JavaScript The Complete Reference

1249 Pages·2012·67.5 MB·English

by  Thomas Powell

Copyright © 2012 by The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Printed
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ISBN: 978-0-07174121-7
MHID: 0-07-1741216
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About the Authors
Thomas A. Powell ([email protected]) is the founder and CEO of PINT, Inc., a
nationally known Web development and consulting firm. He is also the founder
of a number of long-running software firms, including ZingChart
(zingchart.com), a JavaScript charting and visualization library vendor; and
Port80 Software (port80software.com), a maker of Web server security and
performance software. He has written numerous books, including HTML & CSS:
The Complete Reference™, Ajax: The Complete Reference™, Web Design: The
Complete Reference™, Web Site Engineering, and numerous others. Mr. Powell
also teaches Web development classes for the University of California, San
Diego Computer Science and Engineering Department, as well as for the
Information Technologies program at UCSD Extension. He holds a B.S. from
UCLA and an M.S. in Computer Science from UCSD.
Fritz Schneider is a Staff Software Engineer at Google where he leads web
serving and UI infrastructure projects. His past work includes a social web
startup acquired by Google, contributions to anonymizing web proxies, and a
prior stint at Google where he improved browser security by founding the Safe
Browsing project. He holds a B.S. in Computer Engineering from Columbia and
an M.S. in Computer Science from UCSD.
About the Technical Editor
Christie Sorenson is a senior software engineer at ZingChart. She has worked
on JavaScript-based systems in analytics, content management, and business
applications since 1997 and has been fascinated with the evolution of the
language and its users. She has collaborated with Thomas on numerous other
projects, including Ajax: The Complete Reference ™ and HTML & CSS: The
Complete Reference ™. She has a B.S. in Computer Science from UC San Diego
and now lives in San Francisco with her husband Luke and daughters, Ali and
Keira. As a lifelong fan of the San Francisco Giants, any references in this book
to the team are solely due to her influence.
Contents at a Glance
Part I Introduction
1 Introduction to JavaScript
2 Overview of JavaScript Core Language Features
Part II Core Language
3 Data Types and Variables
4 Operators, Expressions, and Statements
5 Functions
6 Objects
7 Array, Date, Math, and Type-Related Objects
8 Regular Expressions
9 JavaScript Object Models
10 The Standard Document Object Model
11 Event Handling
Part III Applied JavaScript
12 Windows, Frames, and Overlays
13 Form Handling
14 User Interface Elements
15 Ajax and Remote JavaScript
16 Browser Management
17 Media Management
18 Trends and Practices
Appendix JavaScript Reserved Words
Index
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I Introduction
Chapter 1 Introduction to JavaScript
Hello JavaScript World
Hello Errors
Adding JavaScript to XHTML Documents
The <script> Element
Event Handlers
Linked Scripts
JavaScript Pseudo-URL
JavaScript Usage Considerations
Script Masking
The <noscript> Element
Language Versions
Cross-Browser Concerns
Living with Other Scripts
JavaScript: A Real Programming Language
History of JavaScript
Common Uses of JavaScript
The Rise of JavaScript Libraries
The Future of JavaScript
Summary
Chapter 2 Overview of JavaScript Core Language Features
Basic Definitions
Execution Order
Case Sensitivity
HTML and Case Sensitivity
Whitespace
Statements
Semicolons
Blocks
Variables
Basic Data Types
Weak Typing
Type Conversion
Composite Types
Objects
Arrays
Functions as Data Types
Regular Expression Literals and Object
Expressions
Arithmetic Operators
Assignment Operators
Logical Operators
Conditional Operator
Type Operators
Comma Operator
Relational Operators
Operator Precedence and Associativity
Flow Control
Loops
Loop Control
Input and Output in JavaScript
Functions
Scoping Rules
Regular Expressions
Exceptions
Comments
ECMAScript 5 Changes
“use strict”;
Native JSON Support
Function.prototype.bind( )
ISO Dates
Native Array Additions
String.prototype.trim( )
Object/Property Additions
Emerging Features
Summary
Part II Core Language
Chapter 3 Data Types and Variables
Key Concepts
Weak Typing
JavaScript’s Primitive Types
Numbers
Strings
Booleans
Undefined and Null
Composite Types
Objects
Arrays
Functions
The typeof Operator
Type Conversion
Conversion Rules for Primitive Types
Promotion of Primitive Data to Objects
Explicit Type Conversion
Variables
Identifiers
Variable Declaration
Implicit Variable Declaration
Variable Scope
Constants
Summary
Chapter 4 Operators, Expressions, and Statements
Statement Basics
Whitespace
Termination: Semicolons and Returns
Blocks
Operators
Assignment Operator
Arithmetic Operators
Bitwise Operators
Bitwise Shift Operators
Combining Arithmetic and Bitwise Operations with Assignment
Increment and Decrement
Comparison Operators
Logical Operators
? Operator
Comma Operator
void Operator
typeof
Object Operators
Operator Precedence and Associativity
Core JavaScript Statements
if Statements
switch
while Loops
do-while Loops
for Loops
Loop Control with continue and break
Object-Related Statements