Gill, R., Riecke C., & Russell, A. Mastering Dojo: JavaScript and Ajax Tools for Great Web Experiences. Pragmatic. June 2008. 548p. ISBN 978-1-034356-11-1. pap. $38.95.

Harmon, James E. Dojo: Using the Dojo JavaScript Library to Build Ajax Applications. Addison Wesley. June 2008. 316p. ISBN 978-0-13-235804-0. pap. $39.99.

Russell, Matthew A. Dojo: The Definitive Guide. O’Reilly. June 2008. 451p. ISBN 978-0-596-51648-2. pap. $39.99.

This trifecta of books covers using Dojo, the JavaScript framework. This DHTML toolkit, among many others, leverages the ability to create dynamic sites to enhance interactivity with the browser and increase usability while simplifying the JavaScript language. For the recreational user of JavaScript and associated libraries, James Harmon’s Dojo would be the appropriate choice. Its concise yet appropriately descriptive text and usable tutorials make it a nice introductory Dojo text; for those feeling a bit more adventurous, its later chapters get to the nitty gritty of Dojo’s technical background. Dojo also includes a free 45-day online edition. Readers often expect an advanced level of technical description and thoroughness from O’Reilly, and Dojo: The Definitive Guide meets this description.Mastering Dojo similarly provides meticulous descriptions of Dojo’s inner-workings, and both are equally complex and exhaustive.Dojo: The Definitive Guide does offer more details on animating the user interface, whereas Mastering Dojohas better coverage of backend preparation for the data output.  Academic and larger public libraries with highly technical communities should purchase both Harmon’s Dojo and one of the other two more technical works; libraries that try to purchase technology titles to stay abreast of current trends should simply stick with the more accessible Harmon.

Originally posted at The Tech Static
(sadly, The Tech Static has been taken offline – 11/20/09, KJ)