Comments on: Mini review of "JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 5th Edition" http://pathfindersoftware.com/2006/08/mini_review_of_/ The Fastest Way to Launch Successful Software Thu, 19 Jan 2012 16:36:03 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: David Flanagan http://pathfindersoftware.com/2006/08/mini_review_of_/#comment-5861 David Flanagan Thu, 31 Aug 2006 18:49:47 +0000 http://www.pathf.com/blogs/?p=460#comment-5861 <p>Thanks for the review of my book!</p> <p>I think it is unfair to expect this book to cover every possible persistence solution, however!</p> <p>I cover 3 of the 7 you list. Of the remaining four, one (forms) isn't really persistence, since it doesn't work across browser sessions. Another (COM) is redundant with IE's userData mechanism. Another (XPCOM) is not (or should not be: it is not one I'm familar with) available to untrusted code. And the final one (the WHAT-WG API) is not yet widely enough implemented to be worth documenting. When it has been adopted, this will be an important API and I will cover it.</p> <p>You are correct that my coverage of client-side persistance is not a cookbook: that is not the goal of this book. And you are also correct that the coverage of flash-based and userData-based persistence are kind of tacked on to the discussion of cookies. Cookies are universal, and are sufficient for most application's persistence needs. None of the alternatives are standard or robust enough to be worth spending much time on in this book. Again, the WHATWG API may well change that, and I expect it will receive heavy coverage in the next edition of the book.</p> Thanks for the review of my book!

I think it is unfair to expect this book to cover every possible persistence solution, however!

I cover 3 of the 7 you list. Of the remaining four, one (forms) isn’t really persistence, since it doesn’t work across browser sessions. Another (COM) is redundant with IE’s userData mechanism. Another (XPCOM) is not (or should not be: it is not one I’m familar with) available to untrusted code. And the final one (the WHAT-WG API) is not yet widely enough implemented to be worth documenting. When it has been adopted, this will be an important API and I will cover it.

You are correct that my coverage of client-side persistance is not a cookbook: that is not the goal of this book. And you are also correct that the coverage of flash-based and userData-based persistence are kind of tacked on to the discussion of cookies. Cookies are universal, and are sufficient for most application’s persistence needs. None of the alternatives are standard or robust enough to be worth spending much time on in this book. Again, the WHATWG API may well change that, and I expect it will receive heavy coverage in the next edition of the book.

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