At long last, the 5th edition of JavaScript: The Definitive Guide is complete! Amazon is accepting pre-orders, and O'Reilly should be releasing a sample chapter soon.
I'm pleased with how this edition came out. In Part I, which covers the core language, the material on functions, closures, and classes has been strengthened, and there are new chapters on namespaces and on embedding JavaScript in Java 6 programs.
The biggest changes are in Part II of the book, which covers client-side JavaScript. Two new chapters on scripted HTTP and XML processing cover Ajax. Another new chapter on scripted client-side graphics covers the <canvas> tag, SVG, and alternatives. The chapter on cookies has been extended to discuss other client-side persistance mechanisms. And the chapter on scripting Java applets has been extended to also cover scripting Flash movies.
All these changes should bring the book up-to-date for "Web 2.0"
