JavaScript for PHP Developers

Preface

JavaScript is the language of the browser. It’s also the language that allows you to build increasingly diverse types of client, server, desktop, mobile, and shell applications. HTML5 continues the trend of allowing you to build rich applications (formerly known as RIA, Ajax, and DHTML) with new features such as local storage, databases on the client, geolocation, image, and audio and video APIs—all exposed and scriptable with JavaScript. Fluency in JavaScript is a must for every web developer today.

This book is for the PHP developer who’s learning JavaScript from the ground up. Both languages look deceptively close because they both share the similar C-like syntax. But they differ in many concepts, such as object creation, classes, and prototypes, which are critical to mastering each language. The book draws on your previous experience and so it won’t put you to sleep explaining the most trivial topics such as conditions and loops. At the same time, the book is a complete reference: all the important information is here, emphasizing the differences with PHP and glossing over the similarities.

Conventions Used in This Book

The following typographical conventions are used in this book:

Italic

Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions.

Constant width

Used for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords. ...