Authoritative Javascript Reference

[Fmdpa]

I think one of the reasons PHP was so much easier for me learn was because I had access the PHP manual which had everything you need to know about the language. I'm having trouble finding an equivalent for JS, though. It really helped to have PHP.net's logical URLs, or you had to option of downloading the manual in a one-page HTML file (and use the "find on page" browser feature to locate what you wanted). Is there a downloadable javascript manual somewhere out there?

[justsomeguy]

The problem with Javascript is that there's not one version of it. There's ECMAscript, and that's a specification, but "Javascript" is each browser vendor's implementation of ECMAscript, so it differs by vendor.Here is the documentation from Mozilla:https://developer.mozilla.org/en/JavaScriptAnd Sun still has this online:http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/S1_Javascript_13Other than that, I would recommend getting books instead of looking for it online.

[jeffman]

That would be tricky. You can get a specification for the latest version of ECMAScript, which is what JavaScript is derived from. But now we have problems.1. There are other uses for ECMAScript and even JavaScript. FLASH ActionScript is derived from the same source. Apple desktop toys use JavaScript. 2. Not all browsers have implemented ECMAScript to the same extent, and they all make changes at different times.3. Microsoft has significant differences, which also change from version to version.4. The HTML DOM API is not part of the ECMAScript specification. It is part of the HTML specification.What we call JavaScript in a browser context is a bunch of different things, overseen by different (but related) organizations. So a single resource is not likely to exist, especially not for free.EDIT: As JSG points out, you can get a better sense of how all that stuff fits together in a browser when you have a single author investigating a lot of different sources.

[Fmdpa]

Thanks for the links. They were very helpful. I didn't realize how many different versions of "JavaScript" existed. I know that they do use JavaScript for writing scripts in Photoshop, so their must be many other ways that JS is being applied than just browser scripting.

[jeffman]

It's a sweet little language, so no surprise it's showing up all over. I'm surprised someone hasn't added memory management features and built a serious IDE compiler for desktop apps. The folks at RealBasic have a good thing going, except that BASIC is such a sucky language (apart from the fact that it's a small shop and they've made a few bad judgements).