My Life: The Missing Manual

I have recently become a huge fan of O'Reilly's The Missing Manual series. Now, as a student of engineering and a designer, I know the bare bones of programming, and have some experience in the field. However, I am still quite enjoying my latest find, JavaScript: The Missing Manual.

Some strong points I find on this book are its in-depth review of the basics of JavaScript programming (I would imagine that this would be great for a person who is just starting out in the programming/design field), as well as its covering various topics including JQuery, Internet Explorer JavaScript (I'm sure others did not realize that even JavaScript has to be tweaked slightly for IE! -insert complaints and protests-), and its tutorials on how things work - I have to admit, the regular expression tutorial really helped me greatly (I have never been that great with ye olde regex, nor even really randomization operations - both of which were very well-covered in this book).

On a scale from one to five, with five being the best, I would give it a five in the eyes of someone beginning programming and JavaScript. For someone a little bit more advanced, it'll probably drop down to a three; the basics span for several chapters, which can be dull for a person who merely wants to expand their knowledge of JavaScript and already knows the basics.

I am looking forward to further installments into The Missing Manual series of books. Unlike O'Reilly's other books, they are more light-hearted and more tuned to the less technically experienced (or those with a little more Attention Deficit Disorder than the next person when it comes to technical manuals). I haven't seen one yet for anything other than JavaScript, HTML, CSS, and a few various Mac and Adobe products, but I'm silently hoping for a PHP/MySQL introduction to give to a family member of mine as a gift.