One thing that's tragically happened to many web developers wanting to be on the cutting-edge over the last several years is letting go of JavaScript due to features backed-in to server-side frameworks like ASP.NET, JSP, PHP and custom content management systems. These sorely forgotten skills were once thought to be a key arrow in any developer's quill. Well, now with AJAX and rich UIs being all the rage, it's almost mandated that developers will need to have a masterful knowledge of client-side programming for online apps. Many developers are now coming back to JavaScript, realizing that it's nearly a completely new language.

Author Jeremy Keith lays out a wonderful book about how easy it is to get (back) up to speed with DOM coding with JavaScript, CSS, XHTML and other related technologies and techniques. This is a wonderfully written title with a very friendly voice - neither intimidating to the newbie just picking up web development nor insulting to the experienced dev looking for a refresher.

The book's highlights are proper, best practices programming wrapped around a practical image gallery application. Graceful degradation, defensive coding and cross-browser compatibility are enforces throughout the book's many source code examples. The book's while the title implies heavy concentration on the DOM, is actually a thorough look at how to properly structure, format and control behavior in hyperdocuments. The book is a little light on AJAX, dedicating a single chapter to it but providing only a terse look at asynchronous programming. But the reference section more than makes up for it, being well stocked with JavaScript API members.

This is a fantastic work that any developer should pickup and make part of their library of in-quick-reach titles.