Customer Reviews

Building Professional Web Sites with the Right Tools: Build It With Visual Studio 6, FrontPage, Active Server Pages, VBScript, JavaScript, ADO, Paint Shop Pro, and Image Composer

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book's fun, and I like the idea of choosing particular tools and showing how to use them together. I've been a C-UNIX-Informix programmer for about 10 years now, and I'm scrambling to gain skills in the web programming/design arena. This book's approach works well for guys like me who need to get familiar with a bunch of new tools and technologies, and quickly. I think you'll like this book.

Excellent book. Easy-reading, free-flowing style. As a computing professional I deal with clients who are attempting to build websites and then want my help unscrambling the mess they're in (I don't mind 'cause I get paid). I am putting this book on my clients' Required Reading List.

I bought this book because it covered all the tools that I use for web development, hoping that it would give me further insight into developing with those tools. However because it covers such a vast array of subjects it only delves on the fundementals.

I am on page 153, and I am speechless. I am angry at the publisher Prentice Hall for not upholding better technical standards and editing. My opinion of Prentice Hall has been severely damaged after reading this book. Finally, I rebuke the authors for their misleading self-promotion on this site. Readers such as myself deserve to spend our money on quality technical literature. Your work is an insult to your readers' intelligence and common sense.

Yes, perhaps one should not get so frustrated or emotional over a book. But I am angry and here are my reasons:

(1) When I first read this book I was uneducated about web design and my confusion over this book's points I attributed to my ignorance; however, I now realize that this book is majorly flawed. Where to begin? It begins, "You can develop a Web site. You can do it! Yes, YOU! ...I'm going to show you how..." So, here I am, prepared for the author to hold my hand through the process. Now, if you will, jump to page 114 and, he's talking about "Normalizing a database." Not just talking about this... on page 100 he's talking about ASP "scope." Ok, you rebut and that say I'm slow on the uptake. Ok, then why are you teaching Frontpage 98! And then jumping to ASP and Normalization! But it gets better... so I'm digging into Access database normalization... and then 14 pages later, you are telling me the difference between Gif and JPEGS! and how to optimize them!

Come on authors, whom are you addressing with this book! You imply this book is direct towards a general audience and then you frequently digress into the most esoteric illustrations of complex topics.

Lastly, to those would be readers of this book, consider page 93. "That ends our software installation. We also need the Java classes for our rotating banner ad. You'll find the code for that at our Web site (see Appendix A)."

I thought I was buying the book so that I could read the code printed! And commented upon! And why are you even making me go to an Appendix to find the name of your Web Site!

Boy, I can't wait for the second edition of this book guys! Maybe you'll tell me about the wizards in Frontpage 97 in the year 2001!

The best reason to read "Building Professional Web Sites", I think, is to see a thorough example of how Active Server Pages can be used to make a web site "dynamic". But you'll need to know something of ASP before you begin.

In addition to ASP, the book explains all of the other steps in building the example web site, but it overtreats the simpler material and glosses over the complex. For example, there are pages and pages of figures showing what are basically the same installation screens for each piece of software you'll be using; meanwhile, VBScript code, used in ASP, is often put forth as if its purpose and mechanism is obvious. "Visual Interdev" is one of the "tools" the book requires, yet its function is far from obvious. The program is ostensibly for creating ASP pages, but ASP code is never presented in the context of using the Interdev software. Finally, the preface, having almost nothing to do with the rest of the book, goes on about programming nostalgia, and is tangential enough to scare off an earnest beginner.

There is "something for everyone" here, but that's not a good thing, because you're paying for everyone else's portion :-). Who, then, is the target reader? This is, as a whole, _definitely_ not for beginners with no programming knowledge, and advanced users will find much of the book extraneous (how to install your software, how to make graphic icons in a paint program). Intermediate readers like me get the most benefit, in terms of the number of subjects which are at our level.

Rated "Three stars" since the book has a fairly grand mission to live up to, and though I find the problems quite glaring, it is not "poor" by any means.

Worst book on web development I've ever purchased! Don't waste your money on it.. I glanced through the book once and tossed it on the shelf and never picked it up agian. It jumps from subject to subject never throughly covering anything. If you need a book on web development, select books by Wrox Press or O'Reilly. nuf said. Well... AMAZON how do I give it ZERO STARS?

This book is great. It really does show you how to build professional websites! I have a friend who works for Books Galore, a small magazine company in San Diego. They give your book a 5-star ratting. I strongly recomend this book!

The best reason to read "Building Professional Web Sites", I think, is to see a thorough example of how Active Server Pages can be used to make a web site "dynamic". But you'll need to know something of ASP before you begin.

In addition to ASP, the book explains all of the other steps in building the example web site (viewable at www.theblowhole.com), but it overtreats the simpler material and glosses over the complex. For example, there are pages and pages of figures showing what are basically the same installation screens for each piece of software you'll be using; meanwhile, VBScript code, used in ASP, is often put forth as if its purpose and mechanism is obvious. "Visual Interdev" is one of the "tools" the book requires, yet its function is far from obvious. The program is ostensibly for creating ASP pages, but ASP code is never presented in the context of using the Interdev software. Finally, the preface, having almost nothing to do with the rest of the book, goes on about programming nostalgia, and is tangential enough to scare off an earnest beginner.

There is "something for everyone" here, but that's not a good thing, because you're paying for everyone else's portion :-). Who, then, is the target reader? This is, as a whole, _definitely_ not for beginners with no programming knowledge, and advanced users will find much of the book extraneous (how to install your software, how to make graphic icons in a paint program). Intermediate readers like me get the most benefit, in terms of the number of subjects which are at our level.

Rated "Three stars" since the book has a fairly grand mission to live up to, and though I find the problems quite glaring, it is not "poor" by any means.

Excellent book for teaching yourself the intricacies of web development. I have recommended this book to all my students learning to design web sites.

Jeff and Lakeland has done a commendable job. Keep it up Jeff & JRL.

Would have been a better book if it hadn't relied on interdev1 and interdev 6. Don't know anyone who would still have interdev one. NOt to bad for the more advanced.