Rating:  - Also useful as a doorstop
This book is a comprehensive, well organized, reference for the various technologies that make up Dynamic HTML. Its not for beginners -- it won't teach you how to use the technologies and its not a cookbook of step-by-step examples -- but it will tell you everything you want to know and a lot that you didn't know you needed to know. You probably won't need to refer to it all the time but you'll be very glad to have it around when you need it.
Rating: - Great reference for everybody
In 8 years of profession web development I destroyed the previous release due to massive use.
One of the few books I can not work without
Rating: - Best DHTML Reference book!
This 3rd edition of the well-known JavaScript reference book by Danny Goodman, includes all the latest web browser (IE 7, Firefox 2.0, Opera 9, Safari, etc.) updates and with the DOM, BOM and JavaScript core functions (ver. 1.7), plus Ajax implementations as well. The book is well over 1200+ pages but actually is close to 1500 if you include the 200+ online PDF that includes the non-reference sections that show the reader how to use all the great information in the book.
The previous edition (2002), included that section as part of the book [...] This book includes at least 20-30% more material, not including the implementation sections, so you know something had to go (to prevent this going to hardback). The link to the PDF is in the preface (page x) and basically makes this book one of the most important books that have come out covering JavaScript. It covers everything you could practically need on knowing about any object, any method or any property that has to do with JavaScript or the browser (BOM).
I just hope people realize that there is an extra 200+ of very important content that is NOT in the book that they can get. That extra part makes this book complete. Though if you are only looking a complete reference book then that extra material will be a bonus.
The topics that re covered in the PDF are:
Online Section II, Cross-Platform Compromises
Online Section III, Adding Cascading Style Sheets to Documents
Online Section IV, Changing Page Content and Styles
Online Section V, Adding Dynamic Positioning to Documents
Online Section VI, Scripting Events
Online Section VII, XMLHttpRequest and Ajax
This material itself can be its own book comparing it to other JavaScript books that have just been coming out the past year. So if you need a complete book on JavaScript or want to learn the specific browser differences or are an Ajax developer then this is the only book you will want to get. It should be part of your library.
Rating: - Far better than any online reference
For years I have relied exclusively on online references for tag & object references. Like Danny Goodman's introductory commentary on finding these references - even the official ones - often lacking and typically inaccurate on practical browser compliance.
Definitive reference fits this title to a "T". Every tag is covered in detail, providing practical description for both the tag and every property along with a practical example. This is most definitely a must have for any developer dealing with dynamic HTML, which is increasingly an important part of site development.
If you are a beginner, don't look for this to teach you how to get started; this is a reference not a primer. That said, find yourself a great introductory title and absolutely purchase this along with it. As you start writing code, you will need this to understand the new tags you are using as well as know how to deal with browser compatibility issues.
Rating:  - Still excellent, worth the upgrade, but the text sections have been moved online
Version 2 of this book was an invaluable reference that never left my desk. However, it was getting crufty with age. As soon as I found that version 3 was available, I ordered it.
Previous versions of this book had two sections. The first section was an excellent writeup of DHTML techniques, specifically how to use CSS and JavaScript to create interactive web pages. The second section was a complete reference of all HTML, DOM, CSS, JavaScript, and event types, and attributes.
When I received the new version, I was surprised to find that only the second section is included in the book. The first section is still available, but as an online PDF download. It is because of this that I am rating the book 4 stars; if the first section were still included in the book, it would get 5 stars.
The reference section has been updated to include modern browsers, including IE7, the Mozilla family (including Firefox, Camino, and Netscape), Safari, and Opera. New features, such as XmlHttpRequest have been added.
The DHTML discussion (now available online) has been significantly rewritten as well. It is still an excellent discussion of DHTML techniques, which I would recommend reading even if you are familiar with the subject and have read the previous versions. It may be too terse though for a beginner.
I would highly recommend this book for anyone doing serious HTML and/or JavaScript programming. While I was disappointed to not have the first section as part of the book, I still recdommend the book highly.
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