Markup Languages Reviews

Dynamic HTML Black Book: The Web Professional's Guide to Using and Interacting with Dynamic HTML

Published in Paperback by Coriolis Group Books (1998-02-26)

Authors: Natanya Pitts-Moultis, C. C. Sanders, and Ramesh Chandak

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Average review score:

Very technical \/ | CrossBrowser /\

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 1999-05-20

I think this book is indicated for web developers. The book includes very technical information of many technologies (IE related and Netscape related). There are many cool examples and source code, Not all are fully explained.

Dynamic HTML is less than Useless

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2001-11-10

This book is severaly outdated. The material is Netscape 4 and Internet Exploder specific. Nowhere, will users get adequate information about developing DHTML using W3C standards (DOM1, DOM2, CSS1, and CSS2). As Netscape 6, Opera 5, and Internet 5 support these new standards, any web pages developed from this book's material will not work across all browsers, and instead will be glued onto Microsoft or obsoleted versions of Netscape.

The book offers mounds of general information about HTML and HTML technology, but does not offer any code snippets to illustrate the concepts, except for the seldom few places here and there.

Towards the end of the book are dumps of source code. This is an utter waste of precious trees. This material could have just been put on the CD. There are no code walkthroughs of the material, so one wonders if the authors are going for the paid per word/page/etc.

There are those books out there that are full of fluff and are good to stuff a bookshelf in the bookstore, and then there are those books that are a rare gem of enlightenment. This book leans more towards the fluff.

700 pages thick, but only worth reading 100

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2000-02-01

At first I thought that I have bought the best book about DHTML that would launch me to a more advanced use of DHTML. But I was wrong, very wrong. The book is hard to read, the examples are never really explained from line to line and the CD-ROM is worthless. I have spent a lot of money on this book and recieved nothing. I am now thinking of buying a nother book. Although there are some usefull information in it, but not as much as I thought.

From the visual effects to the sound - DHTML Black Book.

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 1999-04-29

The book combines all technologies that sourround web development. It really introduce what is dhtml (not as a proprietary technology) but as a combination of a set of technologies like CSS, DOM, Javascript, etc. From the standards to the production the book also cover animation in dhtml, sound, visual effects and awesome demonstrations.

IT's cool for beginners as encouragement, and perfect for web professionals as the gold resource.

You really shouldn't waste your money on this!

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 1998-09-24

The book is said to handle about Dynamic HTML. In general lines it does, but with a lot of words around it. You can summarize the entire book in just 40 usefull pages, the rest is just not interesting, such as complete listings of DHTML-sites, WITHOUT explanation. The entire book handles to much about the history of HTML and HTML in theory. The CDROM should contain several usefull programs, but it's not worth anything either.

Inside Microsoft Visual Basic: Scripting Edition (Microsoft Programming Series)

Published in Paperback by Microsoft Pr (1996-11)

Author: Scot Hillier

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Average review score:

Don't Bother

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 1999-11-18

Maybe I was looking for the wrong type of book, but as soon as I looked through it, I realized this book wouldn't be very helpful at all and promptly returned it. This isn'y for you if you want to do ASP.

I keep coming back to this book

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 1998-04-28

As I have developed my expertise in this area, I put the book down and use other resources. I end up coming back to it at a higher level.
Eg First I was interested specifically in scripting syntax, then the object model (IE3). Now I'm making sense of oleisapi servers etc through the book.

Totally Useless

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 1998-08-05

I've had this book for an entire year here at Microsoft and have yet to use it to any satisfaction. Currently it is making a good door-stop. Instead I have found much more support for vbscript in my web pages from books like Professional Active Server Pages (both 1st and 2nd versions).

A very informative and fast paced devolopment guide

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 1998-06-21

As a programmer I have purchased dozens of books on computer languages, and this book is one of the best. I just got the book yestarday(!) and my pages are already FILLED
with interactivity. I now have the countrol over my sites that I have always wanted. Soooo much better then my JavaScript book.

OUTDATED!

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 2000-03-05

This book was printed in 1996. Just the foreward talks about the "recent release of Visual InterDev 1.0." The language syntax and the scripts used in the book are still valid, but there are many books that are much more recent which cover today's topics. This book is defenitely out-of-date!

Sams Teach Yourself XML in 21 Days (3rd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself)

Published in Paperback by Sams (2003-10-20)

Author: Steven Holzner

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Average review score:

Very Disappointing

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-10-29

I've read scores of computer books, including quite a few from the "Teach Yourself..." series, and can honestly say this is one of the most poorly written books of them all. I'm six chapters in and can't say I've learned anything more than what I've already gleaned from other books' brief explanations of the subject. A great deal of the book is occupied by what can only be described as "filler" examples, which are both redundant and useless at the same time.
I shall attempt to find an alternate piece of work, forthwith.
This is not the book for someone seeking to learn XML.

Great book

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-02

A great book, very thorough. Hits all the XML topics. I was very pleased.

what a let down...

Helpful Votes: 11 out of 12 total.
Review Date: 2004-05-19

I am a fan of the Teach Yourself series and typically enjoy and learn from these books. This one is the exception to the rule. The book, in my opinion, is poorly written. The examples are sometimes not useful and the code snippets are mediocre at best. Many are just like the tired, over-used stuff found on plenty of websites. And the websites are a lot cheaper (hint hint). Sorry, I wish I could balance this with something positive, but I was really disappointed.

Good, solid book

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2004-12-04

Starting off, I was a bit skeptical about reading this book, as I have read a previous title by Steve Holzner on JavaScript, and was dissapointed to say the least. This book, on the other hand, is a well balanced title spread out over 21 days. It contains enough material without being oversaturated with information in any one day (or chapter), as well as giving the reader enough to absorb during the course of reading and after. This technical book does is not about injecting humor after every sentence, but about describing aspects relating to the subject or language of which the writing is about - which this book does well. I feel that the information provided in this book is straight forward and systematic to follow. Unlike certain titles, in particular certain Dummies title's (not all), I was and am not distracted by useless material and often dry humor from this title, but useful information that I need in order to make XML pages, as well as showing other aspects that support/improve upon XML's capabilities (JavaScript, Flavors of ML, .NET, etc.) without confusing the reader. The examples are easy to follow, and are broken down in an easy-to-follow manner. If you want an interesting technical book geared towards delivering knowledge about XML and it's purpose, I would recommend this book - if you want an exciting book, get an action title. Well done SAM and Mr. Holzer.

Horribly dense for beginners.

Helpful Votes: 9 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 2004-10-29

XML does not exactly make for exciting reading. It's about as dry as the Mojave Desert. But I did manage to struggle thru the first four chapters of this book. Then I gave up. This book should be retitled Teach Yourself XML in 210 Days, not 21.

The author throws a lot of code at you before you even have a grasp of what XML is all about. And the code is mostly C.I.P.U. (clear if previously understood) just like a lot of other dense programming books out there. Some authors seem to think that if you just read thru their code everything will become perfectly obvious. Not! (Eggheaded mathematicians are wont to do the same, which is why there are so few who know how to teach math.)

At then end of the fourth chapter I still had absolutely no idea what XML was good for and whether it was worth the long learning curve or not. I'm sure XML must be good for something! But if a book can't tell me within four chapters what its subject is useful for then it's not a book I can recommend. In the meantime, I will continue to search for a better XML primer, one that can at least clue me in on what the buzz is all about.

The Comprehensive Guide to VBScript: The Encyclopedic Reference for VBScript, HTML & ActiveX

Published in Paperback by Coriolis Group Books (1996-11-01)

Author: Richard Mansfield

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Average review score:

You too, can be an author of a book.

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 1998-10-15

I thought the above critic was being a bit too harsh on an author... until I read it myself. Although in the "Who needs this Book?" section it mentions that "...this book can assist anyone from the beginner to the accomplished professional programmer.", I have to disagree and say that a new beginner may be confused by many of the inaccurate and dated statements. For example, I love the one that says (paraphrasing) you shouldn't use the !DOCTYPE statement because only HTML 3.2 browsers can read it anyway. Why would you ever commit such a line to print?? In many cases, this book was outdated before it went to press. It really became a problem after reading completely inaccurate statements, then not knowing weather following statements were accurate or not.

On the plus side, I liked the way it was indexed. It offered a good reference resource to those that couldn't quite remember the exact syntax, but already knew what the functions did. I noticed that the "Comprehensive Guide to VBScript" might have been comprehensive THEN, but it's missing a lot TODAY.

I could have probably got the same info online somewhere though, but I always like to have a hard copy handy. This one, however, made me feel like even I could be an author of a VBscript book. And that's not saying much.

the Comprehensive Guide to VBScript , an excellent reference

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 1998-04-20

True some of the wording in the book is a little off, but the Syntax and the depth of explaination regaurding the tags is invalueable. I have yet to find another reference book that explains the syntaxes and how to use them more complete than in this book. I use it as a reference to HTML 3.2 and ActiveX controls constantly

HTML is NOT a programming language!!!!!!!!!

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 1998-03-04

*Could* make a pretty handy dictionary, *if* you can ignore the irritating, inaccurate, and uneducated claims and editorials (mostly found in the introduction/tutorial) all based on the premise that HTML is a programming language.
Examples:
page xxiii: "What in HTML is called a 'tag' is called a 'structure' or 'function' in other languages."--WRONG. HTML tags are simply *tokens* which the browser *parses* to determine the output.
page xxvii: "No other computer programming language comes close to HTML's forgiveness. Try submitting [a text document containing only the string] 'A Simple Page' to Basic, Pascal, C, or any other language. None of them will simply display the words. All of them will choke and throw out an error message."--WRONG!! First, there's no such thing as submitting anything to a language. You *can* 'submit' input to a *program* written in a programming language- such as an internet browser- and if that program is *designed* to handle that input, it *will* simply display the words. Otherwise, if the program is *not designed* to handle the input, it *will* choke and spit out an error message.

It is irritating to have spent money on a developer's reference, written by someone who clearly does not have a grasp of programming *basics*.

Having no Index is Really Lame

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-01-20

The book is pretty much okay except that it lacks an index. This makes using it as a reference sometimes difficult. If you know exactly what things are called you can look them up in the alphabetical listing. Otherwise, you are kind of screwed.

Dynamic HTML for Dummies

Published in Paperback by Hungry Minds Inc (1997-12-10)

Author: Michael I. Hyman

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Average review score:

Too much humor and too little substance....

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2003-06-19

I normally look to the For Dummies books as intro's to a subject (book you can read to get the basics of a new topic, and then move on to a more serious book if you need to.) And one aspect I've always liked about these books is the humor the author's use in the material to make them more entertaining.

However, this author uses way too much humor or effort trying to be "cute". Even the Chapter titles are attempts to be humorous and or witty. To the point you can't look anything up in the table of contents because the titles don't tell you what's in the chapters!!!

And although "For Dummies" books are usually not great reference books, at least they have most of the basics and could be used as a light reference. This book is totally worthless as a reference.

Other than as an example of what the author thinks are "cool" effects, it was a huge disappointment for me.

The fun and easy way to start

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2002-04-15

And now you may think that programs that do it all for you would be easier to start with. However if you do not have a basic idea of how Dynamic HTML works you will not be able to answer the questions on what to do. This book goes from the fundamentals to building a practical website. Unfortunately it does not show how to mail "form" information back to you from the website. There are a lot of practical examples but this book is somewhat dated. The book is also geared to Apache server and UNIX concepts therefore it should work on 90 percent of the web sites that you encounter. The code is also more transportable because of this.

You need to check with your potential I.S.P. to see if they're using Internet information services (ISS) if so this book may be of little use because it is proprietary and uses a weird syntax.

Not Bad.

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-08-02

It's a good book, but you have to know a little about HTML to start with. It also doesn't teach you, it shows you cool effect you can do. If you want to learn HTML, then you should get HTML for Dummies, then read this. I have to tell you the software wasn't half bad.

Should be called Javascript for Dummies, not DHTML

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-07-07

This book is not a bad book, however it will teach you little DHTML. THe author spends 2 much time on Javascript, and lacks explanation. Furthermore, the author does not "teach" you how to do it, but simly shows some cool DHTML effects with their codes. THis can be useful if you want to cut-n-paste the code, however if you want to learn DHTML then buy another book.

New Perspectives on XML- Comprehensive

Published in Paperback by Course Technology (2003-04-25)

Author: Patrick Carey

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Average review score:

XML

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2007-08-27

I was very disappointed with this purchase. I notified the seller and he never responded to my email.

Not bad, but too many errors

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2006-06-05

This is a relatively good cookbook approach. It gets you started quickly with hands-on exercise development as you read the text. The review exercises and case problems are good, because they step you through a little at a time and in some cases show what you should be getting as a result. However, the type-in code and the text itself have lots of errors throughtout the book, so if you're unsure what to do, and can't discern where the text is wrong, that could be a show-stopper. For such an expensive book it should have been better edited.

Also, Patrick Carey does very little to explain why things are the way they are. It's just, "Do this, then that. See the result?"

You'll need another book to have the "aha" moments that give you insight into XML. I highly recommend "XML Companion" by Neil Bradley.

Perspectives on XML

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2004-06-30

JUST CORRECT THE ERRORS IN THE TEXT AND ATTACHED FILES!!!!

Excellent book for learning XML on your own

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-22

This is one of the best books that I have read on XML. It is an excellent book for teaching yourself XML. The author creates fictional application scenarios in each chapter so you learn XML within the context of the application. The exercises are challenging but not too difficult. The topics covered range from DTD, XML schema, XSL, XPath and DOM. The author doesn't try and cram too much in the book. He is very thorough in what he covers so topics like SOAP, SQL support within XML are not addressed.

Creating Web Pages with HTML (Cliffs Notes)

Published in Paperback by Cliffs Notes (1999-12)

Authors: David A. Crowder and Rhonda Crowder

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Average review score:

Useful Cheap guide...

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-09

This is a great for learning the basics of HTML.

Its also great for reference, if you forget a tag or something.

I got my web page started using this book....HTML is rather easy, and this book makes it easier!

And at 1 cent a copy what really do you have to lose?

Cliff notes... Why read cliff notes?

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-21

Apparently the first reviewer didn't know what Cliff Notes are: They are simply summaries of published books so that students can quickly get what they need to know form a book without fully reading it. You can get cliff notes for "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1984), if you want. Don't get the cliff notes, get and read the actual book.

disappointing

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2000-03-27

Excellent price and from a respected publishing house but the book itself is, at times, unduly complex for beginners and generally has a flat, almost uininteresting style. You're arguably better off with something like Sams Teach Yourself HTML 4 in 10 minutes.

Dynamic HTML for Dummies

Published in Paperback by For Dummies (1999-04)

Author: Michael I. Hyman

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Average review score:

Dynamic HTML

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-03-05

Well, when I read this book I found that you really need to know HTML and Javascript. Back then I had no idea what Javascript was and I wasn't very good with HTML. Even though I didn't understand most of it (I was only 11) I still enjoyed the Humor that Michael Hyman put into this book. I now love making the money with DHTML, CGI, HTML, Java, Javascript, VB and more..... Buy this book if you now HTML well and can Scrap up a script in Javascript. Get this book.

Not a very useful book

Helpful Votes: 6 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 1999-09-20

The number of examples in this book that don't work in one browser or another is astonishing. While this is in the nature of html, it makes the book rather useless for development of an internet site. For development of an INTRAnet set, where MS Explorer can be enforced, it's not bad. Better proof-reading of the CD that contains the examples would have been helpful. Some of the scripts needed editing to enable them to conform to the filenames on the disk.

You can find better!

Helpful Votes: 8 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 1999-09-02

As I bought this book knowing zero about D-HTML, it was a decent introduction, but became increasingly frustrating as I began to understand how D-HTML works. The major problem (aside from some code snippets not working) is that examples for effects are presented for either MSIE only or for Netscape only. Very seldom is code shown that will work for both. As a web developer, developong for only 1 browser is not an option! This book is great if ALL you'll develop for is MSIE -- but if you want compatability with Netscape, buy another book!

Html 3: Electronic Publishing on the World Wide Web

Published in Paperback by Addison-Wesley Pub (Sd) (1996-04)

Authors: Dave Raggett, Jenny Lam, and Ian Alexander

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Average review score:

QUIN

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 1999-06-20

COMO FUNCIONA ESTE PROGRAM

QUIN

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 1999-06-20

COMO FUNCIONA ESTE PROGRAM

Best HTML reference book I've seen.

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 1997-06-04

I'm a web page designer and I have used many HTML reference books, and "Definitive Guide to HTML 3.0; Electronic Publishing on the World Wide Web" by Dave Raggett is the best one I've seen. It is concise and to the point, gives all the relevant examples, and its appendices are invaluable! Whenever I want to look up something during the web page design process, I reach for this book because I know the answer I'm looking for is in there.

Html and Cgi Unleashed/Book and Cd-Rom

Published in Paperback by Pearson Education Ltd. (1995-07)

Authors: John December and Mark Ginsburg

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Average review score:

Not quite the title

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 1998-07-29

This book on the cover seems to say that it will help you learn more HTML and CGI. It does show you some good code but I think this book is more of a reading book then a reference. In the beginning it tells you everything about the web you can think of. There is a lot of information that I did not know, but this book takes you where you have never been. I would recommend this book to the accomplished HTML person with medium CGI experience.

Look elsewhere

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2001-10-18

I was looking for a book that would describe the HTML language and more importantly discuss writing CGI programs that interact with HTML. This book was not what I needed.

A simple search of the 16-page index shows the problems. There are no entries for 'cookies' or 'refresh' (as in client-side pull refresh), and the FORM HTML tag has a total of 3 pages referenced (hardly enough room to describe how to write forms). So if you're looking for detailed technical material, this isn't the book for you.

This book is useful as a broad-reaching primer about the internet, newsgroups, VMRL and many other obscure (and outdated) topics. But I think you would still do better elsewhere.

Definitely consider a different book...

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 1997-07-24

For a book that is supposed to be about HTML and CGI, this book spends most of the time talking about everythign BUT HTML and CGI. In fact, if you want to find a discussion of HTML and CGI in this book, you'll have to go lookiing for it.

I think the only reason this book sells is because people confuse this horrible book (HTML & CGI Unleashed) with a good book (HTML, Java, CGI, VRML, SGML Web Publishing Unleashed).

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