JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, Fourth Edition

Using the Rest of This Book

The rest of this book is in five parts. Part I, which immediately follows this chapter, documents the core JavaScript language. Chapter 2 through Chapter 6 begin this section with some bland but necessary reading -- these chapters cover the basic information you need to understand when learning a new programming language:

• Chapter 2 explains the basic structure of the language.

• Chapter 3 documents the data types supported by JavaScript.

• Chapter 4 covers variables, variable scope, and related topics.

• Chapter 5 explains expressions in JavaScript and documents each of the operators supported by JavaScript. Because JavaScript syntax is modeled on Java, which is, in turn, modeled on C and C++, experienced C, C++, or Java programmers can skim much of this chapter.

• Chapter 6 describes the syntax and usage of each of the JavaScript statements. Again, experienced C, C++, and Java programmers can skim some, but not all, of this chapter.

The next five chapters of this first section become more interesting. They still cover the core of the JavaScript language, but they document parts of the language that will not already be familiar to you even if you already know C or Java. These chapters must be studied carefully if you want to really understand JavaScript:

• Chapter 7 documents how functions are defined, invoked, and manipulated in JavaScript.

• Chapter 8 explains objects, the most important JavaScript data type. This chapter discusses object-oriented programming ...