New to javascript, so this may be an obvious question.

When I use
Code:
document.getElementByID("someElement").style.color
it apparently returns a string formatted thus: 'rgb(0, 0, 0)'. This seems very clunky to me. Is there a way to get the red, green, and blue values without resorting to some monstrosity like

Code:
var color = document.getElementByID("someElement").style.color;
var red = color.split('(')[1].split(',')[0];
etc.
I've searched for a while now, but I can't seem to hit the jackpot for a simple guide on how to manipulate colors. I found a comprehensible library for handling colors that could get the job done, but it seems like overkill for what I have in mind.

As an aside, do you have a guide you would recommend for introductory javascript? I've found several that answer one or two of my questions, but I haven't found a reference that can answer more than roughly a quarter of my questions.

Thank you for reading.