Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja

Book excerpt: Summary Secrets of the Javascript Ninja takes you on a journey towards mastering modern JavaScript development in three phases: design, construction, and maintenance. Written for JavaScript developers with intermediate-level skills, this book will give you the knowledge you need to create a cross-browser JavaScript library from the ground up. About this Book You can't always attack software head-on. Sometimes youcome at it sideways or sneak up from behind. You need tomaster an arsenal of tools and know every stealthy trick.You have to be a ninja. Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja leads you down the pathway toJavaScript enlightenment. This unique book starts with keyconcepts, like the relationships between functions, objects, andclosures, taught from the master's perspective. You'll grow fromapprentice to ninja as you soak up fresh insights on the techniquesyou use every day and discover features and capabilities you neverknew about. When you reach the final chapters, you'll be ready tocode brilliant JavaScript applications and maybe even write yourown libraries and frameworks. You don't have to be a ninja to read this book—just be willing tobecome one. Are you ready? Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book. What's Inside Functions, objects, closures, regular expressions, and more Seeing applications and libraries from the right perspective Dealing with the complexities of cross-browser development Modern JavaScript design About the Authors John Resig is an acknowledged JavaScript authority and the creatorof the jQuery library. Bear Bibeault is a web developer and coauthorof Ajax in Practice, Prototype and Scriptaculous in Action, and jQueryin Action from Manning. Table of Contents PART 1 PREPARING FOR TRAINING Enter the ninja Arming with testing and debugging PART 2 APPRENTICE TRAINING Functions are fundamental Wielding functions Closing in on closures Object-orientation with prototypes Wrangling regular expressions Taming threads and timers PART 3 NINJA TRAINING Ninja alchemy: runtime code evaluation With statements Developing cross-browser strategies Cutting through attributes, properties, and CSS PART 4 MASTER TRAINING Surviving events Manipulating the DOM CSS selector engines