Matt approaches YUI 2.0 in terms of common short use cases or scenarios. The orientation of the book is a balance between covering the aspects of YUI 2.x sufficiently whilst also addressing meaningful scenarios you would encounter.
Firstly this book is not an introduction book. You need to be comfortable with javascript/JSON/callbacks. The author expects that you have already some background with YUI or you have at least seen the potential of the framework to apply in your own development work.
Matt introduces his book by getting straight into it and advising you on configuration. Each chapter covers
territory also covered by other books but each via scenarios. So, it's not a forensic analysis of the topic but rather a get-it-done approach with commentary and pointers about properties of important features and "how it works". Therefore this book relies on good clear samples that are robust and free of errata. Matt also goes over some of the more recent enhancements like SWF related widgets and charts.
Matt's tone is conversational which is what I like in a tech book. If you're looking for an indepth analysis, this is not the type of book you'll want. Unlike some tech books which require you to follow the entire book to take advantage of specific components, here you can open the book at any point to get a workable example. But it pays to do chapter one as a primer. There is little I can fault except for the lack of a dedicated forum to talk log questions and review discussions with the authors. This is something that Packt could address in the future. Otherwise you can check out the YUI forums from Yahoo. Samples are downloadable to.
So it's a good book for the intermediate developer who needs a jumpstart into the YUI2 framework or if you want to retro-fit your current website with YUI 2 features. |
