Web Books

Learn HTML on the Macintosh is the Best Beginers HTML book I have read. It is perfect for a person who is just starting out with HTML. I highly recomend this book. David Lawrence and David Mark make this book very easy to understand, and provide great e-mail support.

Although this manual is written for Mac users, the concepts arerelevant to anyone new to HTML and will teach you what you need toknow to get started, with directions on where you can go next. The authors have written this book to teach the reader HTML basics their way--the way documentation should be presented to anyone new to the subject. It is fun, it is easy to follow, and it immediately sets the novice at ease. It has an excellent layout, lots of graphics, and every word is relevant. With its accompanying CD-ROM, the book is well worth the price. You can even email David Lawrence with questions. Talk about support! For anyone who has browsed the bookshelves thumbing through the endless daunting and voluminous HTML manuals--mostly written for the PC--this comparatively brief (less than 300 pages) guide is a welcome relief. Let's look forward to a Volume II from these two sorcerers when we graduate from apprentices to webmasters.

'Learning ASP.NET 2.0 with AJAX: A Practical Hands-on Guide' is another gem of a book by heavy technology author Jesse Liberty et al.. If you know about recent web advances over the last couple of years you know about AJAX which has revolutionized the Web 2.0 world, allowing for real apps to be made on the web. The user doesn't have to wait wait wait any more, as they can make decision/choices and get the feedback that they are expecting right away. AJAX technology basically splits pages up into "virtual divs" where instead of displayed content being control, handshakes and communication behind the scenes is what is modified. Early AJAX code was a bit flaky but Microsoft has made things easier with their ASP.NET AJAX set of controls and classes. In order to learn how to use these tools the user needed a book that laid things out in a logical fashion and did so in a tight, useful package, this book is the result!!

This ~500 page book is broken up in the following way:

01. Intro
02. Web Apps
03. AJAX Web Apps
04. Saving/Getting Data
05. Validation
06. Style sheets, Master Pages, Navigation
07. State & Life Cycle
08. Errors, Exceptions, Bugs
09. Security & Personalization
10. Epilogue

If you have a read a Jesse Liberty book in the past you know that you are getting a top notch quality product. He's so good at writing tech friendly books it's like sitting down with him. Examples are spaced out well and content is described in a VERY user-friendly manner.

If you develop with ASP.NET and want to implement AJAX on your site, PICK UP THIS BOOK. The only disclaimer is the code is written in VB but if you are a savvy programmer it shouldn't be very difficult to make the switch to C# if that is your flavor of the month.

***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

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I am impressed at how well-paced and explanatory this book is. Usually the big problems I see in coding books have very little to do with the quality of the code and very much to do with care (or its lack) in pacing and organization. The result here is a book that thinks through and accounts for the questions beginners will have.

The authors direct themselves to developers asking the question "What is the quickest way for me to build real Web applications with the least handcoding?" They stick to that so closely, anyone worrying about the VB versus C# thing should not feel any hesitation on that account in getting this book.

The examples use Visual Studio or its free counterpart, Visual Web Developer. An appendix guides you through their installation and configuration, as well as that of SQL Express.

The book has a nice addition for the serious student: each chapter has a quiz and exercises -- with the answers provided in the back of the book.
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I ended up taking a class at school in the education department because so many teachers/educators are using the Internet for a variety of reasons. As a Deaf person, this turned out to be one of my more 'difficult' classes because everyone was in front of a computer, the room was large, the professor wandering around (so no lipreading), and it was dark as they were using a projector from the computer screens. Ugh, major hassle! I could not see either an interpreter or a computer assisted real time captioner. Besides the fact the stenographer was not paying enough attention to do what she was being paid to do. So I did what I usually do, and ran and got some extra books to back up what I was not getting in class. This book definitely fit the bill. It was simple, clear, concise, and had illustrations. Whatever the topic was in class, I could find something on it in this book. I see he has updated for all the changes made in the last few years. I hope Ackermann continues to do this as more students like me with disabilities try to attend college. I recommend this highly to my students and lend it out when needed. Karen Sadler, Science education, University of Pittsburgh

Great book for an Internet Base Course. Introduces features that only an Intermediate and Advance Internet user would know.

This little book is way out front in describing the future
of Internet-assisted lessons. We used it in our district with
great results. A must-have book for schools.

Although I had solely purchased this book for a college course, I can honestly say it is one book I will not be reselling. The amount of helpful sites located within the book have saved me countless hours on the Internet. Any educator would benefit from the 70+ pages of websites it offers. For the money, this was a [deal]!

Life and Death on the Internet is the most informative book I've read on Internet safety. This book starts out explaining a few simple facts about the Internet and then gets serious with solutions to privacy issues every Internet uses faces, especially parents. Many helpful ideas were presented in an easy to follow format. The only concern I had with this book is that the author put an Appendix in the book listing all the free and anonymous pornographic newsgroups, including child pornography, bestiality, bondage, torture, cheerleaders (which many times include kids), and homosexuality. I understand why he needed to do that. I just feel that some may buy the book to view pornography and that is not the purpose of the book.

Overall I rate this book 5 stars. This book does not just outline the problems, but provides solutions to protect your family from Internet indecencies and protect your privacy.

After reading Life and Death on the Internet I put some of the recommendations outlined in the book. I figured it would be mildly interesting until I found out my fourteen year old son was in contact with another woman online. Pornographic pictures were sent to my son. I turned this over to the police. It turns out that the woman was really a man with a criminal histroy of molesting buys. My family has been saved. The guy who did this still has to stand trial but he is behind bars. I just pray he is convicted.

If you have children buy and read this book. I never believed that this could happen to me. I was just curious and got an eye opening experience. Use the material in this book. It could save your child's life.

This set of books is really helpful for anybody to learn Java. It includes four helpful books - Java in a Nutshell, Java Examples in a Nutshell, Java Enterprise in a Nutshell and Java Foundation Classes in a Nutshell, they are all "in a Nutshell" series from O'Reilly. As a CS1 student, these books give me a very clear concepts in programming in Java. I think they are really useful books for you!

I recently got some gift certificates for the holidays and spent them on this set. I am an experienced C/C++ and Perl programmer, and I just began learning Java several months ago. With my previous language and SE knowledge I blew through a tutorial without breaking a sweat, but then (and now) comes the hard part of building the vocabulary necessary to communicate fluently in the language.

I had originally intended to buy the official Sun Java Series books, but I found that they were expensive and overly formal. To get all the current library specs requires three volumes at about $60 a piece. Plus the language spec which is written in very formal language, thus not very useful as a quick reference, and is available for free as a .pdf file should you require such formality to write a parser, for instance.

The In a Nutshell collection is perfect for my needs. It is just the sort of comprehensive resource that I was looking for, both as a working reference and as a learning tool. As a learning tool it is almost self-contained. You can look at the 'Java Examples' (The Java Cookbook by Ian Darwin is also recommended - the examples are more up to date, and the scope is broader) and find some code that approximates what you are trying to do. Then you can look at the various API calls and object heirarchies and go to the other volumes to find a description of each class and interface (Another recommendation is the set of posters that you can get bundled with "Effective Java" - also an excellent book. The posters give a visual reference of the package/class hierarchies making it very easy to understand the relationships between the various classes, sub-classes, and interface specs. A word of caution: the posters are unusually tall. I had to turn them sideways to fit them on the walls of my cube.

The reference material, typical of O'Reilly's 'Nutshell' books, is just right. Each interface is fully speced with just the right amount of verbage. You aren't left scratching your head (well, not any more that necessary) but at the same time you don't have to search endless paragraphs just to understand the syntax of one API call. It's the perfect substitute for online docs, which are never this well organized, and gives me the opportunity to pull my aching eyes away from the CRT for a moment without losing productivity.

All told, it is a very good collection that seems ideal for what I - and a lot of other professional programmers I would imagine - am doing. I can't see how any Java programmer's book collection would not be enhanced by these books.

The Linux Web Server CD Bookshelf gave me everything I needed right at my finger tips. If there was only one major reason that you should buy this Bookshelf it would be the search capabilities alone. This Bookshelf comes with the ability to search all 6 books at once for any subject you want. This was the first type of CD Bookshelf that I have ordered. If it is possible I will only buy CD Bookshelves from now on.

Sean Seely

Putting aside the CD-Roms, the alpha layout of the book itself is wonderful and just what I was looking for. Very concise and and again the book itself is worth the money. It is made to be used as a resource and a reference. I wish other books were laid out this way. After spending hrs and hrs looking thru books I finally found my first choice.

The Linux Web Server CD Bookshelf is an excellent valued reference tool for programmers wanting to develop software in an open source web environment. Not only does it contain the full text for six of O'Reilly's best sellers on open source web development, a search engine for each book, and a master index, but also it has a number of relevant articles that have posted to the O'Reilly Network. It has a easy to read web-browser interface.
The coverage of the topics in this CD library is simple enough to get a newcomer's feet wet in open-source development and keep him up and running, as well as in depth enough to be an asset to the experienced developer who need a easy reference tool.

Just as the Web Programmers CD bookshelf that I had the opportunity to read, the searching abilities of the cd bookshelves are excellent. Being able to search a certain topic across 6 books at once makes searching for quick answers easily accomplished. Being able to buy 6 books on a single cd also helps to save money while at the same time helps to build your own library of in depth books. The combination of books included in the Linux web server cd bookshelf has enough detailed information to help teach you the ins and outs of running an Apache web server on a Linux platform. Also the Programming PHP and the Managing & Using MySQL books should help you make full use of your Linux web server and understand the flexibility of what can be done.

The bonus paperback version of Linux in a Nutshell, 4th Edition, was a nice addition to the 6 book cd bookshelf. I found it useful for when I wasn't around a computer and felt like reading. The Linux in a Nutshell book gives a good summarized rundown of the entire Linux operating system. Included in the summary is about 464 pages of Linux commands which are great for quickly checking a description or options of a certain command. Also, a basic rundown on system administration, boot methods, package managers, shells with a nice section on bash, editors, cvs, and more. At the end of the book is where xwindows and desktop environments such as Gnome, KDE, and fvwm2 are covered. The Linux in a Nutshell book basically is exactly what it says, the Linux operating system summarized and crunched into about 930 pages.

Throughout all of the books I did however notice that the references are made mainly on the 2.4.x kernel along with mentions of 2.2.x and 2.0.x kernels and the 2.5.45 development kernel. Now that the 2.6.x kernel is out, I would love to see how much O'Reilly goes into discussion about it, possibly in the next editions of these books.

I'm not sure If these books would be great for learning from the very beginning on, but they do give plenty of information about the different parts that make up a Linux web server. The books are great sources of info to help you get a Linux based web server up and active, but could be better in the teaching area.

I purchased this book for a college course, and I'm just about done with it. It has taken me from someone who'd never opened Dreamweaver in my life to being able to build a professional looking website in a matter of 2 months. I already had HTML experience, but had never used Dreamweaver software before. Highly recommended for a novice. The explanantions are detailed and easy to understand.

It has color pictures on just about every page! This book is great in that it explains just about everything and does not assume that you have any prior Dreamweaver experience, yet it goes all the way through to explaining Cascading Style Sheets and layers. It combines explanations with tutorials - it explains what you are going to do and shows you how to do it, so you are not just following directions blindly with no clue as to what you are doing.
Here are the chapter headings:
Introduction: Web Site Development and Macromedia Dreamweaver 8;
Project One: Creating a Dreamweaver Web Page and Local Site;
Project Two: Adding Web Pages, Links and Images.
Project Three: Tables and Page Layout;
Project Four: Forms
(Note that it covers how to set up forms, but does not cover the server-side coding you would need to process forms);
Project Five: Templates and Style Sheets (CSS);
Project Six: Layers, Image Maps, and Navigation Bars;
Appendix A: Dreamweaver Help;
Appendix B: Dreamweaver and Accessibility;
Appendix C: Publishing to a Web Server.
Note that this book only covers Dreamweaver. It does not cover Flash, Fireworks, or Contribute.
Also, according to the back cover, this book is part of the Shelly Cashman Series for Dreamweaver 8 that includes Dreamweaver 8 Introductory (meant for a 3-5 week course), Dreamweaver 8 Complete (this book) (meant for a 6-9 week course), and Dreamweaver 8 Comprehensive (meant for a 10-15 week course). I wish I had understood this before, because I probably would have purchased the Comprehensive instead, which has 3 more projects, although I do not know what those projects are.

the book is great. as other books from Shelly Cashman, this book describes in detail the steps needed to master dreamweaver.
one bad point that I don't like about Shelly Cashman series is that they repeat in every lesson a very easy step that any one who use PC knows such as :
to close the file click the X mark on the top of the page.

overall I recomend this book to people who never use dreamweaver before.

I think this book is well written and provides excellent detailed illustrations for book learners as well as hands-on learners. I'm not a book learner, but more of a hands-on learner. I appreciate that the author was thoughtful of the different types of learners who would be using this material.