Dom Scripting: Web Design with JavaScript and the Document Object Model

This book deals with a programming language, but it isn t intended for programmers. This is a book for web designers. Specifically, this book is intended for standards-aware designers who are comfortable using CSS and XHTML. If that sounds like you, read on... This book is made up of equal parts code and concepts. Don t be frightened by the code: I know it might look intimidating at first, but once you ve grasped the concepts behind the code, you ll find yourself reading and writing in a new language. Learning a programming language might seem like a scary prospect, but it needn t be. DOM Scripting might appear to be more verbose than, say, CSS, but once you ve got the hang of the syntax, you ll find yo- self armed with a powerful web development tool. In any case, the code is there simply to illustrate the concepts. I ll let you in on a secret: nobody memorizes all the syntax and keywords that are part and parcel of any programming language. That s what reference books are for. This isn t a reference book. I m going to cover the bare minimum of syntax required to get up and running with JavaScript. I m really going to focus on the ideas behind DOM Scripting. A lot of these ideas might already be familiar to you: graceful degradation, progressive enhancement, and user-centered design are important concepts in any aspect of front-end web development."