Tuesday, September 4th, 2007
Let’s compile a list of Ajax, CSS, DOM and JS-related resources
Category: Ajax
, JavaScript
I see new folks getting into JavaScript, CSS, DOM and Ajax development everyday and a lot of them have a real hard time finding good information to learn by. So I thought it would be a good idea to start building a list of resources that can help developers get up to speed with these great technologies. I’ll start it off with sites that really helped me out but I would love to have the Ajaxian community join in by submitting links to sites that have dramatically helped you in becoming a better developer. These are some of the sites that have influenced me:
- Ajaxian.com (of course!)
- W3C School - JavaScript
- W3C School - CSS
- John Resig
- Jack Slocum
- IBM’s developerworks
- Particletree
- 456bereastreet
- Jonathan Snook
- A List Apart
- PPK-QuirksMode
- Dan Webb
- Christian Heilmann - Wait Till I Come
- Jeremy Keith
- Agile Ajax
While I could list a lot more, I’ll stop there so that the rest of the community can join in. I think this could be a REALLY good thing for those new to these technologies and even beneficial to developers who have been doing it for awhile.
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/
Design Shack - http://www.designshack.co.uk
dean.edwards.name
Hi, the MooTools guys also had a similar idea and created a list of resources for people new to JS but were wanting to dive in and use libraries / FX etc..
It has some great resources for your list: Help I don’t know javascript
An OPML file of all the best RSS feeds would be useful to import into a reader.
http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa155093.aspx
http://www.sitepoint.com. Not always on edge, but best place to start
http://www.crockford.com/ is by far the best resource on JavaScript.
ajaxpatterns.org
http://www.dustindiaz.com/ - Used to be great - now updates are rare
http://javascript.crockford.com/
http://simonwillison.net/
http://www.themaninblue.com/
http://www.openjs.com/ - My own site on JS
http://developer.yahoo.com/yui/theater/
http://ajax-tutorials.com
SPECIFICATIONS
HTML & CSS Specs
http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/
Print and bind a copy of the ECMAScript standard when you feel ready
http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm
VALIDATION
Always make sure your HTML and CSS validate. JavaScript is tough if the HTML doesn’t validate.
http://validator.w3.org/
http://jigsaw.w3.org/css-validator/
A JavaScript syntax checker that will help you find bugs in some cases and follow Douglas Crockford’s ideas of best practices. You can break the rules once you know why it’s ok.
http://www.jslint.com/
REFERENCES
The only HTML reference I really use
http://w3schools.com/tags/default.asp
Eric Meyer’s “CSS: The Definitive Guide” (O’Reilly) is very good.
http://meyerweb.com/
David Flangan’s “JavaScript: The Definitive Guide” (O’Reilly) is the best single reference book for JavaScript and browser scripting (but check the errata on the O’Reilly site)
http://www.davidflanagan.com/
ONLINE COMMUNITY
Usenet’s comp.lang.javascript newsgroup and it’s archives are the very best resources for discussing and learning the details of JavaScript and it’s use. The surly regulars will not put up with crap quality code and will let you know if yours is. Its rough going at times but don’t get scared off.
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.javascript
comp.lang.javascript faq and it’s notes
http://www.jibbering.com/faq/
http://www.jibbering.com/faq/faq_notes/
PERSONAL SITES
Some people’s personal websites about JavaScript
http://www.litotes.demon.co.uk/
http://www.javascripttoolbox.com/
http://www.quirksmode.org/ (some good stuff but some weird stuff)
Although simulated class-based inheritance is not always the best thing to do in JavaScript, this is definitely the best link I have ever found about it. Until you find a way to give up on simulating class-based inheritance in JavaScript this can help.
http://kevlindev.com/tutorials/javascript/inheritance/index.htm
AN IMPORTANT TIP
XHTML is no good for the general web for many reasons. Two reasons are Internet Explorer - the most popular browser - is an HTML-only browser and Safari can stop parsing XHTML if it invalid. HTML 4.01 transitional is the most general purpose doctype (because of iframe hacks.)
http://www.thewebcreator.net/2007/04/16/why-you-should-be-using-html-401-instead-of-xhtml/
http://www.webdevout.net/articles/beware-of-xhtml
Well as Mozilla dev center has already been pointed out I have these to add:
* JavaScript Scope and Binding
* YUIBlog
* JSON
* Ajax Design Patterns & Site design using Prototype
In no particular order :)
GWT - http://code.google.com/webtoolkit
GWT-EXT http://code.google.com/p/gwt-ext
Ext http://extjs.com
Oh, wow, thanks for the listing. Instead of adding lots and lots of links here and having to bookmark this page, I started tagging all of the recommendations in del.icio.us with “ajaxianresourcetip”. This way we can subscribe to the list!
http://del.icio.us/tag/ajaxianresourcetip
For CSS in particular
http://westciv.com/style_master/house/index.html
@Chris Heilmann: Awesome idea my man! And thanks for writing one of the best books out there. I recommend it to everyone.
Firefox DOM ref:
http://www.xulplanet.com/references/objref/
IE DOM ref:
http://msdn.microsoft..com/workshop/author/dhtml/reference/objects/obj_window.asp
IE CSS ref:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/author/css/reference/css_ref_entry.asp
ECMA-262 spec:
http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-262.htm
QuirksMode: rendering differences
http://www.quirksmode.org/resources.html
Closure theory
http://jibbering.com/faq/faq_notes/closures.html
Scope theory
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/scope_in_javascript/
Prototype theory
http://www.kevlindev.com/tutorials/javascript/inheritance/
Brendan Eich (Javascript developer)
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roadmap/
Robert O’Callahan (Layout developer)
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/roc/
Boris Zbarsky (Layout developer)
http://weblogs.mozillazine.org/bz/
David Baron (CSS developer)
http://dbaron.org/log/
Dave Hyatt (Safari)
http://webkit.org/blog/
Ian Hickson (Google)
http://ln.hixie.ch/
Anne van Kesteren (Opera)
http://annevankesteren.nl/
Simon Willison
http://simonwillison.net/
http://slayeroffice.com/
I do not want to start a flamewar, but may I suggest:
MSDN
I know this is not specific to Ajax, but you would be a fool to not look at what Microsoft is up to. They INVENTED Ajax.
Microsoft’s Ajax (formerly Atlas) is one of the best soup-to-nuts implementations out there.
Also, Silverlight and XAML are more like AIR than true Ajax, but are very powerful.
And, of course how can you forget OpenAjax
Can I suggest removing the w3schools links? Just because they come up in google searches doesn’t make them good. I can say in complete honesty that almost every time I’ve clicked on a google search result through to one of their pages, I’ve been very disappointed and angered at the very shallow, meaningless examples. It actually surprises me that almost every time I go there, it does not include the example I’m looking for.
I think the site is more of an SEO exercise than anything genuinely useful. There are MUCH better reference sites.
http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/javascript/ contains the tutorials I have written to introduce coders to JavaScript.
I would say: http://www.ajaxrain.com - great resource site. I noticed that many articles match here and in that site.
http://javascriptlibraries.com has a bunch of linked resources too.
I have enjoyed and learned allot from many of the blogs mentioned here. But Forums have been a great help as well.
Killersites Forum - is good for beginners as that is who it is aimed at.
Accessify Forum - is for more advanced developers and is targeted towards accessibility of sites and applications to those with disabilities and other preferences.
SitePoint - is mentioned above, has a more programmer oriented forum.
Computer Arts Magazine’s Forum - this is a forum targeting more the creative side. Graphic and animation programs as well as Flash and web developement.
Those are the top forums I visit regularly and why I do so. Each has their own strengths.
Some good links here, much appreciated as I am now having to learn Ajax and ASP.NET with C# rally fast.