Awesome beginning learning tool for people who are new to programming like I am (AND its gorgeous to look at!!)

This book doesnt jump right into syntax with pages and pages of text like a lot of books do. It breaks everything down into concepts that are easy to grasp and even adds little notes for questions that I am likely to ask right then and there! Plus the page content layout makes learning bits of information SOOOOO much more fun.

Yes there are a few cons to this book, but the content and delivery outshines them by far, so Im giving it a full 5 stars anyway.

PROS

*Excellent learning tool (When I say excellent, I mean THAT good!)

*Makes concepts way easier than any "idiot's guide"

*Fun to read!! Colloquial speech and not filled with techy talk that makes half sense.

*Lots of great examples

*Thoughtful tidbits that seem to read your mind's questions

*Breaks things down conceptually right from the start. It reads like a catalog. Its so easy

*Stunning design! A++++

*Directs you to TONS of downloadable examples that you can open in your browser

CONS

*Text melts off the page with oil, sweat

*Binding is hard to open (Hence the other review about getting them spiral bounded = plus)

*Not good reference book for experienced

*Matte cover is gorgeous but prone to fingerprints

*Bit outdated

This set of books is a winner. They motivate the visual learner to engage and store information into their long term memory.

Pros:

#1 Content is Great for Beginners, yet even advance developers can learn from these books - if anything, use it as a colorful reference book.

#2 This is a MUST HAVE for visual learners... over time, visually geared developers simply get tired of reading black and white content for years... As a result, I usually take online developer courses with videos because it is easier to digest, but sometimes, I really want something tangible that I can hold in my hands and refer back too. Who says picture books are just for kids?!

#3 Hardcover - I went ahead and purchased the hardcover as I heard the horror stories of other customers having complications with their JavaScript & JQuery paperbacks falling apart. I felt awful that my fellow developers went through that and did everything in my power to mitigate that risk through purchasing a hardcover.

#4 Text is Very Readable - This might vary per person, but in my opinion, the text is absolutely readable. There is NO eye strain for me, I can make out everything on these pages, and will not need a magnified glass. Now, if you are battling an eye condition, on some pages - you may need a magnified glass, as some of the text in the photos of the browsers are small...but for those with great eyesight, this really shouldn't be a problem for you. Bilberry helps with the eye strain I have gotten in the pass after hours of computer coding. Coders in general should take care of their eyes.

#5 Magazine-like, Full Color Pages

#6 Both Books Come with Online Support at Their Individual Websites. The websites are great companions to these books.

#7 Everyday Spoken Language - In other words, although these books could definitely be used as textbooks, they don't "read" like textbooks.

#8 Everything is Broken Down into Steps - Concepts are introduced step by step in small increments...then are built upon as continuous building blocks thereafter. Concepts don't just come out of nowhere, you will be prepared before you are introduced to something new. This may make this series "slow" for some people, but we must remember... I don't think Mr. Duckett wrote these books to be an all inclusive understanding of Front-End Development; rather a basis so that you can get off the ground running and as an introduction to other front-end developer literature.

Cons:

Will have to find some, then will update, but so far, none. But I'm not a nit-picker either so I generally ignore things I consider not to be hardships or plain frivolously... as some people just complain because it's not against the law!

That's my 2 cents.

Positives:

I've found these books to be an easy and enjoyable way to learn about the topics. Just a really great learning experience. I have not yet started the JavaScript section, so I may update as necessary.

So far, there have been no problems with the books' bindings separating. Hopefully this issue has been resolved, but I have been treating the books with a little more care, since I had read other reviews before purchasing.

Negatives:

In some places the book fails to provide a good size / contrast / font choice to make the text easily readable. This is a little surprising for a book that, advocates not making this mistake on a website. Sometimes, the font is too fine to read easily and/or color contrast is inadequate. Not everywhere, but enough to be annoying. Have a magnifying glass handy, unless you have perfect vision and a perfectly lit environment.

Also, the pages do smear fairly easily if you have any oils on your hands. To me, this is a valid tradeoff, as I do think the vivid colors make for a great user experience. It must have taken at least 10x the amount of ink to create these books when compared to normal computer books, but I think this sets these books apart and makes learning more enjoyable.

My Conclusion

Without the previously listed issues the books would be pretty perfect. The manner in which the info is presented is really well organized and executed and I feel I have learned the info quickly due to the superior presentation style of the author. There was just enough repetition of the key points to set the info permanently in my mind. Even with their flaws, I give the books top rating as it's a pretty terrific way to learn about these topics.

Overall, I feel purchasing the books was a great investment that has helped me to learn the subjects quickly, enjoyably and easily.

HTML/CSS:

Before reading this book, I'd already known the overall structure of HTML. But even if I hadn't known the basics, I would have learned very quickly and easily with Duckett's book. The layout of the book was wonderful for my particular way of learning. The font was large and pictures were throughout, and I found both very helpful in the learning process. There were few errors, grammatical or code-wise, and I enjoyed the depth of the information present. The bits of HTML5 throughout were also very helpful. The only thing that was lacking, for me, in this book, was that it wasn't quite as thorough as it could have been. It covered a lot of material in such a small space, don't get me wrong, but there were still elements of HTML and CSS that it was missing. I know it's difficult to get through everything, but even just mentioning the parts (in a list of things it doesn't cover, for instance) would have been helpful.

But as far as covering the foundations of HTML and CSS, this book is probably as good as it gets.

JavaScript/JQuery:

This book fell far short of the excellence I had come to expect from the previous book.

It's fantastic for those who have never programmed before, but considering I minored in CS in college, I only needed to skim-read the first quarter of the book. Everything is mentioned in a great amount of depth, so much so that it might be helpful for those who are amateurs in the coding world. But I thought even I would have been confused if I was a complete newb. It's hard to learn programming concepts from a book alone. So I felt that the extra attention given to things like loops, if statements, functions, variables, etc. might have been a bit too much.

And man! I'm only on page 265 at the moment, but the amount of errors in this book is startling. At least 10% of the code I've come across wouldn't work due to missing semicolons, wrong function names, etc. These might seem like little errors, but they'll certainly cause your code to not work. Any little error in the code, even a missing semicolon, can have drastic consequences in your website. If I was a beginner, I would certainly find myself quite confused.

This book is not nearly as interesting or helpful in the learning process to me as the previous one. I found myself bored several times throughout (which is understandable, considering, but still).

I will update this review upon finishing the book (if I make it) but so far I am not as impressed as I could be.

Most books on computer code are dense tomes, like text books: Often full of useful information, but daunting. Just thinking of the wall of words makes me faint! But not Ducket's books. They deliver the same useful info the other books do, but Ducket makes it seem so much easier because he consider's the user's experience.

Opening a book of wall-to-wall words full of computer code is not super inviting. Opening a page with a beautiful photo printed to the edge with a smaller amount of info, but still relevant to the illustration is so much more inviting! I looked forward to turning each page to see how the design and illustrations would reinforce the written material.

I was already familiar with HTML, CSS, Javascript and jQuery when I read the books, so I can't attest to how good the exercises presented in the book work. Despite that I learned computer code from library books in the '90s (BASIC on a Commodore 64. The good ol' days.) I can barely fathom doing so today. With the proliferation of coding boot camps (such as the one I work for, WP Code Camp) and courses on web design at community colleges, I would rather learn from a person than a book. But I love having something physical and tactile to refer back to. Even after all these years, I forget pretty basic CSS stuff now and again, and having a book on my desk with a tab in it is quicker than Googling and searching for the right answer.

I occasionally just pick these books up and thumb through them for pleasure. They're the only coding books I've ever owned that I pick up and read for enjoyment. Sometimes I'll run into something that I'd forgotten, and it gives me new inspiration to try the technique out. This happened recently with the CSS property "flexbox." I had been using Bootstrap for a few years because it makes responsive web design so easy. But the Ducket book reminded me that I can achieve much the same effect without consuming the client's resources loading up Bootstrap from a CDN. It's way better! I've been using it ever since.

On a side note, I think it's weird that Ducket has virtually no social media presence. Or any other type of presence on the web, as far as I can tell. No actual website, no Facebook, no Twitter. I would imagine an author would have it in his or her best interest to have a digital footprint, especially if he writes books about websites. But I digress.

These are both great books. By the set, it's cheaper that way. You won't regret it.

I got these as being new to the dev world, I have no experience with with any type of programming. I have a strong analytics background; got this as a reference from a friend to use as a textbook and resource guide.

WOW! SUPER HAPPY! Best bang for the buck!

I have a mixed learning style, half visual and half reading/skimming. This was perfectly set-up to help a very Visual learner, if you absorb through reading, this was laid out very well. Pages were visually laid out, so if you are using as a textbook from square one, this will work super well. If you're using as a reference, specific "how to style a background-attachment property"; fabulous. You can hop in and get exactly what you need without having to re-read half of the book.

Additionally, the examples in the book are clean, clear and well-written. There are no extra fluff or words, however there is a poetry behind the writing. This is not a coding textbook that lacks connection and creativity. There are subtle, timeless analogies that help solidify a concept.

Great set of books, thank you Jon Duckett!

I was taking an online course and some of the concepts were confusing. This book saved me. The author has a real gift for explaining things clearly and succinctly, with appropriate examples. It's not a book for "dummies", so don't expect a lot of chatty banter (like in the Heads First books), but you really don't need to read through 700 pages of wordy prose to learn to code. Most concepts are easily explained in a paragraph or two, a large colorful illustration, and a few clear examples, that you can play with on your own (all code examples are downloadable). Also serves well as a reference source.

The large colorful pages make the book a delight to read and easy to digest (never buy a programming book that is just black and white; color adds a lot). The format may at first seem "sparse", as many pages just have illustrations of code with a paragraph or two to explain things, but it turns out this is a quick and effective way to learn.

You can stop looking at other books on the subject. This is the one to get.

I bought this set of books about halfway through a programming boot camp because I wanted to make sure I had a very solid understanding of JavaScript fundamentals.

This is really good introduction to the language (and a decent bootstrapped computer science syntax primer) for people of any skillset. The first quarter of the book will probably move too slowly for you if you have experience in web development or have previous knowledge of the DOM or BOM, but it will still serve as a great resource if you need to jump in for knowledge on AJAX, API calls or plugins.

I found the book to be refreshingly academic, but written with more purpose than a pure textbook. The only thing I wish is if it had committed more to having the reader follow along with their own HTML and JavaScript creation that you could build integrating the features introduced in the book.

If you have no experience in JavaScript, you can definitely finish both these books and be ready to build intermediate web applications, learn more advanced concepts or a framework, or apply for jobs. Definitely endorse this for anyone who needs to get started and might otherwise feel overwhelmed by the amount of reading material and options out there.

Very good

Fast delivery and exactly as described

These books are an excellent introduction to the various web languages; it's presented in short, bit-sized pieces (so one doesn't get overwhelmed) with plenty of diagrams that really help in understanding what's being explained. The books themselves are beautiful, and yes, as a few reviews have noted, the spines could be prone to breaking (more due to the density of the books than their quality), but if you're careful handling them, spine issues shouldn't be a problem. I'm new to web languages; these books are definitely introductory and wouldn't be too useful to someone already versed in code, but for the starter I would highly recommend them.

Obra que entrega o que promete: Uma visão geral de tecnologias para desenvolvimento web, cobrindo HTML, CSS, JavaScript e jQuery.

Para iniciantes é excelente pois cobre aspectos básicos dessas tecnologias e fornece inúmeros exemplos práticos que ajudam a assimilar o conteúdo.

Para experientes/profissionais pode ser um pouco maçante, principalmente no início das partes que cobrem cada tópico maior (ex. CSS). Apesar disso, a leitura atenta da obra possibilitará o refinamento dos conceitos e o aprendizado de alguns aspectos peculiares.

Minha única crítica vai para algumas páginas contendo somente figuras que, apesar de tornarem a obra atraente visualmente, poderiam facilmente ser retiradas do livro sem comprometer o conteúdo global.

Excelente producto , el diseño y la calidad de los materiales es impecable, los conceptos muy bien explicados y fáciles de entender ya que al ser muy visual no es tan complicada la lectura . Libros muy adecuados para quienes quieran empezar a adquirir conocimientos de front-end y para quienes quieran profundizar lo que ya saben.

El producto llegó en el tiempo estipulado y en óptimas condiciones