Head First HTML5 Programming: Building Web Apps with Javascript [ペーパーバック]

The first 6 chapters blew me away with its coverage of JavaScript. I really wasn't expecting an introduction to JavaScript from an HTML5 Book, but I am glad it did, however, as the first half of the book is an excellent introduction to using JavaScript for DOM Manipulation as well as passing data to and from web servers and 3rd party services using the XMLHttpRequest Object. If you are unfamiliar with JavaScript, I would recommend this as your first book for learning JavaScript. The focus on fundamentals was really refreshing. The examples were believable, interesting, and challenging. And, the whole problem-solution approach used in the Head First Series Books is very useful for both learning the theory and applying it in real-world scenarios.

The last half of the book takes all the JavaScript you learned in the first half and applies it to some of the new features in HTML5 like Geolocation, Canvas, Video, Web Storage, and Web Workers. I am still amazed by the Geolocation and Google Maps API example as I just did something similar for a client. Just like the coverage of JavaScript, you get a really solid introduction to using the HTML5 features as well as background on the problems they solve. As you can see from the list of features I mentioned above, the book doesn't cover all the new features in HTML5. As with all the Head First Books you get a list of the top 10 things they didn't cover and there is an appendix that lists many of the new HTML5 Tags that aren't covered, too.

If you haven't read a Head First Series Book, be prepared for a lot of diagrams, puzzles, pictures, speech bubbles, games, and other visual and gaming strategies to help you learn. I still haven't quite got used to it, but after reading Head First HTML5 I am convinced the books are worth it even if I am not a huge fan of all the strategies.

The book is very much targeted at beginners. If you are new to JavaScript and HTML5 and appreciate lots of images, Q&A's, puzzles, and other strategies to help you learn, I highly recommend the book.

This is not an HTML 5 reference book and does not pretend to be. Go through the easy-to-follow book page by page, exercise by exercise. Come out at the end understanding how to program in JavaScript and knowing enough about HTML5 to build superior websites. Head First HTML5 Programming: Building Web Apps with JavaScript

You can always pick up a reference book to pick up the odds and ends, if you need to do so.

Don't be intimidated by the alleged 600 pages in a tutorial format. First, lots of white space, graphics and big type mean you won't be looking at sheets of man pages. Moreover, all those design elements serve real purposes. Each topic gets a breezy, easy-to-assimilate intro. Then it presents the key concept with clear illustrations. Next, you have to think about what you just learned and construct real-world examples.

After the overview, each of the nine main chapters follows the same pattern. You learn as you go. The authors present the key basic information and techniques for each category. Sure, you have to follow the book in order to build on each topic, but you really only have to work on one at a time. You won't find yourself hitting the TOC and index to try to tie in the related content. Freeman and Robson have handled that in background.

For just one peek, the web storage (chapter 9) starts off with a cutesy closet analogy in words and a 50s photo. It jumps directly into a history of the development of browser storage, particularly cookies. It illustrates the functions of cookies and presents a quiz on what problems using cookies might present.

This leads immediately into verbal and graphic descriptions of how the HTML5 JavaScript API differs from and how it has some of the same functions as cookies. This flows into an exercise where you think of the API as a Post-it note system, with tasks on creating a web page with browser storage. This is functional and you test your work in a browser. Afterward, words and images explain what happened in each stage of the browser implementing the code.

The chapter continues along that line, dealing with each aspect of storage, through flushing data no longer needed. When you complete the tutorial, including the programming, you know plenty about how web storage works and how to implement it in your own systems.

In short, using this book is a commitment. The authors make it as painless as possible and if you have a little tolerance for cute, you are likely to think it is fun going through each section. I worked through it all and don't regret it. I knew a whole lot about HTML4 but not JavaScript. I pay this book the great complement for a tutorial -- I knew substantially more coming out than when I started.

Serious programmers would quibble about what it leaves out. There's a lot more to HTML5 than they get to. The authors are plain up front that they expect you to know HTML4 an CSS first, but nothing else in the field. I definitely benefited from the JavaScript first half of the book. The HTML5 up front and in the second half are perfectly adequate for most of us. This volume goes beyond clever and into the near brilliant class in delivering what it promises.

Head First HTML5 Programming:
Building Web Apps with JavaScript
By Eric Freeman, Elisabeth Robson

Publisher: O'Reilly Media
Released: October 2011
608 pages
$49.99 paper
$47.99 ebook
$54.99 paper and ebook

I wish I could get my money back.

This book is NOT in epub format. It's just a bunch of PDF copies of the book, which is useless if you want to enlarge or highlight the text.

They shouldn't sell this on Kindle, or make them republish it as an epub and give all who bought it a free copy of the epub version.

I'd steer clear of this if you are not buying the hard copy version.