Customer Reviews

DHTML and CSS for the World Wide Web, Second Edition

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

There wasn't enough on Javascript to really justify the DHTML in the title. Though the book is a reasonable introduction to HTML and CSS. On the positive side I thought the organization was good, the text was easy to read, the use of red to hilight important code fragments, and the reference section were all very good. On the downside I thought the Quick Start format made the book a little hard to read. And the Alice in Wonderland examples weren't always the most appropriate way to illustrate each point. I would have rather had examples that were closer to what we would see in the real world.

Having read a Visual Quick Start Guide previously, I expected an easy, basic and short introduction to both DHTML and CSS. What I received was much better. Yes, the topics were explained in an easy to understand and logical sequence, but there is some good intermediate information here as well. Cascading Style Sheets is the subject of the first sections of the book. I found this information to be invaluable. There is no reason that every web page is not constructed using CSS, due to its flexibility and time reducing factors for setting styles. The majority of the chapters are on DHTML. DHTML allows you to add dynamic content to your web site such as, Drop-down Menus, Pop-up text, and Sliding Frames. The author steps you through the code for designing these and several more projects. I found that much of what was mentioned in the text led to many of my own ideas based on the foundation I learned with the book. For this price I recommend that all beginning and intermediate Web Designers buy this book today. You won't regret it.

I don't know how all the mistakes in this book got past the editors. It is more than just careless typos. There are numerous inconsitancies between the CSS examples given and the web page results. Only as far as the second chapter, I've lost count of the inconsistancies--enough to make me give up on the book. I've checked out the companion web site, and the corrections are not to be found. The poor quality of the book also shakes my faith in Peachpit Press's Visual Quickstart series, which up until now I have enjoyed using.

This is a great reference book, it gets into how to actually do things you're going to want to do. Each CSS facility is described, an example is provided, and has a quick-reading chart showing which browsers it is, or not, compatible with.
Then the author goes on with a wonderful introduction to DHTML, again in his understandable, informative way.
An excellent book with great information you will keep as reference!

Jason Teague does a nice job of introducing CSS and its use with Java to create DHTML pages. Teague is stronger on design than programming, however, and that's where the book falls short.

JavaScript is the engine that makes DHTML work, but there is very little coverage of JavaScript basics in this book. Teague apparently assumes the reader knows basic JavaScript. So, he focuses his efforts on explaining the Document Object Model (DOM) that allows JavaScript to interact with web pages, and how to use the DOM to accomplish various tasks.

One shortcoming of the book is that it devotes inordinate attention to legacy web browser issues. At one time, there were three different DOMs (Microsoft, Netscape, and W3C, a standards organization). The current generation of browswers have fallen in line behind the W3C, and its DOM has emerged as the dominant model for DHTML pages. Teague spends many pages explaining how to address these legagy DOMs, which makes the discussion longer and more complicated than it really needs to be.

Be aware that Teague misuses the term 'DOM'. He talks of 'creating a DOM' every time one gets a reference to an object on an HTML page. The DOM is actually created by the browser when it loads the page. We access the DOM to get an object reference. I personally found Teague's use of the term very confusing, and that steepened the DHTML learning curve for me.

Teague's JavaScript code is very difficult to decipher, which is surprising in a book that is apparently targeted to web designers. One would expect simple, clear code that non-programmers could follow. Instead, the code violates a number of good programming practices--variable names are generally not descptive, and program logic is often knotted up in a tangle of nested 'if' statements. The drop-down menu code in Chapter 24 provides a good example of these problems.

But the biggest problem stems from a simple lack of formatting of the code. Teague prefers the older style of packing as many statements as possible on a single line--the code reads like a 'C' program from twenty years ago. In order to decipher the code, one must first unpack the lines to spread out the code, then apply proper indentation to figure out which 'else' statements are nested within which 'if' statements. That's a tedious, time-consuming, and very avoidable exercise.

I'd recommend this book for its exposition of CSS, and I'd give it a 'pretty good' rating for its handling of the DOM. But if you are diving into DHTML, use this book to get your feet wet. Then find a good JavaScript book to learn the ins and outs of manipulating the DOM and adding client-side interaction to your web pages.

This is definitively the best presentation I've seen for beginners and intermediate users. Besides a great reference, it goes beyond the usual "what it is" and gets into how to actually do things you're going to want to do. Each CSS facility is described, an example is provided, and has a quick-reading chart showing which browsers it is (or is not) compatible with.

Excellent.

But that's only half the book - the author then goes on with a great introduction to Dynamic HTML, again in his clear, concise style.

By the end of the book, you should easily be up on the next plateau with your CSS and DHTML skills.

I didn't mind the low price, either.

I was pleasantly surprised that this book could be so useful. I bought it because a former course mate recommended it. I didn't use this book for weeks after I got it. When I eventually did, I found it very helpful. The complete examples given by the author were just what I was looking for.
In my opinion, this book has saved me far more than what it cost.
For those who want in-depth coverage of DHTML, I suggest a bigger book. For those of us with little time however, we'll have to make do with this book. I wanted a whirlwind coverage of the essentials of DHTML, and this book delivered--at a ridiculously small price.

This book has to be the best Dhtml/CSS book on the market. I have gone from knowing nothing about CSS to learning how to create effective pages using this wonderful new tool. FrontPage users: don't be afraid of investing some time with this book & learning CSS- with the new CSS/Dhtml features in 2002, you will enjoy knowing how to create better code and sites. The author has provided wonderful examples - not just snippets - but full code samples with explanations clear enough for even this novice to understand.

Another brilliant addition to the Visual Quickstart Guide series! You simply cannot be a web developer and NOT be in possession of this and at least a half-dozen other titles from this series!

Since I own over 20 Visual Quickstart Guide titles, I feel qualified to rank DHTML & CSS for the WWW by Jason Cranford Teague among the top 5 best-of-series, right up there with Elizabeth Castro's HTML 3.2 & 4.0, Castro's PERL & CGI for the WWW, Debra and Eric Ray's UNIX, and lastly, I'll cheat by treating PHOTOSHOP 4, 5, 5.5 and 6 as one book because of the consistent and informative efforts by authors, Elaine Weinmann and Peter Lourekas. (I hear the DREAMWEAVER 4.0 by J. Tarin Powers is pretty awesome as well!) In my experience, all, but for a couple of marginal misfires, are excellent.

Be forewarned, however, the Visual Quickstart books are not project or tutorial driven. These are the books to use AFTER you've cut your teeth on the application tutorial-- when you're out there in the REAL webdev world, building stuff, even if it's your first time. These books are worth 100 times their weight in gold! Think of a cookbook where brevity is key and success is guaranteed if you follow each step as directed.

Anyway, enough free advertising for Peachpit Press and back to DHTML & CSS by Jason Teague! The writing is clear and concise. All of the style and script examples are useful immediately and relevant in the real world of webdev. Each step of every script or style is prefaced by referenced snippets of code so you know exactly where you are in any particular script, which can sometimes be pages long.

Teague is also a master at anticipating problems you might encounter when deploying some of his examples. So, he includes on-the-spot browser-compatibility info, helpful hints and browser-specific workarounds, just in case woeful rendering in a misbehaving browser gives you fits! (and because he probably doesn't want to invite litigation for property damage when you throw a brick at your computer out of frustration when you can't get a script to execute properly in say, Netscape V4.715367894508061182745? Or a stylesheet doesn't render as you intended in Opera V2.0 or Explorer V3.0-if at all!!!)

Another credit to the author is that he never leaves out steps relying on the happenstance that his readers maintain a preconceived level of knowledge about what might be considered obvious (which is all relative anyway, depending upon whether the reader is left or right-brain hard-wired!). He shows respect for his readers by leaving nothing to chance, while appealing to all levels of audience technical capability.

In short, it doesn't matter whether you are a newbie or a seasoned coder. You WILL find a treasure trove of useful information and a bountiful number of useful scripts and style examples for just about anything interactive you could ever hope to add to your web site. GUARANTEED!

And, now? TA-DAH!!! I saved the best for last! The prized characteristic of this book? When you need to zero in on a particular task, style or script, the index is magnificent! The subject, phrase or task you are looking for in the index corresponds directly to a page containing the information you need. So when you go to the page noted in the index, THE INFORMATION IS REALLY THERE--FIRST TIME AROUND!!! No guessing games or a dozen hit-and-miss trips back to the index to unlock some kind of elusive clue or national security clearance code known only to the author, that reveals the secret location of the information you seek, the exposure of which carries the obligatory condition of having to kill you! The index, on its own merit, is quite the workhorse that more than justifies the modest cost of the book in time saved, BEFORE you ever key in the first character of code!

No, I'm not a representative for Peachpit Press, nor do I play one on TV!!! I'm just a hardworking web developer trying to keep up with ever-changing technology in the blazing speed of internet time. Anyone who contributes to the shortening of my learning curve is my best friend for life! Thanks, Jason. Your book rocks!!

As a Web Design firm, it is mandatory that we stay on the cutting edge of site development. We required our entire staff to study the first book in this series and we've already started passing out this second edition. Nothing provides better control over site appearance than DHTML/CSS and we have not found a better manual than this for our designers.

Note, this is for people who are serious about web design and not FrontPage amateur hour users. This manual gives our information architects the cross browser/platform reference material they need to not waste development time. If you don't know this book's content, you're not a web author.