Customer Reviews

Cookies

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Well if you want to be able to make a shopping cart, make a mission statement compiler or just about anything else with cookies THIS IS THE BOOK. Even if you don't have mush programming experience this book would be good for you. This is definitely a good book for all web developers.

This is a great book! My only problem is it went from the basics to advanced, totaly skipping the imtermediate levels of cookies. This book filled in all the gaps in the JavaScript Bible and THEN some! I recommend it to any one that developes web sites!

This book is very well written with source code included. The only thing lacking is an electronic source. I spent many hours combined debugging my code since there is no media with the book. It is fantastic however. A definite must for developing complex cookie based solutions.

With the growing interest in privacy and consumer sentiment about the tracking of their browsing behavior, understanding cookies and their role in an internet browsing session has a broad audience. St Laurent serves this audience well with an engaging book written in an accessible style. He has an interesting knack for finding the right balance of technical depth and contextual breadth for his topic. Although the book is focused on cookies and the need for managing state in the potentially stateless world of the web, it also represents a good primer on browsers, web servers, and related matters. He uses a number of simple scripting exercises that almost anyone can do. The examples really help the reader understand by doing rather than just reading. I have recommended this book to a number of "technically challenged" colleagues who have consistently given me the feedback that they not only gained a good perspective on what cookies are used for, but walked away with a better overall understanding of how the web works. The only reason I can't give this book 5 stars is that it is two years old, and so much has happened since it was published, that it already needs a second edition! Nonetheless, it is a great resource for a wide audience.

While the beginning of the book does a decent job of dispelling some cookie myths, it is, understandably, a little out of date already.

I did have a couple of objections to the book. It should have had a companion CD with the codes or a web site to go to.

Also, the proliferation of typographical errors (half a dozen or so in just the first 60 pages) is unacceptable for any book let alone something of this nature (McGraw-Hill...are you listening???). That's another reason why a companion CD is necessary. I would not spend time on code I don't trust. I'd never know if it was my typing ability....or the code that was wrong.

I worship at the altar of convenience. Instead of the cookie recipe at the end of the book, I would have preferred a disk with all the code samples of the book in it (How about a Web site?) What a thought! Otherwise, the book is a good read.

The cookie spec is only a few pages long...for a reason.Cookies just aren't that complicated. You simply don't need a book ofthis length to figure out how to use them. A short web-based tutorial is more than enough.