About this Book
JavaScript is important. That wasn’t always so, but it’s true now.
Web applications are expected to give users a rich user interface experience, and without JavaScript, you might as well just be showing pictures of kittens. More than ever, web developers need to have a sound grasp of the language that brings life to web applications.
And like orange juice and breakfast, JavaScript isn’t just for browsers anymore. The language has knocked down the walls of the browser and is being used on the server in engines such as Rhino and V8, and in frameworks like Node.js.
Although this book is primarily focused on JavaScript for web applications, the fundamentals of the language presented in part 2 of this book are applicable across the board.
With more and more developers using JavaScript, it’s now more important than ever that they grasp its fundamentals, so that they can become true ninjas of the language.
This is not your first JavaScript book. If you’re a complete novice to JavaScript, or you only understand a handful of statements by searching the web for code snippets, this is not the book for you. Yet.
This book is aimed at web developers who already have at least a basic grasp of JavaScript. You should understand the basic structure of JavaScript statements and how they work to create straightforward on-page scripts. You don’t need to be an advanced user of the language—that’s what this book is for—but you shouldn’t be a rank novice.