling him a drunken twerp And anyone who wants a hands on, highly functional introduction to "web 2.0" style programming, try Ruby on Rails. It's like macaroni and cheese in a box.

*which, since Mason does not have these, I am now having to write some parallel functions, etc. myself. Being a control freak and compulsive typist, I actually prefer that (fewer layers of abstraction), but IMO it would be Pretty Damn Challanging without the intro provided by RonR...

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