Preface After years of teaching scripting languages, I recently decided it was time to try teaching JavaScript, and went on a search for the right book for my students. There were so many JavaScript books on the bookshelves, it was hard to know where to begin. I started buying one at a time, reading and sifting through them, always feeling that something was missing. Like Cinderella's shoe, I couldn't find the right fit. Either the book was too heavy on the technical side, but lacking in pictures and examples, or it was filled with slide shows, rollovers, and scrolling banners, but brief on the technical side. I wanted something that did both, a book that would demonstrate both the technical and the fun elements of JavaScript. I searched and searched, and found many excellent sources, but in the end, I couldn't find the perfect book for my class, so I decided to write my own. With books and manuals piled high around my computer desk, I weeded through the best and the worst, gleaning out information and beginning to compile my new "By Example" book. I browsed through Internet tutorials and student guides, and studied Web pages, always looking for the best way to get the material across. I even delved into Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Dreamweaver, while roaming from Maine to San Francisco with my digital camera, snapping pictures that would enhance my examples and add to the colorful side of JavaScript. And after much cutting and pasting, cropping and trimming, testing and trying, a new book has evolved--the one I was looking for. The shoe finally fits!