jQuery: Novice to Ninja

“I was first introduced to jQuery a year or so ago when I read
David Sawyer McFarland’s JavaScript: The Missing Manual from Pogue
Press, which was more about jQuery than learning JavaScript basics
(as I had originally assumed). It was a happy accident though, and
I discovered how to get a lot more out of JavaScript by leveraging
the jQuery framework making my efforts generally more quick and
less painful (well, I’m not lightning fast, but I’m not an expert,
either). I’ve been looking for a “pure jQuery” book for a while,
but there really aren’t a lot of good books on the topic out there.
When I saw the Castledine and Sharkie book was available, I jumped
at the chance to review it.

“Who should read this book? There was the usual blurb in the
book’s front matter about “If you’re a front-end web designer
looking to…” which I expected, but what are the minimal
qualifications the reader should have before shelling out his or
her hard earned dough for this text? Actually, the authors don’t
come out and say “you need to know JavaScript to such and thus
level..” at first. On the other hand, they do say the reader should
have intermediate to advanced HTML and CSS skill sets as well as
stating some (ah, here it is) “..rudimentary programming knowledge
will be helpful.” Folks assume that JavaScript is “programming
light”, but it has the same basic rules and structure as other
languages such as Python and PHP, so possessing an understanding in
that area would seem to be at least a plus if not something of a
requirement. Before I get ahead of myself though, it’s time to move
into the book proper.”

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