VRML Books

I was greatly disappointed with this book. I have bought many other visual quickpro books which have been great.

This book is not advanced. The examples in this book do not separate content, presentation and function.

Javascript should be separated from the content of the page, not mashed into the (X)HTML as was typically done in early web sites. The javascript hooks in the code examples are invariably hard-coded into onclick=".." attributes. While that may work fine at first, just try updating pages full of onclick attributes and you'll be looking for a better way.

CSS should be used to separate the presentation from the content of the page as much as possible. It seems that the author has 'divitis': there are so many nested divs in some of the examples it's hard to follow the markup.

The book gives lip service to accessibility, but does not follow the concept through: many of the examples will not degrade gracefully in non-javascript enabled browsers. Dynamic html pages _can_ play well with all browsers: this is advanced javascript. If you follow the examples in this book, however, you'll be discriminating against a large part of your audience.

You will get better information in:
For css:
CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions
Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook (Pioneering Series)
For javascript:
ppk on JavaScript, 1/e (VOICES)

I've actually been using CSS for about 8 years now. Mostly just for font/color control, as positioning support wasn't wide spread until the last few years.

This book helped flip the switch on just how pure CSS layouts (header, footer, left nav, body) need to be setup to work. I probably just skipped over something in my other books.

The layouts, practical DTHML menus, and a very useful section on making great looking and performing forms, make this book well worth the price.

When I first got interested in DHTML I purchased both of Teague's books on DHTML and CSS. They have proved to be invaluable. His writing is easy to understand. The format is easy to follow and consistent throughout. He uses just enough illustrations to demonstrate the subject. His knowledge of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS is exemplary and the examples used in the book are pretty much bug/error free (unlike many books I've read that contain code). If you're just getting started with DHTML, get both of Teague's books. You won't regret it.

This is the sequel to the excellent DHTML and CSS for the World Wide Web. It is merely a cookbook of techniques, whereas the first book is an outstanding introduction to an advanced subject.

This book is worth leafing through to find items of interest but it does not advance the state of the art in the way the first book did.

I was a little surprised that the one chapter on Advanced DHTML techniques could have been titled: "Intro to JavaScript." I was disappointed because there was little on advanced CSS layout (1 chapter) with examples that were difficult to follow.

If you want a book teaching JavaScript and PHP integration this book is for you. If you want a book on advanced CSS techniques that you might want to look elsewhere.

The main problem with the book is it's lack of focus. It's neither a book for business people trying to value ebXML, it's neither a book for technical people trying to get more detail about ebXML.
The business intro is poor. It's a collection of trends without much structure or insights.
The technical part is mainly an intro.
I was disappointed. Is mainly my problem, but I would advise future buyers to look for more focused books.

This book provides a nice combination of the technical underpinnings of ebXML with an explanation of the new business strategies that it makes possible.

Too many managers believe that they can conceive and implement an eBusiness strategy without understanding the underlying technologies. This hubris contributed to the recent rash of web business failures. The Kotok and Webber book does an admirable job in explaining the technical to the business mind and the business to the technical mind. And I believe that even many of the more technically inclined will benefit from the history of how ebXML came about and how it leverages but is fundamentally different from Electronic Data Interchange.

The global focus and variety of examples from both business and not-profit organizations is also a welcome widening of the normal discussion of eBusiness.

I would read this book before many of the supposedly more business savvy tomes on eBusiness.

Like we know it from Alan and David both are good in describing complicated technical stuff so you can comprehend it. Therefore this book is a good introduction into ebXML's concepts, and even in some eBusiness, EDI and Markup Background.

One will recognize David's previous work on XML/EDI in that book. Very good examples about (mainly) small companies which can benefit from electronical exchange of business information.

This book does not aim to help programmers to implement ebXML, but it does aim to understand management, business analysts, edi experts and programers the requirements of business.

Personally I missed a bit the practical help you could expect from a writer so deep into ebXML and EDI. So the examples of possible gains in business sound a bit constructed, and you always miss kind of proof, that especially ebXML is the tool to make the job done.

If you are a troubled EDI Expert and wonder, how to solve those every day problems you have with "missing informations", "ERP systems which do not have article data", or simple "expensive carriers", you might wonder yourself, where in the ebXML technology is the solution to those little details. There are a lot of good concepts, which eventuelly will help you (if they get explored in great detail).

In the book you will learn a lot about the joy of automatically setting up a ad-hoc busines, you will learn that you never again have trouble receiving foreign char sets and you will learn how detailed industrie organisations can describe common knowledge in UML. How easy business would be if.... But you might actually feel, that there is something missing, which is not described in this book.

So in short, it is a good book to get to know ebXML and therefore it is highly recommended. I especially recommend this book because it is one source to establish knowege inside your company, no matter if it is an programmer, business analyst, sales guy or the manager of information systems or business development.

As a small side note, dont know how you feel about the layout, but I needed to get used to it.

On the other hand this book is a GREAT jump-platform. Each chapter is closed with dozents of links and ressources as footnotes. Dont miss to ander off and actually follow those references.

I found this book nice to read but pretty poor in terms of practical information. If you're looking for material to waffle at a VC it's all here but don't expect to sit down and start writing applications after reading it...

This book doesn't purport to cover programming. Instead it is a comprehensive guide that describes ebXML from business and technical perspectives, and does so is such a clear, well written manner that it deserves 5 stars. If you're more interested in writing ebXML applications you may want "ebXML Simplified" by Eric Chiu (ISBN 0471204757), which shows how and provides sample code.

What I most like about this book is the way the authors manage to integrate the technical details with the business value of ebXML without going over the heads of business users or talking down to IT professionals. I also like the fact that the book is kept up to date on the companion web site, and the additional information that is provided there to supplement what is covered in the book.

The highlights, in my opinion, are:

Chapter 2, ebXML in a nutshell. This chapter uses clear prose and illustrations to portray ebXML, how it fits into an enterprise solution, and all of the underpinnings. If you only read these 30 pages you'll come away with a solid understanding of what it is and how it works. The next chapter, ebXML at Work, takes this material a step further with case studies that are realistic.

All of Part II, which shows how ebXML fits into the much larger XML picture (including an interesting history of XML and how it evolved from SGML). History aside, this section ties together a number of related technologies, such as Java, XML, HTML and platforms. In fact, the four legs of a table metaphor that the authors use is one of the most elegant depictions of the interrelationships I've seen. They don't stay at high level, however. The book drills down into DTDs, and also does an excellent job of describing the business processes and technical architecture in terms that anyone can grasp. I especially liked the way UML and use cases were introduced.

If you want a book that describes ebXML (and in a larger sense, XML) from business and technical perspectives this is the one to read.

I would like to review this book well... I would like to say how wonderful this book is.

I can't.

This book is a perfect example of code that half the time only works well in Internet Explorer on Windows. Standards? No. JavaScript is pretty messed up too.

In short, if you use this book for reference in building your website, make sure it isn't a professional site, or you might just lose customers.

[the title is referring to when a dog dies, it may have a disease, and if you touch the dog, you may catch it. - this book is some what like that, it teaches you bad habits that may take a long time to fix.]

I loved this book. I already had a good general feeling for HTML, but this book really makes it easy for you to learn it. Lots of graphics, highlights, and great sectioning of this book make it a GREAT buy. When there was something I wanted to look into, it was easy to find and the section went into enough detail for me to know it without reading about the history of the funtion like some other books do.

The best thing about this book is that it's CONCISE! Most books go into unnessasary detail or drone on and on just to make the book bigger and thus try to make itself seem like a better value, but this book doesn't. It is well written and gets straight to the point! ... uh. unlike this great review! =)

At the time of this writing, this book is very outdated. What does it take to update a Book like this? Not very much. Animabets.com does not exist anymore, and they constantly cite examples using this website, not to mention any software they recommend is also way outdated, and their examples don't work with any current software. But I'm not saying you couldn't learn HTML using this book. It just wastes a lot of your valuable time.

as i used this item i was amazed at the ease of use and the good pictoral examples given on each page with red lines showing where every thing is and how it works there is no better book to learn html

You know the old saw, "never judge a book by its cover"? Not only teaches the novice the intracacies of HTML, but is also a superb reference for the accomplished coder. I call it the "Webster's Dictionary" of HTML books because the end effect(s) (think "word(s)" using the dictionary analogy) is side-by-side with the HTML code (the "definition"). I have many HTML books, but I find myself coming back to this one as my steady and reliable desk reference on HTML.

I am a professional web designer and have wanted to further my skills into the relm of web development. I found this book and started reading it immediately. It is an excellent resource for web design and development as a whole. It goes into technologies such as ASP, PHP, Java 2, Usability and Design rules, Creating Graphics, basic web design fundamentals, CGI, a little C, Coldfusion, Perl, XSL, XSLT, XHTML, SSI, CSS, DHTML, JavaScript, VBScript, database design, ADO, just about everything. It gives a great introduction (40-60 pages or more)into most of the technologies used in web design and development and goes in depth on XML, XHTML and Java 2 best of all it tells how all the above technologies can work together. Not only xml and xhtml. but how ASP and perl relate. No it doesnt come with a CD but I have had no problem compiling the code and getting it to work. A CD would have been nice but the information in the book is so useful that its worth the price without the CD. It is easy to read (if your into reading computer books) and is the best resource that I have found on web development technologies and how they relate to each other. It is a great book and I recommend it highly to any college student aspiring to get into web work (as long as they know HTML) or any professional web designer or developer at any level. This book is a must have.

I bought this weighty tome (AU$115) because it had a section on XML and Java and some specific code that appeared to be what I needed for an urgent project. Firstly, the book did not come with a CD, so you had to download the code. Once you downloaded the code, it became apparent that the code for the chapter I was interested in (chapter 42) was not amongst it. I had to type it all in. I had difficulty compiling the code, which may have been some misunderstanding on my behalf. I finally got it to compile; but kept getting runtime errors. I couldn't get it to work.

I gave up.

I expect when I purchase a book, that most if not all (no one is perfect) the examples will work. I also believe that expensive and expansive books like this one should come with a CD that not only fully reflects the code in the book; but also contains a HTML version of the book as well to facilitate searching.

My comments only reflect upon the Java XML chapter 42. I have been reluctant to use the book any further. I hope the next edition rectifies the present short-comings.

Not as comprehensive as I thought. The only best thing of this book is that it talks about almost all the web languages, give you the basic understanding.

Platinum Edition XHTML, XML & Java 2 is separated into several sections, each of which focuses on a specific technology, including: XHTML, XML, JavaScript, Dynamic HTML, CGI programming with Perl, Server-side Programming with ASP, ColdFusion & PHP, and Java 2. Throughout the book, the authors focus on the features & benefits of each technology, giving readers a well-rounded education in current web development tools & techniques. In addition, the authors demonstrate the value of combining various technologies (such as Java & XML) for more powerful web solutions. User Level: Intermediate - Advanced,

I am a network security engineer, not a Web developer. When I first saw this book's title, I realized I lacked an understanding of XHTML, XML, Java, and other subjects listed in the table of contents. The book's 2.5 inch thickness and 1400 pages were daunting, but skimming the first few chapters showed the text to be lively and informative. I gambled that I could at least gain some familiarity with modern Web technologies by buying this book.

That gamble paid in spades. This book will provide a computer-familiar reader an idea of the plumbing behind modern Web sites. The text describes many varieties of Web-building tools, and includes clear explanations, examples, and code. I especially enjoyed learning from the book's dozens of figures. These typically show the results of executing example code, with the captions giving excellent summaries of points made in the text. For example, rather than writing "Here is a sample of Netscape Dynamic HTML layers," the caption on p. 684 says "Netscape Dynamic HTML layers can be used to show context-sensitive information on your Web pages."

I could not find any faults with this book, although Web development is not my specialty. If you are looking for a book to make you an expert in any one or two of the subjects covered (i.e., JavaScript, Dynamic HTML, even XHMTL), you will not be satisfied. The authors recognize this point and direct focused readers to more comprehensive sources. If you are looking for a guide to what makes Web surfing and serving work at a technical level, I strongly recommend this book. Keep in mind that rapidly evolving Web processes can make books like this less relevant as time passes. If you believe this particular edition is becoming obsolete, be confident that the authors' next edition will be just as educational.

Note: I congratulate the editors and four authors for creating a "cohesive" 1400 page book. I was pleased to see each chapter explicitly bearing the individual author's name, and glad to see seamless references to work in chapters by different co-authors. Bravo Que.

WASTE OF TIME
This book is a complete waste of time and it will sap your joy. You will learn far more with almost any other book. It is poorly written, the editing is non-existent, the educational constructs are poorly formed, the B.S. content is over the top, and the typos are serious enough to sabotage your web pages. In fact, the educational tone seems designed to sabotage your understanding of what you already know. Most of the details in the book are common sense and yet presented as ultra-orthodox truths from antiquity, as when the author refers to 10 years ago as "the last century."

LACK OF INFORMATION
The presentation of information is difficult to follow because the pages are clouded with stylistic jargon ripped-off from other publishing companies which have maintained a fine reputation for educational success because they know how to educate. To see successful authoring, go to any book store and see how many books there are in the following series: DUMMIES, IDIOTS, VISUAL, MADE SIMPLE, VISUAL QUICKSTART, or MICROSOFT PRESS. These series are designed to educate, empower, and inform. This book is designed to obfuscate.

STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE
For instance, take a look at the cover of this text book (as posted here on Amazon) and you will see a paint roller. This is the author's special icon to let you know you are still reading the same book. Section after section you see a paint roller, to open a section and to close a section. Apparently Web Design is colorful. Other icons, such as FAQ's are just "cute" but useless, because they are not FAQ's but just page decorations. Font decoration is random, extra spacing is random, and highlighting is random.

SUGGESTIONS
What the book needs is a table of contents that is useful, and a glossary so the book can be used as you read it. The index is skimpy (the most important part of the book) and each preview section and review section is non-usable. If you read as much as I do, I know that you have a method for learning, and for most people that method involves: Preview, Skim, Read, Review, and then use the book as a reference. This book does not have previews (more like hopeful affirmations) does not have reviews (except to tell you you're done with the chapter, ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT encourage skimming (the pages are meaningless jumbles of jargon) and the reading sections, when available, are short, and punctuated by meaningless faux-FAQs, comprehension-testers, points to ponder, and other monotony breakers, instead of real information. There is no way to review later because the book withheld active, authentic learning in the first place. You cannot even save this book as a reference because the tables are incomplete and incoherent, and the appendixes are poorly organized.

SUCCESSFUL OPTIONS
If you are required to use this book as a text-book for a class, just drop the class. You are smarter than that. Google the words "web design" and you will get all of this information for free! You don't need THIS book, just get a good book. The problem is, if your instructor requires THIS book then you will spend all of your time doing examples and not learning XHTML and CSS.

YOU CAN DO IT!
If you don't have other time-demands in your life then this book can walk you step-by-step through some ideas about web programming, but it will treat you like a Junior High School student. If you ARE a Junior High School student then you are WAY TOO SMART for this book. This is a text-book written for Junior College students who want to get a job, and their school is designed to make it hard to graduate. This book will not prepare them for a job. It only weeds out the students who don't have the guts to finish the course. If you want to be weeded out you won't make it as a programmer. If you want to be a programmer you won't put up with this book. If you really want to learn for fun, then get one of the other books listed above. Don't even buy this one for $.01 plus shipping. There's nothing in it worth looking at.

EDUCATION
My Bio and Bias: I am a doctor who teaches medical school, I have been programming computers for over 35 years, I am a life-long learner, I am a professional teacher, and my students would not put up with this book, nor would they put up with me if I required this book. My students, my peers, my friends, and most importantly, you...do not deserve this kind of condescension.

Great book! It was easy to learn to design web pages with XHTML and CSS using this book! This college textbook has lots of examples and hands-on practice exercises. The book has a companion website at webdevfoundations.net that has lots of useful links, extra info, and updates. I highly recommend this book!! The author did a great job starting me out with a basic foundation in web design concepts and skills I'm continuing to use!

Great book! It was easy to learn to design web pages with XHTML and CSS with all the hand-on examples and practice exercises in this book. This college textbook presents XHTML, CSS and web accessibility techniques, explores web design best practices, and even includes web promotion techniques for web designers! The companion website has links to useful websites and updates to the chapter. I highly recommend this book for web design or web development courses.

Basically, if you're going to buy a tech book, 95% of the time, just go find the O'Reilly book and you're set - you'll learn, you keep it on the shelf as a reference, and you'll use it until, most likely, the subject dies off (although my Pocket Perl guides still get daily use.) What does that have to do with this book, you ask? Forced to buy it for a class so that a lazy instructor could use it for lessons and not have to put together course material, this thing is slow, poorly written, full of mistakes (and on the fourth edition no less!) and once I'm done with the class, will be worthless - if I can't sell it for probably 20% of the outrageous price it was new, I guess I'll start a fire next winter with it, because it provides almost nothing that would make you want to keep it as a reference at all. It's really just a class outline with study sections, homework and assignments for students, for instructors who are too lazy to want to actually put effort into teaching a class. Really, even if it was $10 is wouldn't be worth reading, but at the price, it's just yet another sad example of "academic publishing" where you pay a high price for a book that you should only buy if forced for for school (as I have) and then hope, nay... pray, that you may be able to get at least a tenner or Jackson back, if you're lucky, because it's mostly worthless as a textbook, and when the class is done, it's not even worth the paper wasted to print it. Avoid unless you've no other choice... or if you have absolutely not the slightest clue about the subject and want to buy a book that will make you feel like an expert when you're done - until you try to get a job or use what you're "learned" and Reality slaps you down hard and you realize this doesn't even begin to plumb the depths of a very deep, hard-to-grasp and rapidly changing subject. The author should be embarrassed.

I saved 50% on my purchase of a book in excellent condition and it even had a useable link to the online account for further instructions for my college web programing;the campus bookstore was behind in ordering two weeks into the class. I am very happy once again with my amazon used and new book purchases.Web Development and Design Foundations with XHTML (4th Edition).This book is great for serious beginners of web programming; it is up-to-date with the lastest markup language and css rules.

Definitely not a textbook for XML newbies.

You need to learn Python Language before understanding this book, wtf?

If you are looking for a quick guide and learning book for XML, you might be disappointed by this paper-brick.

Might be a fine reference for XML veterans.

i agree with the previos Readers, but the most of the Sourcecode downloadable from http://www.garshol.priv.no/ is missing.
In most the RSSKIT library from the greatest Artikel in this Book.
Also missing some smaller parts like SAXTRACKER and more.
It seems also that the Code is almost out of Time.

This book requires a solid working knowledge of XML and associated protocols (XLST, XPath, XML Schema), Python and Java), and is written for practicing developers who are involved with web services, e-commerce and extended supply chain applications. You should also be reasonably familiar with DOM, data structures and relational databases to get the most from this book.

After a quick introduction to the XML processing the author wastes no time getting to the meat by going into processing types in Sections II (Event-Based Processing), III (Tree-Based Processing) and IV (Declarative Processing). Each of these sections are comprised of chapters and topics that cover the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, common tools and example applications, and tips and techniques.

Section V is focused on Java development, including SAX in Java, DOM in Java and XSLT In Java Applications. This section covers APIs, tools and specific considerations for each topic.

The final section addresses XML processing in detail, and deals with alternative processing approaches (including hybrids of event-, tree- and declarative-based models), schemas, and RSS.

In addition the appendices are informative and add to the value of this book. In particular, Appendix A, A Lightning Introduction to Python, will get seasoned developers up-to-speed (augmented by Appendix C which covers Python XML Packages). Appendix B is a glossary that goes into considerable detail, making it a handy reference.

I found this book to be well written, complete and devoid of fluff. An excellent companion to this book is the three book bundle titled "The Definitive XML Professional Toolkit", which contains CHARLES F. GOLDFARB'S XML HANDBOOK by Charles F. Goldfarb and Paul Prescod, DEFINITIVE XSLT AND XPATH by G. Ken Holman and DEFINITIVE XML SCHEMA by Priscilla Walmsley.

I went the the bookstore - looking for a good tutor on SAX (the Simple API for XML). Unfortunately most of my choices were just overgrown reference manuals...

Not so with Garshol's manuscript. For only a little more money I recieved a lot more on general XML processing than just SAX (and more on SAX than most of those other books). "Devinitive XML Application Development" is a well written book covering the most prevailent operations in XML processing and how to implement them (using the most popular event-based, tree-based and other APIs). Also, as a testiment to Garshol's writing, I was able to understand the examples used throughout the book even though he uses Python - a foriegn language for me. There is also a quick tutorial on Python in the appendix.

One minor nit: this book doesn't have any reference material to complement the wonderful text. However, another book in the series (Charles F. Goldfarb's XML Handbook) covers that. Besides, a reference alone won't give you, "...the skills, insights, and example code you need to build [XML applications] right" (from the back cover, which says it better than I could).

A book about XML and distributed systems, published during 2002, and no discussion about XML Web services?? Makes me wonder how old the content is. I am an experienced architect and developer on different platforms and I found this book completely useless.

The author obviously is a creative and intelligent person and his work presents several fantastic ideas and concepts. However, his writing style is almost stream-of-consciousness. The nuggets of true value in this book must be gleaned from excessively wordy paragraphs and multiple tangents to explain trivialities. The result is that beginners will likely get lost or confused, while the experienced reader will get bored. I would love to see a second edition of this book wherein the content has been edited by an experienced technical editor to clean up the verbiage and make the book more concise and clear.

I am in consultancy field from past several years and got my hands on this book last week. It's good. I agree that this is a lasting work, with collection of ideas for applying XML to everything (well almost). I have also done lots of XML work and usually go through almost all the books on the subject, but this one has some extra value. I liked the explaination, which serves both for beginners and advanced modelers. I am also an architect for several systems and was quite impressed with the model presentation. Another important and good thing is that this book does not insist that you know lot about customary UML knowledge. The schematics are simple and easy to grasp for anyone.
You can have this book even on the road, and I promise it would add value to whatever you know about this subject. I would suggest to buy this book for sure.

I am a chief architect in consultancy business. I have probably read all XML books released so far and closely looked at all of them. But there wasn't any book on design and modeling. This book is definite go for beginners and experienced architects. It explains the concepts and basics of systems modeling, from XML point-of-view. Good job by the author, as he had explained the core concepts of using XML. This book does not have much of code, but I guess there are enough books on coding aspect. This book deals primarily with application of XML to systems. The chapter on open-system is outstanding and is the part I liked most. I also teach part time and have suggested this book for XML reference and tutorial. The good thing about this book is that it tries to create ideas of applying technology and does not play with toolkits and programming. I believe coding and system architect belong to two different domains. The book also shows some case studies of interest, which are supported by interfaces - good!! I would definitely suggest to buy this book, a good one!!!! :-)

Anyone who uses Movable Type on a regular basis needed the book. It covers all of the basics around installation, setting up blogs and writing entries. But then it goes into more advanced topics like alternating the template and adding plugins. And even more advanced topics like RSS, Atom, and writing your own plugins. This is thorough book that is well written and will cover everything you need to know to blog with Movable Type.

This book is great for experienced and curious users. It's quite technical for lay users and the way information is presented isn't terribly user-oriented.

But the biggest problem is that Six Apart has updated Movable Type in ways that make this book obsolete in some aspects and that make it necessary to translate concepts in others. At this point, it's probably not worth the trouble to buy the book, and also probably not worth the trouble to write this kind of book when updates are so extensive and frequent.

Unless you already have solid experience writing software, you will find this book overwhelming. But it is better than the program documentation. There are few other choices. It looks like it was rushed to press and many of the examples don't quite work on my provider's server configuration, e.g., I don't have access to the unix command line so isn't always easy to envision the file structures. (If you didn't understand the last line, you might consider paying the folks at Movable Type to build your blog.)

But in all fairness, this is a difficult subject to explain. Since personal blogging is so new on the scene, it seems like the blog jargon is still a little fuzzy. Liberal use of Google helps. Since many of the concepts in blogging software are new to me, I would have appreciated a clearer explaination in the introduction, perhaps with some graphic illustrations. Some of the topics here, "Publishing with Movable Type" for example, are filled with examples and terminology that belong in a later section of the book. It would suffice to just give the reader a broader overview of how the software works.

This is a great reference book for beginners... I myself am a seasoned systems analyst and already had books that covered most of the basic topics discussed in this book. There were no real world examples and nothing about the pitfalls of using web standards before they are even supported by popular browsers. Like I said at first, it is a really great reference book; and if you need one to get started, this is it! You will still need a book dealing with the methodology variations in coding.

How the Web has grown! In doing so, and aiding its growth, has been the use and development of several languages. Naturally, Schafer starts with the language that birthed the Web - HTML. Actually this needs its dual ("twin") on a server, http. But Schafer discusses http in a later chapter devoted to CGI.

Hopefully, you should be able to appreciate that HTML is simple. In fact, of all that the book discusses, HTML is the simplest language. Several initial chapters walk you through HTML. It must be stressed that mastery of HTML is needed to make sense of the rest of the book.

The later languages either extend the scope of an HTML file, or they generate the file, roughly speaking. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) lets you easily factor out common definitions that are used across multiple web pages, where you can imagine that each web page corresponds to a file storing it. Schafer explains how to use CSS to simplify management of a set of HTML files. A centralised way to set common fonts and the like. More robust.

But HTML is a declarative language. Good, because laymen can more easily understand and write such languages. It's easier to say what should be done, than how to do it. But for the times when you need more expressive power on the browser, Schafer offers JavaScript. A procedural language that actually has nothing to do with Java. [The coincidence in names was a marketing ploy.]

Schafer does not ignore the server. CGI is given, as the first generation attempt at server side code. Its limitations spawned the use of Perl, PHP and Python for easier parsing of user input and generation of new dynamic pages.

Each of these languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, PHP and Python) is often the subject of its own book. No surprise then that Schafer explaining all 6 gave us a book of this length!

This is a good book to refresh yourself on the syntax of each language, but don't try to learn web standards from this book! It spends about 10 pages in the HTML language section talking about how wonderful tables are when used to control the layout of your entire site. Anyone with any experience in HTML knows that this is a very bad idea. The Perl section had a few things wrong in the code as well. Overall, I was not impressed with this book. I probably could have gotten better tutorials for free on the internet.

This is a great introduction to XML book. It covers all of the subjects in enough detail to give a good overview, but it doesn't go into too much detail about advanced topics like some intro books do. The illustrations and examples are good for someone who is new to XML. If you are looking to learn the fundamentals of XML, this book is a good choice.

This book provided an excellent overview and introduction to the XML language. It provides a lot of good examples without relying on too many third party products. It is short enough to get through quickly, but also gives enough technical details to give readers a solid understanding of the topics. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that wants to learn XML.

This is the worst technical book I have ever read. The information is wrong in places. The information is far too abbreviated in the entire book. I would not even call this a book. Being very kind, I would call this a leaflet.
Far too many fluff drawings, blank pages and repeated information. Specifically, this book advertises to have 192 pages, but only about 100 pages have relevant information; the last page number in this book is 167, which is at the end of the index. This is followed by 13 completely blank pages.
If you want a book on XML, start with "Beginning XML" by David Hunter. It has all of the details that you need to understand XML. From there, you can tackle XSL, JDBC, etc.