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kgun · #1 (**permalink**) 02-09-2008, 08:13 AM

We all know how AJAX has reduced the gap between desktop applications and web applications. I have always been a fan of the SitePoint books, and often buy a new book once it is launched. The last "The Art & Science of JavaScript" written by seven of the world's premier JavaScript experts is impressing. Examples of what can be done with JavaScript and DOM.

Dragging columns in a table with and without (tabbing) a mouse by implementing an oneliner once you have the function library.

window.onload = function () {var sales = new ColumnDrag("ID);}

where ID is your name property for table. E.G sales as in the books example.

Similarily you can implement a table that can be sorted ascending or descending with and without the mouse. The well known inefficient bubble sort algorithm is used in the sorting, but there is no reason why you should not be able to easily modify the sort functiong by a more efficient algorithme like heap, merge, quick, radix sort etc. if you have to manage large tables in your online documents.

That is the first chapter of the book. You may download an excerpt of the book from the above link and get a full overview of how powerful JavaScript has become. The essence of this paradigme is to understand the DOM and the dom node tree. By manipulating the node tree, deleting, inserting and moving nodes in the tree + styling, you have complete control over your document.

If you have these books (in addition to the above)

you should have enough for a while. I remember when I was working in the Central Bank of Norway, a colleague of mine said the following.

"Teaching students how to use manuals (especially the index and the content) is one of the most important thing you learn them."

Conclusion:
Learn to use libraries and reuse code and you do not need to reinvent the wheel.

Some will say that you do not need books. There is more than enough free code online. That is a matter of taste.