Customer Reviews

Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference

5 star:		(121)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I've purchased several books (Javascript: the Definitive Guide, Netscape ONE Developers Guide, etc) relating to Javascript and Web development. I recently became interested in the functionality that DHTML provides and although I have several books on Javascript, I had nothing which directly references DHTML techniques. This is the book if you want to learn BOTH Javascript AND DHTML - the two are linked inextricably as you'll find if you purchase this book.

On the cover, you'll see in smallish lettering "A Comprehensive Resource for HTML, CSS, DOM & JavaScript" - they're not kidding.

Section one contains Applying Dynamic HTML information and covers everything from cross-platform techniques to actual scripting of dynamic events on your webpages.

Section two contains all the reference sections - HTML, Document Objects, Style Sheet Attributes, and a Javascript Core Language reference. This provides everything from supporting browser versions to reference examples, properties and methods for each element - it is exhaustive.

Section three provides cross references so you can find objects or HTML attributes and what elements support them. Ever want to know exactly which objects support the ONCLICK event handler? - here's where you'd go...

Even the 4 appendixes are useful and include a table of color names and RGB values, HTML character entities (special characters), a listing of keyboard events and their character values (useful for initiating code when specific keys are pressed), and finally a reference area for Internet Explorer commands not specifically covered by the document object model.

This is a must buy book for any HTML developer out there - even if you're not at the DHTML level yet.

While this book may be a bit intimidating for first-time web authors, it is an incredibly useful manual for those who know the basics of HTML and need a reference to newer features and standards.

The first section is an extremely well-written overview of modern HTML: the history and philosophies behind CSS, javascript, the Document Object Model, and the designs of the two major browsers, as well as some excellent examples of writing portable code to access these features from different platforms and browsers. The clarity of the writing here is a very pleasant surprise from what is really just a reference manual and simply doesn't need to be this good. This section alone is probably enough to bring most "tag-only" authors up to date on the newer dynamic technologies.

It is the reference sections, however, for which most readers will buy this book, and they are excellent. There are comprehensive listings of HTML tags (including rendering behavior as well as scriptable attributes), javascript primitives, and DOM structures. Most importantly, every entry in the reference section is labelled very clearly with which browser and/or standards versions support it, a crucial piece of information to cross-platform authors which is left out of many similar books.

All in all, this book may be the only reference a developer really needs on his bookshelf for writing dynamic HTML. The only major complaint I have is that the author is (understandably) very script-centric, and never sufficiently discusses the down side of using heavily scripted pages when static pages or server-side scripts may suffice.

As a "reference" book (that is, not a tutorial or manual or *dummies* book) is meant to be used by people already familiar with what they are doing and need a comprehensive source to look something up, this book is the perfect model of a great reference work and belongs on every web deleloper's desk. It offers detailed info on HTML elements, DOM, CSS, and JavaScript. As this is a DHTML reference, the Javascript section is sorely lacking, though. A great feature is that for each element, property and attribute, it tells you which versions of Netscape and IE supports that element. Descriptions and examples are also provided for each entry. It also briefly explains how to use DHTML and cross-platform problems. Another consideration is that since this is such a large reference, it takes a little time to get used to its organization and how to look things up. But this is the one web book I keep referring back to all the time.

Simply put, this book is amazing. It is a complete reference for HTML, CSS, and much of JavaScript (focusing on DOM). If you are looking for a more complete JavaScript reference, I highly recommend Flanagan's JS book, also in the O'Reilly series. Let's face it... It's hard to remember every CSS property, HTML tag, and DOM attribute. Sure, you could do what I used to do and haul 3-4 books around everywhere, or you could get this one book and save yourself the trouble.

What I found most amazing about this book is that it has *every* CSS-2 property that exists. Some of them aren't even supported by Netscape or IE, but they are part of the W3 CSS standard and this book includes them, and even explains their purpose. I find this most amazing. Hopefully Micro$oft and NS will get off their behind and make a fully compliant CSS-2 web-browser :).

Let me tell what this book is not. It is not a tutorial, how-to guide, or system of wonders for those just starting out in web-development, DHTML, or CSS. Although it does have a brief tutorial section (about 180 pages), the core of the book (the remaining 1000 or so pages) is the most concise DHTML reference I have ever seen. This book measures a whole inch thicker than the old version and it's fresh with content, supporting the lastest CSS-Level 2 browsers (Netscape 6+ and IE 5+). The author makes it clear in the beginning of the book that many of the techniques and references presented here are not backwards compatible with Version 4 browsers; as he cleverly mentions, since browsers are free to download, there is no reason for anyone to still be using an older browser. If you're looking for V4 support, he recommends his previous edition. It is nice to know this edition wasn't bogged down with dated material that most of us will never need. V4 compatibility is a pain in and of itself.

When CSS-3 makes its debut in the next year or two (wishful thinking :)), I'd be happy if Mr. Goodman's next version of this text will be half as good as this one. Hopefully it won't take 4 years to come out, though. I do think this current version was needed about 1-2 years ago. It's nice to have it now. This one gets an A+++ in my book!

I bought this book to learn how to create a new menu system for a web site that I'm working on, and I certainly don't regret the choice. Danny Goodman's book does a very good job of covering Dynamic HTML (DHTML), HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), DOM (Document Object Model) and even JavaScript.

The amount of information in this book is incredible. 1400 pages! (Not 1500, as currently indicated at Amazon.com, incidentally, but 1400 is sufficient.)

Mr. Goodman explains the current situation, where Microsoft's Internet Explorer follows one "standard" and the other browsers follow the W3C standards to varying degrees. He also indicates which version of MS IE first began to support each feature, allowing you to decide whether you want to use some feature that some of your clients' older browsers may not support. This kind of information is invaluable if you want to make your web site cross-browser compatible, including support for Macintosh, Unix, Linux, etc., as well as Windows.

My only criticism is that the book is unfortunately becoming a bit dated. It was published in Sept. 2002 so it obviously can't contain any information about the latest versions of web browsers. On the other hand, Microsoft has not released any new version of IE for over two years, so it's only information about the latest versions of Netscape and other browsers that is missing.

One additional thing I liked about this book was that Danny Goodman sometimes uses an almost poetic English, something rather unusual in a technology book. A couple of examples from page 19: "... can be a challenge unto itself." "If the inexorable flow of new browser versions..."

Highly recommended if you are making web pages that require the use of Dynamic HTML.

Rennie Petersen

Though not the place you should go to learn DHTML outright, any web developer with an idea of how HTML, CSS, and JavaScript work will greatly benefit from this book.

The first pages contain a decent overview of how to use each aspect of DHTML featured in the book, so even if you're not familiar with something, you can get a good basis from where to start.

The book's main function is in its role as a reference. I absolutely LOVE this book. Every time I run across something I don't understand, a quick peek in the index and a complete explanation, including examples, is there to guide me.

Obviously this isn't a book to read cover-to-cover (unless you really wanted to), look at it as a DHTML encyclopedia, bearing a wealth of information. It is indexed very intelligently with both tabbed sections for HTML, DOM, CSS, and JavaScript, as well as a full alphabetical index in the back.

Whether you are new or old to web development, this book will definitely benefit you. Get it for your bookshelf, you'll find yourself flipping through it all the time. Not to mention there's a cute flamingo on the cover, who can resist a flamingo? :)

As a *reference* book (that is, not a tutorial or manual or *dummies* book) is meant to be used by people already familiar with what they are doing and need a comprehensive source to look something up, this book is the perfect model of a great reference work and belongs on every web deleloper's desk. It offers detailed info on HTML elements, DOM, CSS, and JavaScript. As this is a DHTML reference, the Javascript section is sorely lacking, though. A great feature is that for each element, property and attribute, it tells you which versions of Netscape and IE supports that element. Descriptions and examples are also provided for each entry. It also briefly explains how to use DHTML and cross-platform problems. Another consideration is that since this is such a large reference, it takes a little time to get used to its organization and how to look things up. But this is the one web book I keep referring back to all the time.

If you're looking for a beginner's guide to HTML, JavaScript or CSS, this is NOT the book for you. It's not a tutorial, or a "how to" book.

If, on the other hand, you're a journeyman web developer, this is *the* reference for client-side technologies. It covers HTML (through HTML 4), JavaScript (through IE & NS 4), the Document Object Model (DOM Level 1) and CSS (including CSS-P and CSS2) in exhaustive detail, with syntax, usage, DOM references, and browser/platform support notes for every tag, attribute, property and function, all in one book.

My only complaints are:

A) the layout is dense, so it takes a little time to learn how to make full use of it;

B) there are a few minor editorial errors in this edition;

C) it's a 1998 edition, so it doesn't specifically cover IE5 or Netscape 6.

All in all, a remarkable reference work. I use it literally every day. I just hope my current copy doesn't fall apart until the 2nd edition is available!

This book has been invaluable to me in my business of building web sites for the internet and intranets. I buy one for every new employee who works in development. It's clear, unfluffy, comprehensive and EXTREMELY well organized, as so many other reference books aren't (including others by O'Reilly). There are a few minor inconsistencies here and there but these are nothing compared to other so-called reference books I've read.

You will get not only the DOM model and a great html reference, but clear understanding and syntax for cascading style sheets (not the easiest thing in the world to catch on to), container concepts, and an introduction to Javascript.

If you only buy one web reference book - buy this one. I've been doing this work full time for a year and a half and I still pull this book off the shelf before any others.

First, I'll say that I've owned the previous two editions. The 2nd was 1400 pages. This "new" and expanded version (covering buzzwords AJAX and Web 2.0 along with Mozilla, Safari, and Opera) is somehow only 1300 pages. How could this be? Well, the last edition had 4 parts. This one only has 3. They cut the first 7 chapters out. I would be OK with this as the remaining is ONLY a reference, but it's not. The reason is that it's not is that the index is pure rubbish (and I'm using a lot of restraint to avoid profanity). It went from 56 pages down to barely 16. It's like they were on a mission to save pages! Another example of cost-cutting at your expense is there are no listings for something simple such as "onmouseover". It's under "mouseover" because that's the DOM event name.

As a result of the index, it is impossible to look up anything. I'll give you an example. In the 2nd edition, the word "position/positioning" had nearly 1/2 page of entries/sub-entries/etc. in the index. The new has only ONE line. The page that it takes you to is also fairly useless and says "See Chapter 5 for details and examples". That's it, noting more specific, just: Chapter 5. I looked through the roughly 125 pages in Chapter 5 by hand and couldn't find anything relevant. This book is a lesson in frustration for when you know a tag or attribute and are trying to just look up the defaults or possible values or how you access a DOM object or CSS property through JavaScript. The only usable way I found is to use BOTH books and look it up in the 2nd edition first to find out "about" where it might be in the 3rd edition. What a waste of time!

Further, the book is filled with probably 1/3 of "theoretical" DOM and CSS that is defined/proposed standards but is not implemented by any browser, so it is useless to any developer who develops in the real world. Combined with the fact that it still covers Netscape Navigator 4.x (give me a break) and all its proprietary/funky HTML, then 1/2 the book is useless reference. Also, much of the reference is terse 1 or 2 sentences. Without an index, it seriously needs "see also" type listings like you would find in a man page, etc.

In sum, this is a frustrating book with information for a given attribute/etc. scattered around in 8 major sections including "shared" sections. I found it takes at least 5X to 10X your time to look up something than it should based on the 2nd edition. I do give it two stars because you know the information is in there somewhere. It just takes forever to find it.