Authors: Craig Riecke, Rawld Gill, and Alex Russell

Format: Paperback, 568 pages

Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf (June 18, 2008)

ISBN-10: 1934356115

ISBN-13: 978-1934356111



Review by James Pyles

December 15, 2008



According to Wikipedia, a dojo is "a Japanese term which literally means "place of the Tao". Initially, dojo were adjunct to temples. The term can refer to a formal training place for any of the Japanese do arts but typically it is considered the formal gathering place for students of any martial arts style to conduct training, examinations and...", oh wait! Wrong dojo. Dojo, in this context, is a JavaScript toolkit, somewhat similar to jQuery, Mochikit, and Prototype. I previously reviewed a book largely oriented towards jQuery and was favorably impressed. How will the Pragmatic book on Dojo compare in presenting Dojo, especially in terms of being a teacher?



Chapter 1 starts out, "There's a new king in town". Now there's an expectation that'll be tough to reach. Then again, the authors should know what they're talking about. Alex Russell is the project lead for the Dojo Toolkit and president of the Dojo Foundation, according to the book's back cover, so knowing all things Dojo should be second nature. Still, when you love something, you may be a bit blinded as to its faults. Then again, this isn't a review of Dojo per se but rather, a review of this book on Dojo. Still, if at least part of your interest in this book is learning something completely new to you, it'll be hard to separate the toolkit from the book.



This book is not for the beginner...exactly. It is for the beginner if you don't know Dojo and want to learn. It is not for the beginner if you are still trying to figure out how HTML and CSS works. The authors recommend their text for the reader experienced in web programming, at least somewhat. Prerequisites for this "course" on Dojo include knowledge of the aforementioned HTML and CSS as well as DOM and elementary JavaScript. If you don't have a background in these, the authors even provide a list of resources to go to first before proceeding with this book (on page 8, to be exact).



As you might imagine, the book targets a wide variety of folks, from the designer of small business websites to enterprise level developers. JavaScript and all that's associated with it, has gotten something of a bad rap as being the programming equivalent of training-wheels on a bicycle. The authors' position is that JavaScript is really a terrific and dynamic language and that Dojo pushes JavaScript to the outer reaches of its abilities. It's also the authors' opinion that this book will push you. Let's see how it does.



Dojo exceeds the limits of being a library and qualifies as a full-fledged toolkit. With that in mind, although you can download and install the latest Dojo package on your local PC without a web server running, you're really limiting what you can do with Dojo. Don't expect the authors to walk you through the steps of installing a web server, though. As I said, you are expected to have a few prerequisite skill sets already under your belt (if you really need help, try XAMPP, which will help you get a web server up and running fast).



There's another publisher that has the motto "Written by programmers for programmers" or something like that, but this book really is. That's the good and the bad of it. I say "good" because the experienced web developer will have no trouble following the book's format and writing style. It's "bad" if you don't have a lot of web development (or any development) experience and you are trying to use this book to learn how to liven up your websites. Lack of reader experience doesn't make the book impossible to understand, but it might seem a tad dry if you're used to a lot of illustrations and snappy humor.



On the other hand, there are just a ton of code examples in the book. You can also go to Pragmatic's website and download the complete working code examples as either zip or tgz files. The book also lets you know where to download the latest Dojo packages, which of course, you'll need before you can do anything. There are some illustrations and diagrams available in the book, but if you love color, you're going to be disappointed. The "look and feel" of the book is a virtual tribute to monochrome.



The overwhelming strength of "Mastering Dojo" is how comprehensive it is in terms of Dojo. I don't believe that any book is "the only source you'll ever need" for anything, but this book comes pretty close. It's "incomplete" if you expect it to talk to the total beginner, but the book already states that it isn't written for that audience.



Does this book convince me to abandon jQuery for Dojo? That's a tough one. I've got more experience with jQuery, so familiarity breeds attractiveness. I'm used to jQuery, so I'm not necessarily going to "jump ship" for the sake of something new. Being as objective as I can, I don't see Dojo as quite as easy to learn as jQuery, and hopefully, this isn't just my level of familiarity with jQuery getting in the way. I can say that, based on my experience with the book up to this point, that I'm quite impressed with the toolkit and the book on the toolkit. If you think Dojo is right for your web development needs, and you've met all the prerequisites, I recommend you get "Mastering Dojo" and let it speak to you.

Title: Mastering Dojo
Category: Programming
Sub-Category: Programming Books
Author: James Pyles
Added: December 15th 2008
Viewed: 9482 Times
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