Markup Languages Books


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Markup Languages Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Markup Languages
XHTML 1.0 Language and Design Sourcebook: The Next Generation HTML
Published in Paperback by John Wiley & Sons (2000-03-16)
Author: Ian S. Graham
List price: $39.99
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Average review score:

Best book on XHTML around!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2002-11-07
Best book on XHTML around!

With This Book And A Week You Can Build A Site
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2003-02-20
Without knowing any xHTML, but with some HTML background I was able to put together a full xHTML-strict compliant site. A good reference book as well as a teaching book.

A very good XHTML reference and learning tool
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2002-03-11
I do website development and I found this book to be very helpful, both as a reference and as a learning tool for mastering this new version of the web page markup language. XHTML is pretty much the same as HTML except for a few syntactical changes, but its biggest innovation is XHTML's extensive use of cascading style sheets, which are a great advancement in web page markup in allowing much greater control over page design and management (change just one master style sheet and you can change the formatting of all pages that use the sheet). This book provides many examples of style sheets in action. Soon after reading a few chapters you will be incorporating some of them in your own webpages.

This work is filled with many examples that illustrate the sections in the book (all of the examples are downloadable for free from the author's website). It helps a great deal to see and experiment with actual examples that use the markup techniques the author discusses. This work is logically presented and clearly written, which is surely a virtue in technical books. The excellent job that the author did with this work makes me want to read the companion book, the Web Development Sourcebook. I would recommend this work to anyone who does website development or who wants to begin learning it.

Great resource, poor book binding
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2001-12-13
This is the only book on XHTML/HTML I've looked at in much detail, so I've no basis for comparison. However, this book is packed with very useful information on the tags, attributes, and CSS properties. The examples are good and are nearly always provided with screenshots of the renderings in one or more browsers. Contains a good summary of CSS support by the major browsers.

My biggest complaint is that this book is rapidly falling apart! It is not from overuse. I have other paperback reference books that are older which I refer to more frequently that are fine. The binding on this one is failing fast.

The ULTIMATE XHTML Referece book!!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2001-08-22
Hey,

I read this book cover to cover, and learned a lot more about HTML and XHTML than ever before. This book is VERY technical and while it may not be that helpful to the novice, it is invaluable to intermediat - advanced/expert users. ***** A five star resou rce book! *****

Markup Languages
XML and Perl
Published in Paperback by Sams (2002-10-26)
Authors: Mark Riehl and Ilya Sterin
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Average review score:

need to already know Perl, but not XML
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-23
If you are interested in this book, you should already be aware of the importance of XML. Perhaps you already have used it elsewhere. More importantly, you should already have the basics of Perl. The book does not start from scratch on it. Though it assumes no prior knowledge of XML. It shows what can be done in Perl, to parse, change and write XML. Numerous modules already exist, especially for parsing. You really do not want to write an XML parser!

Once you've understood enough to have your own custom XML files and be able to write Perl to read and display these, then it should get easier. Those initial steps can then easily be modified as your XML data and analysis changes.

Useful guide to processing XML with Perl
Helpful Votes: 15 out of 15 total.
Review Date: 2003-01-27
One of Perl's great strengths is in processing text files. That is, after all, why it became so popular for generating dynamic web pages - web pages are just text (albeit text that is supposed to follow particular rules). As XML is just another text format, it follows that Perl will be just as good at processing XML documents. It's therefore surprising that using Perl for XML processing hasn't recieved much attention until recently. That's not saying that there hasn't been work going on in that area - many of the Perl XML processing modules have long and honourable histories - it'd just that the world outside of the Perl community doesn't seem to have taken much notice of this work. This is all set to change with the publication of this book and O'Reilly's Perl and XML.

XML and Perl is written by two well-known members of the Perl XML community. Both are frequent contributors to the "perl-xml" mailing list, so there's certainly no doubt that they know what they are talking about. Which is always a good thing in a technical book.

The book is made up of five sections. The first section has a couple of chapters which introduce you to the concepts voered in the book. Chapter one introduces you separately to XML and Perl and then chapter two takes a first look at how you can use Perl to process XML. This chapter finishes with two example programs for parsing simple XML documents.

Section two goes into a lot more detail about parsing XML documents with Perl. Chapter three looks at event-driven parsing using XML::Parser and XML::Parser::PerlSAX to demonstrate to build example programs before going to talk in some detail about XML::SAX which is currently the state of the art in event-driven XML parsing in Perl. It also looks at XML::Xerces which is a Perl inteface to the Apache Software Foundation's Xerces parser. Chapter four covers tree based XML parsing and presents examples using XML::Simple, XML::Twig, XML::DOM and XML::LibXML. In both of these chapters the pros and cons of each of the modules are discussed in detail so that you can easily decide which solution to use in any given situation.

Section three covers generating XML documents. In chapter five we look at generating XML from text sources using simple print statements and also the modules XML::Writer and XML::Handler::YAWriter. Chapter six looks at taking data from a database and turning that into XML using modules like XML::Generator::DBI and XML::DBMS. Chapter seven looks at miscellaneous other input formats and contains examples using XML::SAXDriver::CSV and XML::SAXDriver::Excel.

Section four covers more advanced topics. Chapter eight is about XML transformations and filtering. This chapter covers using XSLT to transform XML documents. It covers the modules XML::LibXSLT, XML::Sabletron and XML::XPath.

Chapter nine goes into detail about Matt Sergeant's AxKit, the Apache XML Kit which allows you to create a website in XML and automatically deliver it to your visitors in the correct format.

Chapter rounds off the book with a look at using Perl to create web services. It looks at the two most common modules for creating web services in Perl - XML::RPC and SOAP::Lite.

Finally, section five contains the appendices which provide more background on the introductions to XML and Perl from chapter one.

There was one small point that I found a little annoying when reading the book. Each example was accompanied with a sample of the XML documents to be processed together with both a DTD and an XML Schema definition for the document. This seemed to me to be overkill. Did we really need both DTDs and XML Schemas for every example. I would have found it less distracting if one (or even both) of these had been moved to an appendix.

That small complaint aside, I found it a useful and interesting book. It will be very useful to Perl programmers (like myself) who will increasingly be expected to process (and provide) data in XML formats.

Using practical, real-world examples
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2003-08-09
Using practical, real-world examples, XML And Perl is the collaborative effort of Mark Riehl and Ilya Sterin to demonstrates how to perform a variety of XML tasks, ranging from such basic tasks as XML parsing, to more advanced tasks such as writing XML event handlers, RDBMS integration, and XML transformation. XML And Perl is a continuingly useful addition to personal and professional XML and Perl reference collections.

Complete with great examples.
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2003-02-27
The authors of this book, definitely know the subject. I believe one of them is an author of quite a few XML modules, though both are widely known in the Perl XML community.

This book definitely covers the state of Perl and XML. It goes over the most important modules, in great detail and providing concrete examples. I especially like the first two chapters, which in detail get you prepared for the rest of the book. The coverage of XML parsing theory was a great topic to cover. Two large chapters, each dedicated to SAX and DOM respectively, covered both parsing technologies in great detail.

Many, many, more great chapters. Apart from some typos, which are inevitable in any book, this book stands way above the O'Reilly counterpart, which I also own.

Well maybe you'll print this one.
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2003-03-09
I wrote a review VERY critical of what O�Reilly passes off as reference books. Their various CD Books are pathetic. Shortly after getting burned on two of their books, I was in need of a solid technical book on perl and XML. Well instead of O�Reilly�s Perl and XML I voted with my dollars for Reihl�s XML and Perl. This is how a technical reference should be written. If you want to get into the perl and xml saddle quick, you can�t have a better boost thatn XML and Perl.

Markup Languages
XML in IE5 Programmer's Reference
Published in Paperback by Peer Information Inc. (1999-06)
Author: Alex Homer
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Average review score:

Best book I've found, but there's room for improvement.
Helpful Votes: 12 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 1999-12-03
The new XML features in IE5 are exciting, and we're starting to use XML to publish complicated db data on the web. This book got me up and running, so I've gotten a lot of use out of it. But my feeling is that no one has really figured out how to explain XML very well, and this book, like all of the other XML books I've read, seemed a little muddled and difficult to read. The first four chapters of the book are devoted to XML theory and descriptions of the various technologies MS uses, and I found them a little confusing, despite the fact that I was already running some of the XML-Apache code. For me, though, the bottom line is that the technology is so useful and exciting that it's worth expending a little extra effort to pick it up. If someone knows of a better book, email me and let me know. But for now, as far as I know this is an imperfect book that's the best way to learn an important new technology. For that reason, I recommend it.

Complete
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-07-27
I have to say that this book IS complete about the XML for IE5 subject. Of course, this a Programmer's Reference so it's not a book to learn and it's obviously IE5 specific. If you can live with those constraint and you are looking to do get the best out of IE, take this book and you will have all required information.

Bottom line, very practical and compact reference; but it will probably need some adjustments when Microsoft will release future XML capabilities to be conform to the W3C recommendations.

Appetitizing XML/IE5 cookbook, and an essential reference
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-07-04
This is another example of the quality (most) Wrox publishings have. The book includes some very good and essential reference to the most useful XML technologies including core XML, XSL(XSLT), Schemas&DTD's, the MS-XML Document Object Model (DOM), ActiveX Data Objects and lots of other stuff.

It also includes a collection of very extensive reference appendices to all the techniques described above.

It makes a perfect starting point for XML beginners because:
  1) IE5 and the MS-XML parser are included in most modern PCs and their setup as easy as a few clicks with your mouse (unlike XML-Apache and Enhydra!).
  2) IE5 is a visual environment which easily creates results that can be instantly viewed.

Something I did not personally like much is that it uses JavaScript(JScript) in most of its examples except for a few ones dealing with Active Server Pages.

I 'd also wish it had a few examples on COM scripting with the MS-XML parser (yes, it's a COM server, but the book says nothing about it!). It's so important that if you use Distributed COM (DCOM) with the parser you can create client/server XML 'databases' on virtually every Win32 machine!

Good programmer's introduction to XML
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 1999-08-12
Author Alex Homer (NOT Horner) tackles the difficult task of explaining XML--for which the standards are not yet nailed down, but which Microsoft's Internet Explorer 5 browser supports in its own peculiar way. The book is aimed at programmers already doing Web-based programming who want to manipulate XML documents on the Web. There are two key technologies supported in IE5 and described in this book. One is the Data Source Object, which can be used to process XML documents set up like a database. It requires that each XML record have the same kind and number of elements, like records in a database. The other technology is the XML Document Object Model, an Application Program Interface that lets Web programmers manipulate XML documents of different structures (using programming script). One chapter that does not seem to require any script writing is the one covering stylesheets, CSS and XSL, with which you can display XML documents nearly anyway you want in IE5. Finally, there are several chapters of references for XML and IE5 that should be of great help to any Web programmer itching to get into XML. The hands-on examples of code are great, often accompanied by links to the publisher's Web site, where you can download updates and source-code examples.

Verbose! Tests your patience then gets better.
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 1999-09-01
Problem #1: The publishers say "It gets straight to the point,..." -- I DISAGREE. Typical Wrox problem.

Problem #2: In the first few chapters, sample code is either absent or in fragments that dont run as a whole program. Thus, you go thru' 110 pages and still feel like you are getting nowhere.

Problem #3: Author keeps on jumping ahead of himself in the first 3 chapters. He talks early about advanced topics ("comes to the point" indeed!) giving sketchy, partial details that dont educate an old-hat but confuse the newbie.

Now the good news: If you bear through the first 3 chapters, you will get a lot. Like most books, you will gloss over lots of stuff and learn to learn from learners.

Markup Languages
XSLT Quickly
Published in Paperback by Manning Publications (2001-01-01)
Author: Bob DuCharme
List price: $29.95
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Average review score:

Quickly, goodly and nicely
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-11-14
I've just sent several months working my way through Bob Ducharme's Xslt Quickly, referred to here as XQ. It took me a little while as I can be a little dense. So can Xslt. This book, however, does a very good job of explaining fairly carefully, with real world examples, the basics of Xslt.

While my background is in programming, however i work as a tech writer, Xslt programming was different from what i had seen in the past, and to be honest, i had my doubts about this language and its use with xml at all.

It took me a couple of times to get my mind around xslt but suffice it to say that now i am hooked. XQ presents introductory material as well as features of the language/programming in good sized chunks. The sections are designed so that the reader can skip around if they want to, as well as a straight read. I had purchased an e-book version of the book when i thought i could no longer find my hard copy. (I of course found the hard copy version shortly thereafter.) This worked out well, as i felt much better making notes in the printed out version of the e-book. This is a good option to have.
I feel that XQ has whetted my appetite to learn more about XSLT, while giving me a good foundation on which to work from.
I think XQ can teach you some, simple, yet very powerful idioms within Xslt that you can use immediately. The writing is not dense or boring, yet it is pretty comprehensive. I would certainly recommend this!


Russ Urquhart

Good but error-prone
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-14
Once you get past the muddled first chapter, this book provides a good treatment of XSLT. However, it is in bad need of a technical editor, as there are numerous errors of the kind not caught by a spell or grammar checker.

One of my favorite XSLT books
Helpful Votes: 14 out of 14 total.
Review Date: 2003-05-20
This book, as the author himself put it, provides "task-oriented explanations of how to get work done with XSLT". I would define the audience that will benefit most as intermediate XSLT developers - you are expected to have some knowledge of XML and XSLT. Part 1 has a brief tutorial, yet too brief for a complete novice. Part 2 is what makes this book worth reading - it delves into typical tasks XSLT developers encounter: adding, changing, deleting elements and attributes, sorting, avoiding duplicates and many other. Perhaps, the book was planned as a "cookbook" to quickly look up "how do I...", but it is more than that: the author describes how things work in detail, shows the best way to perform a task, warns about subtle issues you would spend hours fighting with on your own. I found the explanations very useful: even reading about basic concepts can bring discoveries. There are more advanced topics too, like dealing with namespaces or recursive techniques; read about them, and more challenging tasks will not catch you unprepared.

The book doesn't touch on really advanced concepts like the famous Muenchian grouping, but this is probably outside of XSLT's everyday repertoire and, therefore, outside of this book's mission.

I found myself referring to this book often in JavaRanch's XML forum. Just recently when solving RSS namespace mystery, I posted a part of the stylesheet that prints namespaces (p.99) and here is the response: "That diagnostic transform is worth its weight in gold!"

And I am neither the author nor a member of his family.

Dispels the Mists of Confusion
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2003-05-17
This is a great book. It hurts to see some people reveiew it with such real... venomous dislike. I suspect it's a style thing--if you're looking for a dictionary-like exhaustive reference, maybe this book isn't for you. Having said that, I have a low tolerance for lots of verbiage, yet DuCharme's book was totally clear to me. I can poke around in it and find what I want so easily. It is very well organized, and well indexed. It serves as an excellent overview of XSLT, and gets pretty advanced, too. This is a great book.

Great for getting productive quickly
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2002-12-27
I was faced with a very short deadline for transforming an XML document into another XML document with a completely different format. I went through several web tutorials and was also trying to learn from Michael Kay's "XSLT" but I was struggling to get productive. With XSLT Quickly I finally started to understand XSLT and did successfully meet my deadline. I find Bob Ducharme's explanations much clearer and easier to understand than any other book on XSLT. If you need to get productive quickly, buy this book.

Once you feel comfortable with XSLT, use Michael Kay's book for reference and advanced topics.

Markup Languages
Applied XML Programming for Microsoft .NET
Published in Paperback by Microsoft Press (2002-11-09)
Author: Dino Esposito
List price: $49.99
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Average review score:

For Advanced readers only
Helpful Votes: 11 out of 15 total.
Review Date: 2005-04-14
I am a proficient MSXML coder but i can't get what I want (knowledge about .Net XML programming objects) from this book because the author habitually relies on advanced concepts from related technologies to explain things. So unless you are a pretty competent .Net programmer and already proficient in ADO.Net/ADO you will struggle to understand this book and struggle to understand the significance of what you are being told and why. I gave up and resorted to looking for articles on MSDN. Undoubtedly there is good stuff here but Mr Esposito writes as an extremely knowledgeable person for the already extremely knowledgeable person only.

Great VS2003 Book
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-03-25
Dino does a great job on this book. It is a great reference on how Microsoft handles and processes XML.

This book only has one drawback that it is outdated as it refers to Visual Studio 2003 and many things in Visual Studio 2005 have been changed or are outdated.

Hope they pubblish soon a book that is more up to date.

Guru's Guide to XML Programming
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 2003-12-31
Gr8 book if you need assistance with xml programming and also helps in using all methods of reading, writing and using xml. Dino! High five.

*THE* XML book for .NET
Helpful Votes: 21 out of 21 total.
Review Date: 2004-06-28
Dino Esposito has total, absolute command of the subject matter that he expertly teaches in this book. This is a template for how all technical training books should be written. I wanted in-depth coverage of the XML object library in .NET and that is exactly what this book delivers. This is THE book on XML in .NET. Don't waste your money on anything else.

It is also terrific supplemental material for the Developing XML Web Services and Server Components certification exam. I recommend Mike Gunderloy's book as an all-encompassing source (look up my review for that book); however, I recommend reading the first four chapters of this book before you start Gunderloy's book if you don't have much experience reading and writing XML in .NET. Chapters 12 and 13 on remoting and web services, respectively, are also great sources of exam prep material. In fact, Chapter 12 on .NET Remoting is the best chapter on the subject you will find anywhere.

Terry, MCAD and MCSD for Microsoft .NET

stop punishing yourself with MSDN
Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2005-01-11
Dino tells all in this superb and in depth look at XML on Microsoft's .NET platform. The book is well organized, starting at the fundamental classes and then branching out to the high abstraction level .NET classes and other Microsoft products such as SQL Server 2000 and Internet Explorer.

As an example of why this book is so wonderful, there have been several situations where I needed to do something in XSLT that just didn't seem practical (maybe not even doable). The section on how to use standard .NET languages such as C# from XSLT is itself worth the price of admission.

Keep in mind that readers are expected to have a good grasp of XML; the book is a .NET book.

Markup Languages
Introduction to Interactive Programming on the Internet: Using HTML and JavaScript
Published in Paperback by Wiley (2000-11-24)
Author: Craig D. Knuckles
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Average review score:

I use it as a college textbook.
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-26
This is the best book I have found for Freshman/Sophomore-level HTML and JavaScript. I use it with PERL and CGI for the World Wide Web (2nd Edition) by Elizabeth Castro for a complete Sophomore course in designing Commercial-Quality websites with server-side processing. Hint: Be sure to get the Second Printing (First Edition), as there are a lot of typos in the HTML section of the First Printing. The author has an excellent support website at cknuckles.com, which augments some of the problems and provides solutions to some of the exercises.

Where is the website that is referenced in the book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-12-30
Can anyone tell me what the website is for this book's lessons. It references it many times but I cant seem to find out where it is actually "Stated" in the book.

Thanks in advance

excellent !!!
Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2001-12-23
if u already know something about setting up web pages using html and u wish to add some interactive features to yr web pages,this will be a very good book to start with.This book contains very clear and simple explantions for javascripts.Many concepts are explained using simple yet relevant analogies....if u are hardworking enough u can learn good javascripts in one or two weeks using this book......definitely value for money.

Uhm...
Helpful Votes: 24 out of 30 total.
Review Date: 2001-08-21
I haven't read the book, but I find it suspious that every review posted so far was outrageously positive, and posted within an 8 day period. In addition, most of them are anonymous. Perhaps the Publisher or Author is trying to boost sales with duplicate reviews. Buyer Beware.

Best instructional book that I have ever read!!
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2000-12-18
Before reading this book I had no idea how to use the internet, let alone design a web page. However, this book is written on a level that even the most computer illiterate person, such as my self, could follow and understand. Now I can develop interactive web pages that almost look professional. I strongly recomend this book to any one how wants to learn internet programming.

Markup Languages
Xml Learning by Example
Published in Paperback by Franklin Beedle & Associates (2002-09)
Author: Robert B. Mellor
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Average review score:

I agree
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2003-02-14
I agree with the other reviewers (especially those from the teaching profession). This book (and the others in the same "Learning by Example" series), are the best thing that hit computer education in a long time. They are wonderful course-ware tools, and for pennies!

Excellent
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2003-02-07
This book covers XML tags, CSS1 and 2, the @media directive, XHTML, DOM, XMLNS, XPath, XLST, DTD, Schemas, XLink, XPointer and DSO. It even includes excercises on ASP, Java and UNIX. It explains XML really well and I was especially impressed by the excellent explanations concering the database nature of XML.

The excercises are well thought out and include reading to and from databases, as well as storing and sorting database-type information in data islands, and presenting it using XSL.

A Godsend
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2003-02-10
I agree with the other reviewers that this books covers all the relevant material and is an excellent teaching aid. What the other reviewers don't stress is that it is a godsend for teachers. A week or two playing with the material will show that you can compentently deliver a very good course (between 2 day mini-course and a 4 or 6 week 1-credit course). If you are a bit inventive and set the students extra projects, then there is enough here for a 12 week semester.

So all you teachers out there should use this material - it is complete and ready for you to deliver to your students! Why waste time developing your own stuff when this is ready-to-go?

disappointing...
Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2004-01-22
I was disappointed in the size, layout, and content of the book.
Its size was that of a pamphlet (1/2 as tall as a normal book and only 110 pages long).
The layout was by no means impressive. There were no defined "chapters". As you completed each example it simple gave a short synopsis and the next page started a new example.

Early in the book it required the read/user to type lots of JavaScript (which had some typos), later it gave a 1/2 page on installing Java on your machine so you could complete further examples.

Though the book recommended using IE5+ in order to use the examples, some even failed to properly display using IE6. (I found the answers to the bugs by reading another XML book I purchased as a companion.)

Not recommended for newbies to WEB programming and a bit spotty for experienced XHTML/DHTML programmers moving up to XML.

Be careful of the other reviews!! possible fraud.
Helpful Votes: 9 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 2004-05-27
While this book seems to have a lot of great reviews, the other reviews that gave this book 5 stars are very suspicious - BE CAREFUL!

I thought this book had five stars so I was getting excited, but I saw that all the reviews seemed to be made by the same person. Firstly, the reviewers are all unregistered (I am, admittedly, as well) and use same words to praise the book, verbatim.

"I agree with the other reviewers" (used twice).

"XHTML, DOM, XMLNS, XPath, XLST, DTD, Schemas, XLink, XPointer and DSO. It even touches ASP, Java and UNIX" by 2/6/03 reviewer "Petra B," then another reviewer on 10/28/02 says, almost identically "XHTML, DOM, XMLNS, XPath, XLST, DTD, Schemas, XLink, XPointer and DSO. It even touches ASP, Java and UNIX"

I consider this "review fraud" - perhaps this person wants to sell this book, but horribly unethical. I know, it seems like I have a lot of time on my hands to go through this, but I am honestly looking for a great book on XML, and reviewers like this who seem to be shamefully promoting their product should be made known.

Please be careful!

Markup Languages
Mastering Html 4.0
Published in Paperback by (1997-10)
Authors: Deborah S. Ray and Eric J. Ray
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Average review score:

Essential for Newbies and Professionals Alike
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-07-15
This book is pretty much "THE" manual for anyone that has anything to do with Web development. I've been a professional developer since '96, and of all the technical manuals I have and regularly refer to, this it the one I use the most. Often, I'll be in the middle of coding and my mind blanks out. I grab the book, look in the index, and go right to the section I need. Usually, I'll find just what I needed and slap my forhead in a 'duh' moment, but Mastering HTML saved the day, and that's ok by me!

Excellent � I love this book!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-04-16
I bought this book knowing very little about HTML and this was definitely the book for me. It was easy to follow and enjoyable to read - the examples really work and are useful in the "real world". I admire the quality of this book; I got the feeling that time was spent ensuring the accuracy of every detail printed. After reading this book and doing all the exercises I was able to work with my company's Intranet system and this book has been and still is a useful reference guide.

This book is everything it promises to be and more - I highly recommend it.

This is THE book!!
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 1998-12-10
If you can't find what you are looking for or learn HTML from this book, then there is no hope. This is the most comprehensive HTML book I have ever seen! Well worth the money and time to read it! Covers everything from basic HTML to the most advanced of HTML. The CD included in a fantastic plus, easy to understand and great clear samples.

Definitive Guide to HTML with Tools Samples
Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 1998-09-18
This is the most comprehensive HTML code book I've read. It not only does a bang-up job of HTML, but it provides references for CSS, Java, Javascript, and Netscape & Microsoft proprietary code as well!

I highly recommend this book to advanced HTML coders and Web Authors. It addresses many complex topics that will benefit the seasoned coders. I don't recommend it to first time HTML authors or WYSIWYG HTML writers.

Offers nothing you can't find for free
Helpful Votes: 6 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2000-02-16
I purchased this book knowing very little about HTML. While it is a handy desk reference, I found that the free HTML tutorials available online at WebMonkey and Webdeveloper actually explained how to develop tables and stylesheets much better then Mastering HTML 4.0 did.

As a previous review states, it touches on JavaScript, but The JavaScript Source is a free online resource that contains much more information then this book does.

In my opinion, there is no sense spending money on a book when all of the information is available for free on the Internet...learn from my mistake!

Markup Languages
The Web Programmer's Desk Reference
Published in Paperback by No Starch Press (2004-09-05)
Authors: Lazaro Issi Cohen and Joseph Issi Cohen
List price: $59.95
New price: $12.89
Used price: $4.96

Average review score:

Nice resource book
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-04-18
Trying to create, maintain or understand how a web site works requires having knowledge of many different technologies. This book provides a good overview of the core web technologies (HTML, CSS and JavaScript) and a reference of all elements of these languages. For each element, you will find
- a description
- its syntax
- a practical example
- compatibility with different Explorer and Netscape browser

This makes more than 1100 pages that are easy to consult as a single source for web site programming.

Excellent Reference
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-29
I bought the book 3 years ago and it is the most used book in my library. Excellent reference on HTML, CSS, and JavaScript all cross-referenced, defined, and taged for browser compatibility. Anyone who gets into manual coding should find this an invaluable must-have addition to their library. I can't even begin to think of how much on-line search time this book has saved me when trying to track down the syntax for a rarely used item.

Take the book title to heart -- this is really a reference book, not a comprehensive tutorial on web programming.

Well done
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-27
The book arrived in a short amount of time and packed well and in good shape. I'm sure the contents must be good as our son-in-law seems to really use it.
Barbara

Very Useful Desk Reference
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-30
The Web Programmer's Desk Reference is like a dictionary for a web programmer. Whenever I need to know what attributes an HTML tag has and how those attributes can be set I turn to it. Same for setting selectors in style sheets or using Javascript functions.

good reference, but seems abandoned by authors
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2005-07-06
Good reference with advanced CSS and Javascript coverage. HTML coverage is good as well, but less thorough on cross platform support details. Also the HTML is HTML and not XHTML which you would probably be using with the latest and greatest CSS and Javascript.

There seems to be no maintained errata for the book which has a pretty bad error on page 7. Contextual selectors like:
h1 em ul { color: red; }

apply to an h1 tag that contains an em tag that contains a ul tag.

    text

And not what the book states which is that it is equivalent to:

h1 { color: red; }
em { color: red; }
ul { color: red; }

The code equivalent to the three separate rules is not a contextual select, but just three separate rules that can be written as:
h1, em, ul { color: red; }

Despite this error early on in the book, I find it overall a useful reference.

The author's unmaintained website is at:
http://deskref.softsmartinc.com

Markup Languages
Dave's Quick 'n' Easy Web Pages
Published in Paperback by Erin Pubns (1999-04-02)
Authors: Dave Lindsay and Bruce Lindsay
List price: $11.95
New price: $29.50
Used price: $4.00

Average review score:

Not Worth Reading
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2005-09-02
If you know HTML, you already know everything in this book. If you don't know HTML, you won't learn it from this book. It's much too simplistic. It also encourages copying pictures and code from other websites.
It's really something I'd expect to see posted for free on the internet--that's the level of writing & information. And at least the links would be updated online.
As a beginner's book for a child, it might be okay, but for an adult or anyone with experience, it's not worth reading.

My son loved this book !!!!!!
Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-02-07
I bought this book for my 12 year old son and he actually enjoyed reading it. He has been creating web pages ever since. He is now the Web Master at his middle school and is responsible for their web page. I hope Dave writes some more computer related books for kids/teenagers to keep their interests up.

The Bill Gates of the 21st Century
Helpful Votes: 12 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 2000-01-08
I recently came across this book while trying to find information about designing my own website. Most of the books I found were written in a manner that made me want to forget the whole idea of being a webmaster. But that all changed when I came across THIS book. I could not believe how simple reading it was and encourageable! My hope was re-ignited. The best part of the book was being able to actually go online and pull up David's website which the book used as example. The book is full of helpful information and resources that it saves the reader time in the long run once they are ready to publish their own page. It even saves money. I was to the point of going out and buying expensive programs until reading this book. I didn't have to! I even had a few questions regarding my page and emailed David. He personally replied within 24 hours and graciously offered me my answers.

The next amazing thing about this book is the author's age! For a teenager, he is brilliant. He is the next Bill Gates!

I HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone wanting to tackle the feat of webpage design and have been frightened off by other books. I am in my early 30s and don't mind being taught by a teenager.

Great book for beginners
Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-09-28
This book is a great book for beginners programming their first webpage, or, for that matter, programming a webpage at all. It skips most of the technical mumbo-jumbo that would confuse most people and cuts it down to what it needs to make a great webpage. This is one of the best books out there for beginners and pros alike.

Arthur's Review
Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2000-01-24
Hi, my name is Arthur Wegelin and I am taking this moment to tell you about what I say is the greatest book that anyone can ever read about web design. Since I go to the same school as Dave I was able to ask him right away if I could have a copy of his book. When I received the book, I started studying it page by page to get all the information for my website. After thoroughly studying the book I was amazed at the possibilities. Dave's book does not only talk about designing the webpage itself but it also tells you where you can get: great software tools, free server space, free web gadgets, free e-mail and lots of other stuff. I'll admit I haven't really taken the time to read any other books about HTML, but if I'm asked by someone which book I would recommend for web design it would be Dave's book and only Dave's book.


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