VRML Books

Trying to learn useful things about XML can be hard. XML is so flexible and can be used for so many things, descriptions of it have a bad tendency to be vague, never touching the real world. Or they are too detailed and technical to easily understand. This book has a really nice balance of these factors. For example, if you want to know what a web service is, and want to see an actual example of one without an overwhelming amount of technical detail, this book is a good place to look. You can see the code and what's actually needed to implement it.

As a strategic decision maker in the software development industry, transitioning into XML based technologies is at the top of my priority list. Strategic XML provides a very good introductory through advanced study of the topic. The author not only educates the reader from an academic perspective, but goes in depth with real world examples. He actually goes one step further and points the reader toward suitable tools and development platforms. For anybody moving into (or already in the midst of) joining the XML world, I would highly recommend giving Strategic XML a read.

I love this book, it's not your average learn to build a CD or Book database in XML. If you want to learn the XML, buy a generic fat red book with the lots of faces on it, if you want to learn how to apply the XML to practical situations, get this one. It's not going to take you years to read and the selection of applicable quotes at the start of each make it quite amusing and exciting. Add a bit of method to your madness, buy this book and apply a Software Engineer's approach to your data modelling.

I really liked this book. It gave me some very good insight into how to use the XML I have been learning for the past 2 years. It is not filled with a lot of useless rehash of XML primer material, it has a real nice review/overview of the technology and then focuses on the real issue of how to use it to solve business problems. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who doesn't need a 600 page regurgitation of XML basics, but instead is focused on solving problems with an exciting technology!

I initially read this book because I know the author and I promised him I would. I'm not a programmer but I am responsible for the technical direction of my company. Suprisingly, the book was written in plain enough English to give me a good general understanding of how to use XML, SOAP, Web Services etc. I'm passing it on to my programming department as a primer to start getting us up speed on these technologies.

This is two books in one. The least interesting of the two is a brief tutorial on HTML and Javascript with descriptions of content development packages such as Dreamweaver and Flash. While the explanations of HTML, Javascript and the software are fine, there is nothing that cannot be found in greater detail in many other books. What makes this book stand out is the second of the two books. It includes interviews with some of the leading and most creative builders of web content. Their answers and explanations of their creative strategies are inspirational and should be required reading of all students of graphic arts.
By far, the most outstanding part of the book is the pictures. The publishers spared no expense in the quality of the pictures and they are clear, plentiful and demonstrate the design points made by the interviewees. They demonstrate how good graphic design is done and give all designers a goal to aspire to.
There are two parts to quality graphic design, the ability to code and the ability to push the right aesthetic buttons. The second is the hardest, but not to these people. These are some of the best examples of graphic design that I have ever seen.

HTML & WEB ARTISTRY 2
AUTHOR: Natalie Zee/Susan Harris
PUBLISHER: New Riders
REVIEWED BY: Barbara Rhoades

BOOK REVIEW: After three days of reading and re-reading HTML & Web Artistry 2, the sections that contained the most useful information were the HTML Quick Reference List found on page 322 and Style Sheet & JavaScript Reference List found on page 332. Coming in a close second, are ones called Case Studies that also contain very useful information such as web-safe palette, style sheets. Quick Time, page loading, Flash, sound loops seamless transitions and pre-loading and layers. The Case Studies Chapters end with a Summary of the chapter and URLS used.

The format of the book has highlighted boxes with tips and notes, the same as many web specific book formats are using. There are graphics through out the book to show examples of those subjects being discussed.

Many of the chapters were done in a question and answer format and were specific to the people being interviewed. It seemed more like a promotional piece for their shop than an instructional book on HTML and Web Artistry. Granted, you can always get a bit of information by reading what others have done but this wasn't what the title of this book lead one to believe it would be.

The two reference chapters and these Case Studies make this a viable book from which to learn something.

If you are designing (or want to begin designing) dynamic, media rich web pages using DHTML, Dreamweaver or Macromedia Flash this book will give you technical tips and a plethora of design ideas.

Be aware that the material is focused on aesthetics, usability and effective use of multimedia more than on the technical aspects. For the accomplished designer and coder this book will provide enough examples of well thought out design from which you can create sites with your own spin. The less technical reader may be frustrated by the emphasis on design instead of detailed instructions on how to develop and implement the ideas and examples in the book. However, even for that audience this book offers valuable information. Specifically, it's easier to learn how to code and perform technical tricks than it is to make a usable web site that uses advanced tools to their best advantage.

What I like about the book is the blend of art and technology in the subject matter. For example, the chapters on color and type opened my eyes to just how significant these can be (I am a more technical reader). I also learned much about user interface design and navigation, even though I've always paid attention to these for the web sites that I've developed.

Overall, for accomplished technical users this book will give insights into the interface design aspects of web sites, and for the accomplished designers it will provide useful technical information about Flash, Dreamweaver and popular multimedia formats. It will not, however, teach web development in the technical sense, and may overwhelm beginners who are more concerned with learning the basics.

Well, I may not be THAT seasoned in web design business, but after 7 years of pushing the boundaries of HTML, sometimes succeeding, sometimes screaming, it is refreshing to know similar struggles are out there and that things are coming around for designers.

Susan and Natalie have presented a beautifully illustrated, sometimes humorous, and informative look into the latest offerings for Web Designers. Taking real life examples they weave throughout the fine lines between designer and developer settling in a cozy spot where one person can wear both hats.

Tips that may seem obvious at first, are useful and tested, and offer insight for both novice and seasoned designer. (for example, I love the idea of taking snapshots of the world around us to create new color palettes)

Simple enough to understand, but spiked with fancy flourishes, HTML & Web Artistry 2 is an inspiring read that offers plenty of jumping off points for those with enough hunger to do so.

A good book. Topics are all well explained and good programming examples are provided. The target audience is more for people with little or no programming experience. But, experienced software developers can gain some insights, too. Overall, I highly recommend if you are looking for a book on this subject which doesn't contain in-depth technical details.

I bought this book for a class that I took at UC Berkeley and it's a great book because it teaches the reader xhtml and java in a simple way. I was amazed as to how easy it was understand all the terminology in the book. Usually I sell off my books at the end of the semester but this one was a keeper.

I got this book for a class, taught by Lagerstrom, and loved it. It does a great job explaining XHTML and JavaScript. I had never been exposed to any type of programming, but this book made it simple. When I originally bought the book, I was sharing it with two other people. However, we all found it so helpful that we had to each buy our own to keep it on the shelf.

Wow. Very few programming books I've read do much for me. Most of them are of no more use than a reference manual. But this book....this book is different. After just an hour of reading, I now understand the basics of JavaScript. The book does a great job explaining it. The other topic this book covers is XHTML, the successor to HTML. I admire the author's constant reminders to remain standards-complient in XHTML. Good job.

I got this book for a class, but I'll be keeping it forever. Scary, eh?

The title is a bit misleading, in that the book is nearly all about Javascript. Broken down into a collection of short tutorials, each of which solves a specific problem, they are all understandable. The problems solved are not general in nature, in that not everyone needs to know how to solve them. However, they can be considered members of the category of unusual problems with a non-obvious solution. You may never confront the specific problem, but if you do, then the solution is here for you.
Some of the problems solved are:

* How to create a pop under window.
* How to use a table to create an image with rounded corners.
* How to create printable pages where the banner ads are absent.
* How to redirect the print of a page so that another is printed.
* How to prevent a page from being cached on the client machine.
* How to create an OnError error handling page.

In general, the statement of the problem and the solution take up less than three pages. With very little code to explain, the solutions are easy to understand. I have been teaching and programming in Javascript for over six years and yet I learned several things from the book. To sweeten the deal even further, all of the source code, graphics and other data used in the book are freely available from the companion web site ...
Depending on what you are creating, you may never have a use for the solutions in this book. However, if you are faced with one of these problems, then the solution is well in hand and you will be happy with the way it is constructed.

I have this man's complete series of HTML books. Any time my friends or I have a question, the answer is in one of these!

I have this man's complete series of HTML books. Any time my friends or I have a question, the answer is in one of these!

Perfect for newbies and pros alike!

"I like the exercises very much. They appear to be at least as good as others I've seen, and in many cases better. The idea of a running theme is appealing"

"The most attractive feature of the author's approach is the smooth transition from basic HTML to more complex, powerful HTML. I believe Avila has struck the right balance between straightforward and fast-paced coverage. Most currrent HTML texts either never progress beyond a simple introduction, or they jump too quickly into the more complex aspects of HTML"

"Most HTML texts do not cover maps, applets and frames to the depth of this text"

This book is a must for anyone interested in Topic Maps. It would certainly pay to have some familiarity with XML, URIs, etc, because otherwise the examples will be hard going. If you do know XML, then you'll be away, because XTM is a very small and simple vocabulary.

Each chapter is by a different author, and each one comes at the subject from a different angle. Topics covered include tutorials for using the XTM specification, topic maps for website Information Architecture, Knowledge Representation, Ontological Engineering, e-learning, visualisation, relationship to RDF, information about various software implementations (a bit dated now, but still valuable), as well as sample topic maps and XSLT code.

Because of the diverse - even contradictory - viewpoints, the book as a whole provides an excellent overview of the field.

Since Tim Berners-Lee wrote of the Semantic Web
several years ago, there has been speculation about
how we might embed meaning within Web pages, as
opposed to merely displaying content. To answer this,
XML offers the separation of content from display.
From its user definable tags, different user
communities can define their own sets of tags and
associate meaning with those. XML offers the
infrastructure. But it is still fairly low level.
Assembler language, as it were, compared to more
powerful languages like C or Java.

So if XML is like an assembler, what is the analog of
C? This book puts forward XTM, XML Topic Maps, as the
answer. It consists of 17 chapters by different
authors, outlining various aspects of XTM. The
chapters can be divided into two types.

One type has nitty gritty explanations, replete with
examples of XTM written in XML. If you are a
programmer, these chapters are for you. There are web
sites listed with XTM definitions that you can

incorporate into your XTM, just like using standard
namespaces available on the web in normal XML.

The other chapters deal with the much deeper and
harder problem of how XTM may be used for Knowledge
Organisation and Knowledge Representation. They are
high level and abstruse, edging up to the issues of
semiotics and artificial intelligence.

As a side note: In the XTM examples and
implementations given, I was surprised to see no
mention of altavista's graphical representation of

search results, circa 1998. This was not in XTM, but
it conveyed the flavour. What happened was that if you
searched for, say, 'tornado', the results would appear
as a graph. The nodes would be the main keywords in
the documents containing 'tornado'. Nodes would be
connected to each other if documents contained both
those words. In this case, one might see two non
intersecting clusters - one related to weather
patterns, and the other to jet planes. By clicking on
a node, you could expand it into finer grained graphs.
It complements this book, whose main thrust is in
manually describing XML documents in an XTM format,
because it could achieve much the same visual results,
but derived automatically from arbitrary web pages.

In order to fully appreciate this book you will need a good working knowledge of XML and associated W3G documents, and more than a casual exposure to knowledge management. The first four chapters are a blend of historical information about XTM (XML topic maps) and fundamental technical information that describes design rationale and components of XTM (which is a separate open source initiative that is based on the ISO/IEC 13250 Topic Maps standard).

Chapters 5, 6 and 7 dive into the mechanics of XTM and knowledge management, and requires the prerequisite knowledge I cited above. This part of the book is not an easy read. This is not a reflection of the authors/editors ability to write as much as it is of the nature of the material. Knowledge management and development issues are given both wide and deep treatment in these chapters. Chapters 8 and 9 go deeper into the XML family as they relate to XTM (with an emphasis on XSLT), and address creating and maintaining sites that use XTM/XSLT as the core of a knowledge management strategy.

Related topics are covered in Chapters 10 through 13, including open source tools, RDF (widely used as a mechanism for weblogs and blogs that are gaining popularity), and semantic networks (intelligent agent-based systems). The final two chapters tie together the preceding material with a chapter devoted to topic map fundamentals for knowledge representation and a chapter about topic maps in knowledge organizations.

If you are interested in using an XML-like technology as the foundation of a knowledge management strategy, or are interested in learning about new directions in the integration of web technologies and knowledge management this book is ideal. For the technical reader the code examples, pointers to open source and commercial solutions and the website that supports this book (using topic maps, of course), this book is an excellent way to leverage knowledge of XML and use it to develop knowledge management solutions.

If your interest is more than casual - that is, you actually intend to implement - this is the one to have in hand. Complete in its treatment of VRML 2.0, and full of important details. When your VRML doesn't come out right, this book is sure to tell you where you went wrong.

I haven't completed this book yet, but it is the required text for a class at Inter-American University in Puerto Rico

"Developing SGML DTD's" is both a great book to get up to speed on SGML and a reference book for you SGML guru's. Eve and Jeanne deal with many of the complexities of SGML, but in a way that anyone can understand. I particulary liked the sections on managing an SGML project, and Training and Support. Hats off to Eve and Jeanne on a job well done !

The company I work for threw me into the arduous task of not only setting standards for our document data but to manage the entire process of an SGML implementation. A dream job for a technical writer? Maybe but I must have been delusional!

An Arbortext consultant, who was concerned for my sanity gave me this book as a wedding gift and advised me to read it on my very short honeymoon. By doing this, I would hopefully have some background and be able to participate effectively as a team member during the data modeling and system design with Arbortext. I had been putting in many long hours on the project already, had a good understanding of databases and had a better than average understanding of single sourcing concepts, Therefore, I felt I knew enough to get through the tasks without doing this reading. I DID skim through some of it on the plane but failed to read anywhere near enough.

The book is a complete cookbook on how to put together a data modeling team and how to complete the process.

So what's in the book that's so great? The book has a very good review of SGML concepts in general. Since the author loves to cook you will be treated to some excellent recipes while reviewing what you already know and learning the processes! You will understand what a good DTD is, why you need one, who the people you need are, and how to get the work done. You will also find out about the pitfalls in the design process and some ways to avoid them.

You'll learn how to perform a needs analysis and develop DTD requirements. In this process you will find ELM tree diagrams useful and will learn how to both read and design these equivalents of program flowcharts which become very useful documentation of your work. You will learn the importance of setting naming conventions and of documenting every single step.

Read this book BEFORE you start your first SGML or XML development project! Follow the concepts religiously and use the suggestions. You will save time and dollars in the long run and that's what it's really all about.

This level was better than the first level. Lots of CSS examples and advanced topics. The first level is good for the novice web designer. Together its a good learning combo.

Great examples that anyone can use to create nice styles. I used a portion of this book in a course and it did very well.

This is a very no-nonsense approach to building web pages. It's an excellent guide if you know what you want to put on your page but are mystified about the HTML codes to use to produce the effects you're looking for. This book even includes a guide on how to incorporate multi-media on your webpage. This is the best book I have read thus far on the subject.

After reviewing countless of books on web designing, I have finally found one of the most informative and easy to read books on HTML. Within the first couple of days, I quickly and easily created a very attractive website. If the reader follows the steps as outlined in the book I can assure you he will walk away with with a working knowledge of HTML. This is a must read for anyone interested in learning how to design web sites. The author definitely makes learning fun.