Appendix F

Online Resources

This appendix lists some URLs that provide further information about JavaScript.

• The ATLAS JavaScript FAQ (http://www.freqgrafx.com/411/atlas/jsfaq. html) is Andy Augustine's excellent attempt at tracking Frequently Asked Questions about Netscape ATLAS, which will eventually become Netscape 3.0.
• The Dead Eye Saloon (http://www.lhouse.com/~jbloomberg/stud/), a Web page game by Jason Bloomberg, is a good example of a game written in JavaScript.
• Do You Have JavaScript in Your Browser? (http://www.cris.com/~raydaly/ javatell.html) is a cute little demo by Ray Daly. Try it out!
• Doctor HTML (http://imagiware.com/RxHTML.cgi) is a very handy site. It will perform a number of validation checks on your Web page, including spell checking and verifying that your element tags are properly nested and contained. Particularly noteworthy is its ability to check your IMG tags and tell you how to set the WIDTH and HEIGHT attributes. Probably 90 percent of JavaScript pages that don't work fail because of the infamous "missing HEIGHT and WIDTH" bug.
• Gamelan (http://www.gamelan.com/) is Earthweb's Java Directory. There are an impressive number of JavaScript links collected here, and it was one of the key sites I used to track down JavaScript details.
• The hIdaho Frameset (http://www.hidaho.com/frameset/) is a set of functions written by Bill Dortch. The functions provide global function registration and a calling mechanism for multiframe applications. This is a very impressive body of work that is design to make life in multiframeset applications less of a headache.
• How to Do Forms (http://www2.ncsu.edu/bae/people/faculty/walker/ hotlist/forms.html), written by Joseph C. Walker of North Carolina State University, contains a great deal of information about creating forms. Much of this material is beyond the scope of this book, so you should definitely check this site if you need help with forms. In particular, there is a wealth of information about creating the CGI scripts in Perl, which is one of the more popular scripting languages for writing CGI applications.
• Jamie's Calculator (http://www1.mhv.net/~jamihall/calc2.html) is a calculator written in JavaScript. I almost included a chapter explaining how to construct a calculator, but after I saw this page, I gave it up. This is such an elegant solution, I just couldn't surpass it.
• JavaScript 411 (http://www.freqgrafx.com/411/) is Andy Augustine's JavaScript Information home page. You could spend a day or two just following and reading the useful links from here.
• The JavaScript FAQ (http://www.freqgrafx.com/411/jsfaq.html) is Andy Augustine's compilation of Frequently Asked Questions about JavaScript. This is a very useful page when you're struggling with code that you know should work but doesn't. It can be comforting to know that you've just tripped over a bug in the browser, that the problem is not your code, and that there's a workaround for the bug on this page.
• The JavaScript Index (http://www.c2.org/~andreww/javascript/) is Andrew Wooldridge's index of JavaScript links. I learned a lot from browsing here.
• Netscape's Frames Documentation (http://www.mcom.com/assist/ net_sites/frames.html) is a good introductory document on using FRAME and FRAMESET elements.
• Netscape's JavaScript Authoring Guide (http://home.netscape.com/eng/ mozilla/2.0/handbook/javascript/index. html) is Netscape's online documentation of JavaScript for Netscape 2.0. This is the authoritative documentation for what's in this book. Just be careful: Not everything described in this site was actually implemented as described!
• Netscape's JavaScript Authoring Guide (http://home.netscape.com/eng/ mozilla/3.0/handbook/javascript/) is Netscape's online documentation of JavaScript for Netscape 3.0. By the time you get this book in your hands, Netscape 3.0 should be right around the corner, if not already available. The new version of Netscape includes some neat things that I wished I could have used in this book.
• The Snippet Library (http://www.freqgrafx.com/411/library.html) is Andy Augustine's ongoing effort to collect useful pieces of code that you can incorporate into your pages. I highly recommend checking out this site from time to time to see what's new.
• The Tiger Mapping Service Instructions (http://tiger.census.gov/instruct. html) contains the specifications for using the Census Bureau's Tiger Map Service. In Chapter 8 I created a simple interface that only uses the rudimentary capabilities of the Tiger Map Service; investigate this site to find out what else you can do.
• The WWW HTML Archive (http://fox.nstn.ca/~tmonk/weaver/html.html) is an impressive list of HTML links. Although it's not as useful as some of the other sites listed here for dealing with JavaScript itself, it includes some good tips on writing HTML.
• Odyssey Systems Corporation (http://www.iliad.com) is a high-end Web service provider that does custom JavaScript development.

In addition to the URLs mentioned here, you can often find useful information on the JavaScript newsgroup, comp.lang.javascript (all the major JavaScript authors seem to post there), and you can write me at marcj@nando.net or the technical reviewer for this book at l@luke.org; we don't mind answering questions. Just be patient; if I'm in the middle of another book, I might not be able to get back to you instantly.