What to read first...?...

**LayneMitch via WebmasterKB.com** · Jun 27 '08, 07:14 PM

Re: What to read first...?...

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

>Since both JavaScript and ActionScript are ECMAScript implementations , with
>JavaScript to date implementing the prototype-based ECMAScript Ed. 3 at most
>but ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0 implementing Netscape's now-outdated ECMAScript
>Ed. 4 proposal to support classes and strict typing as well, it would be a
>good idea to learn about ECMAScript first, then J(ava)Script, and then
>ActionScript .

Okay...

So learning ECMAScript would facilitate the process of learning both
languages. Now you mentioned EMCAScript Ed. 3 & 4, with 4 being the most
outdated, but ActionScript 3.0 is based on this outdated language . So which
one would you recommend I learn?

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http://www.webmasterkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/javascript/200806/1

**Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn** · Jun 27 '08, 07:14 PM

Re: What to read first...?...

LayneMitch via WebmasterKB.com wrote:

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

>Since both JavaScript and ActionScript are ECMAScript implementations , with
>JavaScript to date implementing the prototype-based ECMAScript Ed. 3 at most
>but ActionScript 2.0 and 3.0 implementing Netscape's now-outdated ECMAScript
>Ed. 4 proposal to support classes and strict typing as well, it would be a
>good idea to learn about ECMAScript first, then J(ava)Script, and then
>ActionScript .

>
[...] Now you mentioned EMCAScript Ed. 3 & 4, with 4 being the most
outdated, but ActionScript 3.0 is based on this outdated language .
So which one would you recommend I learn?

You misunderstood. ActionScript 2+ is (probably) based on Netscape's
proposal for ES4 [1], as is JScript .NET. However, work on ECMAScript Ed. 4
has continued as a more open project at <http://ecmascript.org/recently;
this and AOL's shutting down the Netscape browser division renders the
original proposal somewhat obsolete with regard to the standardization
process. But that does not mean that the implementations based on the
proposal are obsolete as well. At least not until there is a Specification.

Therefore I suggest you learn about ECMAScript Editions 1 to 3 and their
implementations first. See also <http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>.

PointedEars
___________
[1]

ECMAScript 4 Netscape Proposal

http://web.archive.org/web/20070701135627/http://www.mozilla.org/js/language/es4/index.html

--
realism: HTML 4.01 Strict
evangelism: XHTML 1.0 Strict
madness: XHTML 1.1 as application/xhtml+xml
-- Bjoern Hoehrmann

**LayneMitch via WebmasterKB.com** · Jun 27 '08, 07:14 PM

Re: What to read first...?...

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

>Therefore I suggest you learn about ECMAScript Editions 1 to 3 and their
>implementation s first. See also <http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>.
>
>PointedEars
>___________
>[1]
>http://web.archive.org/web/200707011...es4/index.html

Well, it sounds like I can purchase books on ECMAScript, visit websites...
whatever,
and use it as a cross reference while I continue learning JavaScript and
begin learning ActionScript.
Do you think?

So far the learning process for JavaScript has been going well. I've learned
about objects, methods, functions,
arrays, loops..etc. I'm thinking this should be enough to begin learning
ActionScript as I cross reference the
basics in ECMAScript Editions 1 to 3...

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http://www.webmasterkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx/javascript/200806/1

**LayneMitch via WebmasterKB.com** · Jun 27 '08, 07:14 PM

Re: What to read first...?...

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

>Therefore I suggest you learn about ECMAScript Editions 1 to 3 and their
>implementation s first. See also <http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>.
>
>PointedEars
>___________
>[1]
>http://web.archive.org/web/200707011...es4/index.html

Also, I've been searching for book references online for ECMAScript for the
past two hours and haven't found anything. Were there any books printed for
this or is it just online PDF overviews?

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**dhtml** · Jun 27 '08, 07:14 PM

Re: What to read first...?...

On Jun 14, 5:24 pm, "LayneMitch via WebmasterKB.com " <u39402@uwe>
wrote:

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

Therefore I suggest you learn about ECMAScript Editions 1 to 3 and their
implementations first. See also <http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>.

>

PointedEars
___________
[1]
http://web.archive.org/web/200707011...zilla.org/js/l...

>
Also, I've been searching for book references online for ECMAScript for the
past two hours and haven't found anything. Were there any books printed for
this or is it just online PDF overviews?
>

The Ecma-262 r3 specification is very useful for getting more in-depth
understanding to the productions of the EcmaScript language. However,
reading the EcmaScript spec as a starting point might seem boring and
confusing and you probably won't make much progress on your scripting
skills this way.

Probably most scripters self-taught, using combination of learned
programming skills and online references. Doing things and learning
from the experience is usually pretty effective. You can write a
simple script and post it here and get feedback. For example, these
are some basic scripts that you can try:
1) swap images
2) toggle the css display of an element from another element's click
event

You can use:
the DOM Event and Style specs, the HTML 4 spec, the CSS 2.1 spec.
JSLint
HTML and CSS validators

Garrett

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**Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn** · Jun 27 '08, 07:14 PM

Re: What to read first...?...

LayneMitch via WebmasterKB.com wrote:

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

>Therefore I suggest you learn about ECMAScript Editions 1 to 3 and
>their implementations first. See also
><http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>.

>
Well, it sounds like I can purchase books on ECMAScript, visit
websites... whatever, and use it as a cross reference while I continue
learning JavaScript and begin learning ActionScript. Do you think?

I do not think you will need to purchase a book on ECMAScript (if there is
any), however using the Specification as a cross reference is certainly a
good approach.

PointedEars
--
Prototype.js was written by people who don't know javascript for people
who don't know javascript. People who don't know javascript are not
the best source of advice on designing systems that use javascript.
-- Richard Cornford, cljs, <f806at$ail$1$8 300dec7@news.de mon.co.uk>

**Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn** · Jun 27 '08, 07:14 PM

Re: What to read first...?...

dhtml wrote:

"LayneMitch via WebmasterKB.com " wrote:

>Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

>>Therefore I suggest you learn about ECMAScript Editions 1 to 3 and their
>>implementatio ns first. See also <http://PointedEars.de/es-matrix>.
>>PointedEars
>>___________
>>[1]
>>http://web.archive.org/web/200707011...zilla.org/js/l...

>Also, I've been searching for book references online for ECMAScript for the
>past two hours and haven't found anything. Were there any books printed for
>this or is it just online PDF overviews?

>
The Ecma-262 r3 specification is very useful for getting more in-depth
understanding to the productions of the EcmaScript language. However,
reading the EcmaScript spec as a starting point might seem boring and
confusing and you probably won't make much progress on your scripting
skills this way.

The grammar productions of ECMAScript would be the part of the Specification
that I would consider to be the least useful to newbies, and trying to
interpret them can become tiresome easily because of their complexity; plain
syntax rules can be much easier understood by them reading the Core
JavaScript Reference and MSDN Library.

Instead, the definitions and explanations in the Specification, and the
algorithms used for the *evaluation* of syntax are very useful for
understanding what is going on in implementations . For example, what
statements and expressions are there, how are operands converted, what is
supposed to happen when you use an unqualified identifier, call a method,
create an object, access an object's property aso. These are things you
can test in an implementation right away.

PointedEars
--
Anyone who slaps a 'this page is best viewed with Browser X' label on
a Web page appears to be yearning for the bad old days, before the Web,
when you had very little chance of reading a document written on another
computer, another word processor, or another network. -- Tim Berners-Lee

**Dan Rumney** · Jun 27 '08, 07:14 PM

Re: What to read first...?...

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

LayneMitch via WebmasterKB.com wrote:

>I've already learned HTML/CSS...I'm completing the learning process for
>Javascript

^^^^^^^^^^
ISTM much you have yet to learn. It is called _JavaScript_ to begin with.
>

Come on Thomas. You've got a lot of useful things to say on the topic of
Java[Ss]cript. Do you *really* have to make comments like this?

Since when has adherence to the typographical conventions of a language
which was renamed for dubious marketing reasons had any correlation with
a person's understanding thereof?

A little humility on the parts of *all* posters in this newsgroup would
go a long way.

What to read first...?...

What to read first...?...

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