If you're working with JavaScript, these two books will help you approach your web development in a new light. JavaScript Patterns (O'Reilly Media, $29.99 USD) is ideal for any web developer who wonders "is this the best approach?" when building a JavaScript application. And Closure: The Definitive Guide (O'Reilly Media, $49.99 USD) is the ultimate guide to Closure, the JavaScript library and tool suite Google used to build Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Maps. Contact me with the titles you're interested in reviewing, as well as where you'll be posting your review.
—Kathryn Barrett, kathrynb@oreilly.com
New Books from O'Reilly
JavaScript Patterns
By Stoyan Stefanov
What's the best approach for developing an application with JavaScript? This book helps you answer that question with numerous JavaScript coding patterns and best practices. If you're an experienced developer looking to solve problems related to objects, functions, inheritance, and other language-specific categories, the abstractions and code templates in this guide are ideal—whether you're writing a client-side, server-side, or desktop application with JavaScript.
Written by JavaScript expert Stoyan Stefanov—Senior Yahoo! Technical and architect of YSlow 2.0, the web page performance optimization tool—JavaScript Patterns includes practical advice for implementing each pattern discussed, along with several hands-on examples. You'll also learn about anti-patterns: common programming approaches that cause more problems than they solve.
- Explore useful habits for writing high-quality JavaScript code, such as avoiding globals, using single var declarations, and more
- Learn why literal notation patterns are simpler alternatives to constructor functions
- Discover different ways to define a function in JavaScript
- Create objects that go beyond the basic patterns of using object literals and constructor functions
- Learn the options available for code reuse and inheritance in JavaScript
- Study sample JavaScript approaches to common design patterns such as Singleton, Factory, Decorator, and more
- Examine patterns that apply specifically to the client-side browser environment
Closure: The Definitive Guide
By Michael Bolin
If you're ready to use Closure to build rich web applications with JavaScript, this hands-on guide has precisely what you need to learn this suite of tools in depth. Closure makes it easy for experienced JavaScript developers to write and maintain large and complex codebases—as Google has demonstrated by using Closure with Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Maps.
Author and Closure contributor Michael Bolin has included numerous code examples and best practices, as well as valuable information not available publicly until now. You'll learn all about Closure's Library, Compiler, Templates, testing framework, and Inspector—including how to minify JavaScript code with the Compiler, and why the combination of the Compiler and the Library is what sets Closure apart from other JavaScript toolkits.
- Learn how the Compiler significantly reduces the amount of JavaScript users have to download when visiting your site
- Discover several ways to use the Compiler as part of your build process
- Learn about type expressions, primitives, and common utilities
- Understand how Closure emulates classes and class-based inheritance
- Use Closure Templates on the server and the client from either JavaScript or Java
- Test and debug your JavaScript code, even when it's compiled
For a review copy or more information please email kathrynb@oreilly.com. Please include your delivery address and contact information.
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