Beginning Web Programming with HTML, XHTML, and CSS (Wrox Programmer to Programmer) (Paperback)

by Jon Duckett (Author)
Key Phrases: regular expression, creating structured documents, white stripes, Mozilla Firefox, Putting Your Site, Internet Explorer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This beginning guide reviews HTML and also introduces you to using XHTML for the structure of a web page and cascading style sheets (CSS) for controlling how a document should appear on a web page. Youll learn how to take advantage of the latest features of browsers while making sure that your pages still work in older, but popular, browsers. By incorporating usability and accessibility, youll be able to write professional-looking and well-coded web pages that use the latest technologies.

From the Back Cover
Beginning Web Programming with HTML, XHTML, and CSS 2nd Edition

Offering a new approach to a familiar topic, this book teaches you how to create pages for the web as it exists today—and how it will be for the foreseeable future. The time for using only HTML coding to write a web page is gone. As the Web has advanced, so have the technologies you need to learn in order to create effective and attractive web pages. This beginning guide reviews HTML and also introduces you to using XHTML for the structure of a web page and cascading style sheets (CSS) for controlling how a document should appear on a web page.

Updated with modern examples, the book explores the evolution of web browsers and how they reflect the way web pages have developed. You'll learn how to take advantage of the latest features of browsers while still making sure that your pages still work in older, but popular, browsers. In addition, you'll discover how to write web pages for the many devices that are able to access the web. By incorporating usability and accessibility, you'll be able to write professional-looking and well-coded web pages that use the latest technologies.

What you will learn from this book

• The different elements and attributes that make up HTML and XHTML and how to use them to write web pages

• Ways to use CSS to make your pages attractive and easy to use

• The basics of JavaScript® so you can add interactivity to your web pages

• How to put your site on the Internet, find an audience for it, and get search engines to recognize it

Who this book is for
This book is for anyone who wants to create web pages or for those who want to improve their web-design skill level. No prior programming or web coding knowledge is assumed.

Wrox Beginning guides are crafted to make learning programming languages and technologies easier than you think, providing a structured, tutorial format that will guide you through all the techniques involved.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 768 pages
• Publisher: Wrox; 2 edition (April 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470259310
• ISBN-13: 978-0470259313
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #204,186 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #45 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools > XHTML
  #68 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Programming > Languages & Tools > CSS

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid introduction to web front-end programming, November 17, 2004

By	Jack D. Herrington "engineer and author" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Beginning Web Programming with HTML, XHTML, and CSS (Wrox Beginning Guides) (Paperback)

I really like O'Reilly's Dynamic HTML, but this book is good as well. This book is more of a step-by-step walkthrough of HTML, through XHTML, CSS, layout and at the end an introduction to Javascript. The text is somewhat terse, but it's workable. Screenshots are somewhat heavy, but you would expect that in a book about a visual medium like the web. Some coverage, like Javascript, is a little too light to be genuinely complete in comparison with books like Dynamic HTML. Overall, a solid introduction to HTML, XHTML and CSS.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad, but could be improved, June 21, 2005

By	Gopher (East Lansing, MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beginning Web Programming with HTML, XHTML, and CSS (Wrox Beginning Guides) (Paperback)

As a person who already has some knowledge in html, I have found the book to be useful, if not entirely what I was hoping it would be.

The book starts at the entry-level of web development and through the course of the book adds to your knowledge base with each proceeding chapter. Chapters go over important features, as well as defunct features you might run into if your looking at the source code of someone else's site and some features that have no function now, but are expected to be useful for the next version of web browsers. For the most part, the information is good though from time to time you will get descriptions that would only make sense if you had played around with web development before.

The book also has the annoying habit of mentioning a feature and then saying "But you'll learn all about that in chapter " which becomes annoying after you've read this and similiar lines for the 20th time. There are also some exercises where you'll find yourself using features the book hasn't gone over yet, but fortunately, it tends to talk about it a little later in the same chapter.

The Appendices in the back do a reasonably good job at grouping everything you've learned for quick access, but often forgets to provide decent details so if you don't remember certain things about an XHTML element for example, you'll find yourself having to flip through the index and rereading that section of the book.

I would recommend this book to someone who is an intermediate web developer or someone with some experience developing websites, but for someone who is a beginner, I'd suggest looking around for a different book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Serves it's purpose.....I like it, March 5, 2007

By	C. Lindy "s1akr turned pro" (Monterey Park, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Beginning Web Programming with HTML, XHTML, and CSS (Wrox Beginning Guides) (Paperback)

I had an interest in web development years ago when I invested some time going through free html tutorials online. I also spent some money on a couple of books on html as well as JavaScript, but never finished what I started. About a month ago I purchased this book to get my feet wet again, and I have to say that this book served its purpose.

The title does say "Beginning Web Programming..." and the material definitely fit the title. Having finished reading the XHTML and the CSS portion of this book I feel very comfortable in writing XHTML documents. It also served as a handy, although heavy, reference during my practice coding sessions.

The CSS portion of this book took up two chapters. It served as a great introduction to CSS and it left me with enough know how to write simple stylesheets. As I tried to write more complicated stylesheet like defining rules for layouts using <div>, I found myself struggling and decided to purchase a more advanced book on CSS.

There are two chapters devoted to JavaScript on this book. From reading the titles of those two chapters I am under the impression that it will give you enough knowledge to download pre-written JavaScripts online and be able to effectively implement it on a webpage. I complete skipped these chapters as I had purchased a separate book on this subject.

All in all, this is a good book for beginners who want to gain the fundamental knowledge about building a website. If you want to become a professional this book serves as a good starting point, as it will equip you with the fundamentals and lead you to your next step in your studies to become a professional Web Developer.