The primary goal of JSMag has been to bring you interesting and useful information to help improve your use of JavaScript.  The secondary goal has been to expose new voices and ideas that you might not otherwise have stumbled across.  While I think we’ve been successful thus far, some of the feedback received has led us to introduce a new column this month.  A recurring piece of feedback so far has been that much of the content appeared to be more advanced than many readers felt they could deal with.  To that end, we’re introducing a new writer and column to our line up – Shea Frederick.

Shea will be covering topics of interest to developers new to JavaScript, and perhaps even new to programming in general.  His first piece this month is “Choosing a JavaScript Library” which can help someone new to the JavaScript scene understand the various options and make an informed decision.

Also this month, Rebecca Murphey discusses some of the great visualization tools available in her “JavaScript Tools Bring GRaphing Client-side” piece this month, with comparisons of DojoX, Google Charts, Bluff, Flot, JSCharts and RGraph.  Kyle Simpson brings us a piece on using SWFObject to make embedding Flash SWF elements in to your applications, and Matt Henry keeps us up to date with the latest happenings in the JavaScript world with his Community News column.

Adam Sontag demonstrates some refactoring techniques you can apply to “out of control” code in his piece “You Down With OOP?”.  By taking advatange of object oriented JavaScript, it’s possible to tame even the spaghettiest (yes, I just made that up) of JavaScript out there.  Lastly, W. Jason Gilmore brings us a great piece on how to effectively integrate Google Maps in to your next project.  Jason’s already well-known for his PHP and MySQL books from Apress, and I was excited when Jason agreed to contribute a piece on Google Maps.

This month’s cover picture is from Frank Stepanski, depicting a waterfall in Pennsylvania.  If you’re interested in having your picture considered for an upcoming cover, submit your photo at flickr.com and tag with ‘jsmag’ or email to editor@jsmag.com.

As always, I welcome your feedback at editor@jsmag.com, or if you’re feeling adventurous, give me a call at 919.827.4724.