Markup Languages Books

I have always been an advocate of the O'Reilly line of "...In a Nutshell" books but Sybex has tipped the scale. HTML Complete is a COMPLETE collection of markup that is easy to referrence when needed. The book is an easy (although long) read packed full of tips and tricks. Most importantly, the 1,000 page collection is under $20! Amazing.

This book is light weight and very portable in the briefcase. I take it everywhere I might need to deal with the web. Very user friendly with comprehensive index to find information. It covers practically all topics regarding excellent web technologies (including perl, unix and CGI and xml) with comprehensive definitions to make the not-so-technical individuals grab an instant understanding . Brilliant HTML and CSS reference for people who don't have much time to spend hours finding quick solutions for front end coding.

HTML Complete teaches the essentials that every Web Designer should know, both beginner and expert alike. For experts it serves as a great reference book.

Beginners will find themselves interested in HTML instantly. HTML Complete breaks passed the boundary of teaching programming through text. It comes off as more of a teacher than a text book - just like it should be.

Later on other topics such as Perl, ASP, Java, and much more are introduced after a significant portion of HTML is covered. While those topics are left in the dark, they do not hinder the overall feel of the book and the knowledge it shares.

I bought this book at a local bookstore and it's one of the best computer books I've purchased. It starts from the beginnings of HTML, covers CSS and everthing inbetween, and finishes with an introduction to advanced HTML. There are also numerous reference tables (color, tags) for the more experienced web designer.

This book is not bad, but by the author's own admission, much of what is being explained is deprecated. The book is quite good at telling you what NOT to use, but keeps referring the reader to Chapt 16 (CSS). Unfortunately the CSS chapter does not show all the correct ways to implement the deprecated features (use of justification - left, right, center - in tables, for example).

One nice feature in the book was the "Widely Supported" yes/no indicator for HTML syntax in the Appendix A.

I think the author should have spent more time on non-deprecated usage of HTML and CSS, instead of saying "Here's how to do this, but don't do it this way." This book is probably useful to someone who is trying to READ older HTML code, but is not so useful for someone trying to write new HTML code.

In summary, although it has useful information surrounding the use of HTML, this book should probably be re-titled to "HTML Deprecated", or "Reading Deprecated HTML Code", or alternatively needs a much-expanded section on use of CSS.

This book is a real eye-opener about what and how can be done with XSLT. It is a great Cookbook with a huge variety of extremely useful solutions for various problems.
Viktor Melekhine

This book was very helpful in getting my first XSLT transform up and running in just a few days. Its Problem -- Solution -- Discussion format provides ready-made solutions for a range of transformation problems, from the simple to the more complex. In my case, I quickly found clear and straightforward illustrations of how to produce multiple text output files from an XML input file.

This book is not an XSLT language reference. But it is a good supplement to, for instance, Michael Kay's XSLT 2.0 and XPath 2.0 programmer's references.

This book is for the experienced XSLT developer. It will provide many, many code samples right from the beginning. I purchased this book thinking I can learn XSLT but, this book is not for the beginner. With that, I am not saying you should not purchase it. What I am saying is that I found a very good companion book: XSLT FOR DUMMIES. Believe it or not, this was my first for dummies book. Don't let the title fool you, this is a great first book to understand XSLT. I think the cookbook will start you where the dummies book ends but with a very different approach: To give you ideas. From the dummies book, you will understand what XPath and other key topics which you will already need to understand for the cookbook. For example, the cookbook goes right to covering XPATH in chapter one but assumes you know what and how it works. I hope this review will help everyone understand what this book will do for you and the correct approach in using it.

I've just completed a job where one of my primary functions was editing, teaching, and solving problems with XSLT. I started that job as an experienced programmer with little experience in XSLT. I frequently referred to this book whenever I thought, "I bet XSLT can do this, but how?" For example, if you are already familiar with common scripting languages and programming libraries, one of the first things you will notice about XSLT is a lack of regular expression functionality. I referred to the "search and replace" function in this book several times. This book is a real problem solver.

This is a great book with a collection of XSLT solutions to difficult and non-trivial XSLT problems. It covers XSLT 2.0 and shows to you how elegant 2.0 solution can be comparable to ugly and monstrous 1.0 listing.

But don't make the same mistake as I did! It is not a learning book! It is a book for programmers that already know XSLT at least a bit and want to improve their skills in this language. If you don't know XSLT at all, it would be better to you to purchase another book together with this one.

This is what other O'Reilly Pocket References should be. It contains everything and should replace all non-design-oriented HTML books

FYI: the IMG tag is only missing from the first printing. (I asked O'Reilly.) Indeed, a recent copy of the book is not missing it anymore. (Back of the title page, bottom right corner has a date: [11/04]. My other copy, which is missing IMG, has [6/02] in this spot.) A quick check shows that they have fixed some, but not all, of the errata (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/htmlpr2/errata/).

But this book is still totally worth having. It's small enough to leave lying around the desktop, where its big brother (Definitive Guide) would get in the way (not to mention distort gravity from its sheer mass). If you're reading this review, you obviously feel you could use a quick reference to HTML. This is it.

They lowered the price, too: These things used to cost 12.95. Now, 9.95. "Buy It Now!"

There may be a few errors, like the missing tag, but the errata list on the O'Reilly site has the information posted. The rest of the book is so good that I'm fine with plugging in the missing information myself. I love how it's set up as one big alphabetical list of tags. It makes it so easy to find what you want. I have been using it lately to check tags for browser compatibility. Saves so much time to quick turn to a page in this small book, rather than search big books or websites for compatibility info!

If you are designing web pages, you must have this book. That is all there is to it.

This is a small compact reference book (hence the title) which lists the HTML tags in alphabetical order, shows if they are supported by the three major browsers (IE,NN,Opera) and if they are part of the w3c spec HTML 4.01. Information is given for the applicable attributes for each tag.

Once you know it (especially if you follow w3c standards) HTML is a simple and easy language to use.. however, having a easy to use reference comes in handy quite frequently, especially when starting up a new site.

This will not be the only reference you need.. no book can claim that. Though everybody who designs websites should have this book, those new to HTML may find it the most helpful most frequently. However, this book will NOT teach you HTML. It is a reference.. nothing more.

as mentioned in other reviews.. the IMG tag is missing, which is a major flaw, but not major enough to take away from the greatness of this book.

In short.. get it.

I am generally a fan of Pocket References. But this one seems poorly debugged. One example is claiming "align" is deprecated for <td>. Turns out, this bug has made it onto the Errata page for the book

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/htmlpr2/errata/ ,

but only under "Unconfirmed error reports and comments from readers." If you write a buggy book, at least do the work to confirm bugs and fix them in new printings!

The book doesn't go in-depth in it's explainations. It is written more for the seasoned script writer and not the beginner. I found it very confusing and not enough detail to be of any use to me. I preferred "Javascript, Demystified".

Like most web developers, I typically will reach for one of the many JS libraries when it comes time to add client-side enhancements to my web applications. This is usually the obvious choice for the sake of saving time on projects, and keeping costs down... but quite often, many libraries are simply overkill for a simple little js/dhtml enhancement.

As such, that is what lead me to this book. I was hoping the cookbook format would give me some fresh ideas on doing some simple js/dhtml work and it most definitively delivered.

Perhaps the most valuable parts of this book for me were the aspects of working on the DOM. Additionally, I always enjoy reading different techniques for dealing with client-side form validation.

To me the coverage on loading dynamic data/ajax was good, but I still think that when entering into that realm of JS, it is usually time to deploy one of the libraries I mentioned earlier.

All in all this has become a valuable resource that I often refer to during my daily work.

I really like this book. The format of each technique demonstrated is

Problem- Solution- Discussion

The nice thing is that you can get a quick explanation from the solution, and a more in depth response in the discussion. The author presents complete code which is easily built upon and customized.

I knew a bit of Javascript when I started, but I think this would be an excellent book even for a complete beginner.

I wouldn't buy this book if you are going for aesthetics for you website. I wouldn't buy it if you are a heavy programmer either. Its a good "middle" book for just general roll overs, browser detections, and other javascript functions for form validation. Its a little small.

I still have the first edition of this book but other than perhaps missing the chapters on ajax it's not outdated at all. This book has saved my life several times already. Almost every time I am looking to solve a tricky problem in javascript, I find that this book contains a well explained chapter with the exact solution that I was looking for. The authors often make a point of going through multiple iterations of a solution, to demonstrate what needs to be modified to support certain browsers, and at the same time ensure that the reader actually understands the code too.

This is a great book for experienced javascript developers who want to save time by using tried and tested code to solve common problems, but at the same time understand that code too.

This book does its stated purpose very well. Not too indepth, not too shallow. Find a property, check it out, and back to work.

Probably a good reference if you already know CSS.
Not useful if you're learning CSS from scratch.

Developing accessible, standards-based websites that work and look properly on everyone's screen (I'm looking at you, IE) can be a real struggle sometimes, but this book has been a life saver for me. Having the book at my desk and being able to quickly look up this syntax or that modifier is extremely helpful. I can't recommend this book more for anyone who does a lot of web development and is just looking for a quick, to the point reference guide.

You know CSS, but you are not using it every day thus not remember every single attribute and specific syntax for every style there is?

You are like me and you will appreciate this little helper. It is very compact and filled with every CSS 2.0 style there is.

It also shows which properties and styles are compatible with which Browser. It is up to you if you want to use the latest styles available or rather fall back to the styles and properties that virtually every browser in use today can render correctly.

This is a compact reference for CSS and not meant for people who want to learn CSS. It would make a good addition when you buy a book to learn CSS and get this reference for quick look-ups of the already learned styles.

Not as Handy as It Should Be

I liked the Idea of a quick reference for CSS, because I always struggle with remembering the exact syntax (or confuse them with HTML or JS attributes) or can't recall which properties can be applied to which HTML element. I have to problems with this reference, which makes it for me less effective than I wish it to be.

1) This is not and issue with the content, but the page layout. It wouldn't be too hard to print the chapter and the property that can be found on the page at the top of every page to make scanning of the book easier and reduces the need for a detour to the index.

2) It would have been great if there would have been not only a list of attributes sorted alphabetically, but also a list of HTML elements sorted alphabetically with the information for each of them, which CSS attribute can be applied to it. It makes the book thicker, but you could have compensated that by using thinner paper and use less empty line in the content.

I hope that my suggestions might find it into a future, version of the book, which also incorporated the CSS 3.0 attributes that are supported by some of the latest browsers like Mozilla Firefox.

By the time I was taking my second or third CSS course, this book became a life saver. Even now, 2 years later, this is the one book I cary around with me for syntax.

Mr. Meyer also adds a lot more flavor and discussion than I would expect from a desk reference. Impressive!

this is the most cutest HTML book i've read.Its easy with full details.you won't need another book anymore!! Just Creating Web Pages with HTML will only do!!!

I was taking a CIS college course at HVCC in Troy, New York and I had an instructor who was a holdover from the 1950's as far as teaching style was concerned, where they would stand up for several housrs and then assign some off the wall homework assignment that would take forever to do or impossible to do in a reasonable time.

Well, I was unfortunate to get such an instructor. I complained to my chairperson, James Looby, right away to get some help in getting his teachers to do a better job communicating with the class.

Looby promised in an email to me that he would see what he could do to get Frank Zaverl to do a better job showing us how to build simple Web pages. But after many weeks of waiting and waiting, I called and then got a email back from Looby stating that nothing would be done ! at which, I blew up at Looby for his poor handling of a serious classroom problem for which he was being paid by the local taxpayers and student's tuitions to solve. But, this once again, proved to me that there is a code of silence among educators and that is why it is in such a bad shape as polls indicate nationally and internationally !

Then I realized that I had waited too long for the Cavalry to arrive, and I had to drop the course -- which i thought it was an easy course if only taught correctly! that is, for each HTML command an example could be available to show how this HTML command was being used, so a student could begin building confidence with this Web language.

Oh by the way, the book suggested by Zaverl and adopted in his class and which Zaverl was totally gaga over was entitled, "Web Design In a Nutshell" ! which if one looked for a few minutes, has no exmaples and so was really suitable as a reference book, once the student was familiar with the HTML language and syntax.

So, believing that a better text existed in the amrketplace I soon found this book, entitled, "Creating Web Pages with HTML, Simplifed" and sure enough withing days I was up and running and confident in building simple web pages --proving my intial idea that a better book had been already created somewhere where the teaching and thus learning was easy, quick and fun !


In general. I think educators make things purposefully difficult so we continue needing their old systems of learning; but this is simply not good enough in the 21st century -- where other nations are way ahead of America which has lost its way in providing excellent educaiton to its citizens but continues to over tax the local citizenry, each and evey year, which is now even forcing the elderly out of their homes since education is subsidized by local property taxes which is a big curse today with the taxes rising without any proof that this education is par-excellence.

Other nations do not subsidize their eduaction with property taxes and the citizens are very happy about that; and thus the local citizenry do not end up hating their educators and politicians for forcing them to lose their homes just to pay the big education tax every year !

But the Teachers Union knowing how the local taxpayers feel still air ads on TV showing how wonderful things are so citizens will keep on passing local school budgets which are out of control. The Republican solution to the local educaiton mess is to bring in competetion which only raises more local taxes on the homes of thse citizenry. so educaiton has become a vicious circle. Since politicians can't solve the tax problem a 2008 Recession is now hoped to bring sky rocketing educaiton costs under control since homes values are coming down all across the country finally forcing relief in lower taxes on burdened taxpayers.

Gerard J Sagliocca, P.E.
gerard_sagliocca@yahoo.com

Book was really simple, had my web page started but the end of the second chapter. Great if you have no knowledge, too simle if you have a basic understanding of html.

I wanted to have my company web page re-designed. My host told me he would do it for three thousand. I ordered this book and used it to do my own web site, seven pages and several pictures, for the price of the book that I got for twelve bucks, and twelve hours of time.

The book is very good. Simple to follow instructions will have you up and running in an hour or less.

I purchased this book along with the recommended Teach Yourself Visually HTML.

Each of these books are good books, BUT... you certainly don't need both. You'll see the same things repeated and no new helpful information. The Creating Web Pages with HTML seems a bit more advanced but you can do the same thing with either one of these books. Save yourself some cash and choose one but not both!

I'm sending one back.

Nicely written, very informative. My deduction of a star is for the reference having neither examples nor page numbers where a more detailed explanation would be found. This is a common omission, so I would still recommend this book. I would not recommend this as a first introduction to web authoring, as it is strictly CSS, which of course does nothing without structural mark-up. For those who have been building sites for a while, and need some guidance and insite into CSS, this is a great choice. However, for those who have very little or no experience I would instead recommend 'Build your website the right way...' by Ian Lloyd.

As others have pointed out this is not a CSS "cookbook" full of design templates. If that is what you are looking for, you will be disappointed. If however, you want to understand CSS, how it works, best practices and so on, this is a great book. Although you can find all of the info in various places on the web, Mr. Meyer is a good author explaining in detail how things work and bringing up valuable points to be aware of along the way. A good addition to any web developers library.

Most of the stuff that you learn in CSS can be found already ONLINE and before I bought this book, I had a very good fundamental understanding CSS and thought I buy this book for more knowledge and learn anything that I could have missed. Well I did, but I could have found this information online, however I've spent months learning CSS and it's very difficult to found all the things in this CSS book in one place.

I recommend this book if you have the stimulation to learn from a book and the money because of course the internet is FREE.

Before purchasing this book, I had purchased about a half dozen books on css, one from the same author. I was really surprised to find new ways to use css that I hadn't learned in the other books. Each topic is discussed completely and in detail. For a reference on css, this book is the best I've found.

This is a book about CSS, and CSS, is about the presentation aspect of web pages. How the text appears, the size, the layout, etc.

However, the presentation style inside the book is kind of sloppy. For example, on page 186 and 187, when it talks about inline elements, Figure 7.33 "Strongly emphasized" is printed not as tall as Figure 7.34 and 7.35 when the CSS style is the same. And the word being used is "which is" and is changed to "that is" in Figure 7.34 and 7.35, when it is changing the vertical-align only. The reader would be better helped if they can see the contrast of the CSS style, without the change of wording for no reason at all. Also, in Figure 7.34, the bigger words should not overlap with the smaller words above, as tested in CSS compliant browsers, but it is printed so on the book.

Then again, in Figure 7.36, for no reason at all, the picture is shrunk down to 1/4 size of the previous examples, when they are all talking about the same case except for some vertical-align difference. It may be done just because the page is running out of space. That is pretty sloppy.

On page 181 to 182, it talks about various terms of the inline box model, and there is no figure at all to exemplify the terms at all. Then after the reader goes through a tough time to read through those text of hard definitions, 3 pages later, the figures start to appear. Please, can the book be designed so that the readers are considered? CSS is partly for making the content easy for the audience, and how about this CSS book is made easier for its audience too?

I'm never disappointed with Dummies books and this one is no exception. Great read, easy to learn.

I love this book because it is a well-written concise reference to HTML. It is also spirally bound so it lays flat to boot. This book contains what you need to know without a lot of superfluous text. It is well-organized and collect important information into summary sections. If you are looking for a quick reference, look no further! Like most Dummies books, however, it is written on inexpensive paper. This isn't a huge drawback, however, since computer books are ancient history very quickly and only useful for starting fires after a few years.

I had new a little html before I got this book but after I got this book my web pages went from looking like something a high school freshman could do after a weekend to something that looks fairly professional I really enjoyed this book and will be getting java for dummies also if it half as good as this one

I love this book! 7 years ago, when I was in high school, I knew nothing about HTML, so I picked up this book. And it really helped me learn fast!

Each of the book's lessons is hands-on, which makes it so much easier to pick up. It teaches you HTML by having you type the codes into the Notepad program, and saving the file as an .html instead of a .txt file. Then, when you open it up, it appears in webpage format, and you can quickly edit and play around with the codes in Notepad to see what kind of different results you get. Actually, even to this day, I still use a Notepad program instead of one of those fancy page-creator programs. I like keepin' it DIY, Old School, baby!

Some of the things the book covers:
- how to use different fonts
- how to put in images
- how to make an image map (so when you click on different parts of the image, you're sent to different links)
- how to create basic tables
- how to create numbered and bulleted lists
- how to make frames

Even though the book won't teach you some of the fancier stuff you see on webpages, like how to use non-bordered tables for layout design, or how to make text change when you roll your mouse cursor over it, it will teach you how to be able to learn those things. Since the book taught me how to view the source code of webpages and how to understand code in the first place, whenever I went to someone's website and saw something cool I liked, I just viewed their source code to see how they were able to do those things. This is all perfectly fine; just DON'T STEAL SOMEONE ELSE'S LAYOUT. Not cool, people. Just see how others do things, and use those techniques to make something of your own design.

Once you learn the basics of HTML, it's easy to pick up that fancy stuff. There's plenty of tutorial sites on the web and thick HTML reference books at the library that'll give you the codes for that. And this book definitely gives you the foundation for learning those things.

This is the first HTML book I bought and it's become my favorite. Not only did I learn how to build a webpage from scratch, I continue to learn new tricks from it every time I dip inside. This is great if you want to learn how to code your pages and not rely on templates. There's also a quick and handy color code guide in the back.

Emacs comes with great documentation, and there is a ton of it on the web. Nevertheless a structured book that is well-designed with great illustrations and examples is priceless. Despite my level of skill with Emacs (I "live in Emacs," using it for all my basic computing tasks), I consult this book regularly. It's a regular part of my Emacs library!

This book covers more than just using the editor: building Emacs from source, the help system, and Emacs Lisp are covered as well. This book is always telling me about things that I didn't know Emacs could do.

Although I have read a few chapters from front-to-back, I mainly use this book as a reference.

It seemed odd to me during my Sophomore year at Penn State that the Computer Science Department wanted me to learn a text editor to do computer programming on UNIX computers. In the business classes students were taught to use an IDE on Windows computers. I remember asking myself why would I be one of the few to learn how to use a text editor to do computer programming when the masses where learning to use a GUI approach. I made up my mind that the computer scientists probably knew more about programming than the business professors, and taking the road less traveled has made all the difference.

While I am no where near a Emacs expert this book has made me into more than just a casual user. Learning how to do the keyboard macros has saved me countless hours of work over the years. Sometimes if I plan on doing a lot of typing for a business document I'll use emacs to get started so I don't have to lift my fingers off the keys, then paste the text into word for formatting.

Using this book to expand my previous knowledge of Emacs has had exponential return on investment. I highly recommend it, to anyone that is trying to learn or wants to improve their emacs skill level.

Most of the Unix/Linux senior level Wizzards that I know use Emacs and swear by it. There are others (vi users especially) who swear at it, but that's another story. Emacs is a huge package and is growing bigger. Although you can consider it a text editor, it's a big, massive package that does a lot more than just edit text.

At the start of the book the authors comment "Many people think that Emacs is an extremely difficult editor to learn. We don't see why." I think the WHY is that most people start with a simpler more fundamental text editor like vi. Then when they think of moving to Emacs their fingers have to un-learn the vi commands to replace them with the Emacs commands. The authors say they don't recommend the vi emulation mode built into Emacs, but fingers sometimes take a long time to un-learn.

If you've just decided to move to Linux, you might want to start with Emacs and never go the vi route. There is no question that Emacs has more power. Comparing to the Microsoft world, I think of vi like NotePad, while Emacs is like Word.

There's an interesting table near the front of the book that asks you what you want to do with Emacs. If you want to write HTML, read Preface and Chapters 1-3 & 8. Then after you are getting some work out of the package, you can go to other chapters as you need them - Chapter 12, for instance to use Emacs to compare files.

About half the book is on 'simple' text editing, where their 'simple' maybe isn't as 'simple' as the rest of us consider 'simple.' I do a lot of SQL, Chapter 9 talks about the editing support for SQL, and for other programming environments like Perl, Lisp, JDEE, etc.

This book is from O'Reilly. O'Reilly does professional quality books for professional programmers. If it's time to learn Emacs, you can't do better than this.

LEARNING GNU EMACS is an introduction to the most powerful text editor ever made, a fully-programmable environment that through contributions from thousands has become something of an operating system in itself. This third edition covers all the new enhancements made in version 21.3.

The book begins with an introduction to Emacs as it : a text editor. It gives basic commands for moving around, describes the look of the user interface, teaches how to search and replace, and how to make simple (and not-so-simple) macros. But Emacs isn't just a simple text editor, it also has extensions to do everything from drawing simple pictures to managing your schedule. In the next portion the book describes among other things Dired, the Emacs file manager, the calendar and diary functions, and how to execute commands from within Emacs.

Since Emacs functions as an integrated-development environment for many programming languages, a fairly large portion of the book focus on how Emacs can help the software developer. Concerning markup languages, this new edition covers the excellent nxml mode for XML documents, and in terms of computer languages it describes modes for C, C++, Java, Perl, SQL, and Lisp. Unfortunately, the Python mode is not discussed. An entire chapter is devoted to Emacs' interface to version control systems like CVS.

The book doesn't aim itself at only a beginner's market. It teaches one already proficient in editing to customize Emacs. At the simplest, this means tinkering with one's "~/.emacs" file, but it also includes using the power of Lisp to change all aspects of Emacs.

This book could only be perfect if it were twice as large as it is now, since Emacs has so much in it. I think it a pity that the book doesn't cover Gnus, a mail and news reader that takes advantage of Emacs' scriptable nature to offer immense configurability and power. In fact, it doesn't cover the popular Mew mail reader or Emacs' limited built-in mail reader at all. Also, the bit on search and replace doesn't give any small intro to regular expressions.

Emacs is not for everyone, and even with a fine book like this some people are not going to like it. But if you are comfortable doing basic editing with Emacs, and want to maximize your efficiency, then LEARNING GNU EMACS can help.

If a person is thinking of learning GNU Emacs, or if they have been using it and are looking to sharpen their skills and broaden their Emacs savvy, it is a fairly safe assumption that the individual is motivated. This person probably knows their way around a command prompt, and it is likely that they are aware that Lisp is more than just a speech impediment. This person needs a book that offers expert advice without wasting time or insulting the intellect of the reader. Learning GNU Emacs, 3rd Edition is that book.

As a programmer, when firing up a monolithic word processor or graphical IDE to edit a simple script or properties file, one cannot help but wonder if these tools aren't overkill much of the time. For a growing number of users, the answer is yes. The tried-and-true text editor is enjoying a renaissance of sorts. One of the most extensible and customizable applications in the text editing category is the venerable GNU Emacs.

The tutorials and documentation for Emacs are abundant, but they often prove time-consuming and ineffective for actually learning Emacs. This book is a refreshing break from the documentation many have come to expect. Imagine you had a consortium of leading experts on Emacs at your disposal to teach you how to use it in a conversational, consultative style. That is what has been bundled into this latest edition of the book.

The extensibility of Emacs has been both a key strength and a criticism of the application. Its user and developer community have created all sorts of additional capabilities for Emacs, ranging from the impressive to the absurd. The authors have done well to judiciously select what to cover in this edition. For example, while Emacs does have the capability to function as an email client, other applications have long superceded its ability. The authors have chosen not to cover this topic, and instead devote the available space to learning Emacs' core functionality - powerful, efficient text editing. Other peripheral areas of Emacs have been left for the user to research after gaining their solid foundation on Emacs as editor and work environment, such as compatibility modes for programming languages other than Java and Perl.

This edition of the book uses the space gained by the removal of esoteric topics to flesh out areas of more common interest. Integration with the major version control systems has been expanded to include Subversion alongside of the age-old standards CVS, RCS, and SCCS. Coverage of support for Java and Perl has also improved, as well as sections for editing HTML and XML. Users wanting to tap into the power of Lisp programming for Emacs should find the coverage satisfying as well.

Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of this book is the chapter devoted to the use of Emacs on different platforms. Unix, Windows and Mac OS X users receive equal acknowledgement. The precautions and insights regarding Emacs nuances when used on particular platforms can reduce users' frustration when getting started with Emacs.

Even current Emacs users can benefit from this work. The mnemonic devices and conventions used in the book allow users to commit useful keyboard commands to memory. The memorization is further solidified by the exercises sprinkled appropriately through each chapter. Readers do not go for very many pages before it is time to be at the keyboard again, harnessing the power of muscle memory to reinforce the material presented.

To the person who understands Html, what uploading files to a server is and the ins and outs of the lingo, it is perfect. But...if you are in fact a stranger to html, have no idea what acronyms mean, take a course. This book assumes that you are already involved in web page design of some kind. It is not nearly as thorough as it should be. To me if you are teaching a completely clueless person you need to hold their hands through every facet and put a generous sprinkling of tutorials in. This book does neither. I tested it out on 4 completely clueless people and they remained that way, gave it back to me and asked me to write their web pages for them.

Very basic info, I am not sure I would want to publish a web page I created only using this information.

This is a truly great find for the beginner. the book is a true teaching tool. well planned curriculum providing everything to make a premier first time web page. This book is not a Teaser.

This is a great book!!! The author does a great job explaining what each tag does and also shows examples in the book. If you read this book starting on Friday, you will be able to construct a webpage on Sunday. My advise in regard to using this book as a guide is to type all the examples from the book into notepad and see how it comes out as you read the book. That way you'll have an easier time remembering some of the code when you create your webpage on Sunday (you can also use the book as a reference when creating your first webpage). If you already know basic HTML, then skip this book and purchase a book that goes more in-depth in regard to HTML such as a Sam's book(I just ordered the Sam's HTML & XML book, but I have not gotten it yet).

The best thing about this book for me was that it helped me toplan and organize how I wanted to design my page. It's a lot more thanjust how to go about making the web page. It also teaches you to know what you want and how you want to organize it...