Alright, so last week I blogged about the Head First Ajax book. For the last three weeks I have been trying to get thought the first couple chapters and try to retain some of the information without success. One of the problems that I had with the book were the "pictures" that the author uses to show the flow of the information through the site. For some reason when I opened the book my brain immediately went into sensory overload. I had a very difficult time trying to follow the methodology that the author was trying to present.This weekend I decided to go pick up the other Ajax book that the professor recommended and after tow chapters all I really have to say is Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! No this is a programming book! In depth coverage of the material as well as a very logical and analytic approach to the material. After reading the two chapters (approx. 1 hr) I was able to grasp the concepts that the author of the Head First book had been trying to teach me for the last 5 hrs.
The one thing I noticed is that the reviews of the book overall are not quiet as good as the Head First series (reviews), but if you struggling with the head first book, I encourage you to give this a look through. One thing that I need is an understanding of the code as you see it. Unfortunately the Head First series pretty much shows you the code and then much later provides the explantion of what it actually means. The Professional Ajax book takes a much different approach. They Show the code and then go through a step-by-step decomposition in order to show you the functionality, something I need to retain the info.
You are right. I have been trying to understand these first 2 chapters from the Head First Ajax...i feel the same fro this book...even i went to the library and tried other books and i am able to understand the concept much better.
ReplyDeleteI am going to have to check this book out as well. I'm also having some difficulty grasping the concepts from the Head First book. I think that I'm having a hard time though because we have to integrate multiple files in languages that we don't know, and then apply them so that they work and do things that we don't yet completely understand. Hopefully with lecture things will improve quickly in the next couple of weeks.
ReplyDeleteI just got this book today and I am going to go over and see what I think. I also got the pharsebook and that seems to be very helpful but only time will tell how helpful all these books will be.
ReplyDeleteThe other book may be helpful. I also think it is just telling us the same thing. Just worded differently. With multiple resources of information I am positive we will all get this.
ReplyDeleteThe Head First HTML book I used in Bud Gibson's class was great. I liked the conversational approach to the code. I am finding that same approach to AJAX is not as easy to follow. On the other hand I looked at the Professional one and went WHOAH not for me at this point.
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