Interactive Data Visualization for the Web

Tags: javascript programming

A very concise explanation of callbacks and scope in JavaScript care of Interactive Data Visualization for The Web:

d3.json("someFile.json", function(json) {
  //Put things here that depend on the JSON loading
});
 
//Only put things here that can operate independently of the JSON
console.log("I like cats.");

I just finished the book, and I took my time, working through all of the examples by hand.

Modern JavaScript isn’t anything like the stuff people of my generation churned out in the days of IE and Netscape Navigator 4. I think my previous attempts at grokking D3 were sidelined by my rush to skim through to the neat stuff. If you’ve had the same experience, please slow down and do the homework. I absolve you from chapters 1 through 3, but start paying attention in chapter four even when you don’t think it’s necessary.

O’Reilly gives you the option to read it right now for free (ctrl+f “Read Online Now!”), so no excuses if you want to learn D3.

Scott provides a full list of additional resources, both tutorials and examples. One of the experts is Jim Vallandingham, and Jim also produces VisKC. That site should interest about 100% of my regular readers.