AJAX In Action [8]
Appendix B is for enterprise programmers who understand software design principles but aren’t quite sure how to apply them in such a flexible, unstructured, and well, downright odd language as JavaScript. We walk through what the language can do, and point out where the main divergences from Java and C# lie. Licensed to jonathan zheng xxviii ABOUT THIS BOOK Code conventions All source code in listings or in text is in a fixed-width font like this to separate it from ordinary text. We make use of many languages and markups in this book—JavaScript, HTML, CSS, XML, Java, C#, Visual Basic .NET, and PHP—but we try to adopt a consistent approach. Method and function names, object properties, XML elements, and attributes in text are presented using this same font. In many cases, the original source code has been reformatted: we’ve added line breaks and reworked indentation to accommodate the available page space in the book. In rare cases even this was not enough, and listings include line-continuation markers. Additionally, many comments have been removed from the listings. Where appropriate, we’ve also cut implementation details that distract rather than help tell the story, such as JavaBean setters and getters, import and include statements, and namespace declarations. Code annotations accompany many of the listings, highlighting important concepts. In some cases, numbered bullets link to explanations that follow the listing. Code downloads Source code for all of the working examples in this book is available for down- load from http://www.manning.com/crane. We realize that not all of you will have a .NET server, J2EE app server, and a Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Python/Perl (LAMP) setup sitting on your desk, and that your principal interest in this book is in the client technology. As a result, we’ve tried to include “mock”-based versions of the example code that can be run with static dummy data from any web server, including Apache, Tomcat, and IIS. These are in addition to the full working examples, so that if you do enjoy wrestling with databases and app servers, you can dig in. Some basic setup documentation is provided with the download. Licensed to jonathan zheng ABOUT THIS BOOK Author Online Purchase of Ajax in Action includes free access to a private web forum run by Manning Publications where you can make comments about the book, ask technical questions, and receive help from the authors and from other users. To access the forum and subscribe to it, point your web browser to http://www.manning.com/ crane. This page provides information on how to get on the forum once you are registered, what kind of help is available, and the rules of conduct on the forum. Manning’s commitment to our readers is to provide a venue where a meaningful dialogue between individual readers and between readers and the authors can take place. It is not a commitment to any specific amount of participation on the part of the authors, whose contribution to the book’s forum remains voluntary (and unpaid). We suggest you try asking the authors some challenging questions, lest their interest stray! The Author Online forum and the archives of previous discussions will be accessible from the publisher’s website as long as the book is in print. About the title By combining introductions, overviews, and how-to examples, the In Action books are designed to help learning and remembering. According to research in cognitive science, the things people best remember are things they discover during self-motivated exploration. Although no one at Manning is a cognitive scientist, we are convinced
If the tool vendors haven’t quite caught up with Ajax yet, neither have the framework developers. The Ajax framework scene is a hotbed of innovation, intrigue (and often re-invention) right now. Appendix C rounds up the Ajax frameworks and toolkits that we know of at the moment, and provides a short overview and link for each.
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