Customer Reviews

HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide (6th Edition)

5 star:		(74)
4 star:		(28)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

When I bought this book I didn't know HTML from JFK, CBS, or AT&T. After three days I had a good handle on the language. The authors don't approach the subject as recreational material; it's a serious introduction, and is quite good if you want to know how HTML really works. There's also good info on browser compatability, and good sources for finding Internet material on a constantly-changing subject.

5 stars implies a perfect book. Well, they don't exist, especially when it comes to an Internet whose technology is in constant flux. The authors cover not only the language but some of its pitfalls, and they include good notes for beginners on quality HTML design. I could criticize some sections, such as the one on frames that tends to be confusing, and some sections that almost ignore a subject (such as META tags, which get barely half a page). But as a learning tool this beats its competitors by a wide margin and is intelligently presented.

After several months of breaking in to web development, you'll soon realize that there's no single source for complete HTML knowledge. I can definitely say I learned good, responsible HTML from this book and learned it easily and quickly. Aspirants to power HTML programming will obviously have to seek out additional sources. But if you're looking for a starting point and excellent reference material that you will use again and again, this is it.

DO NOT buy this book if your computer experience is using computers, not programming them, and your boss wants you to build a few pages by the end of next week.

DO NOT buy this book if you are a novice user and are just curious about building web pages.

DO NOT buy this book if you don't care at all about efficient, clean, bug-free code, and would rather just use (cough, spit!) MS FrontPage.

DO buy this book if you care about content more than just flashy graphics.

DO buy this book if you are a programmer or hard-core web designer that apprecieates clean, reliable, cross-browser code.

Make no mistake, this book is not a 1000-page Que doorstop that talks you through every last step in page design. This book barely mentions editors at all, leaving that to your personal preference.

What this book is is a concise reference of the HTML standard and common extensions to HTML code. It will tell you which tags are specific to Netscape or IE, and most of the different rendering quirks. If you are looking to build flashy, but browser specific pages, this book won't help you a whole lot. It is current enough that I think some of the other reviewers must have gotten an old edition, because it covers the entire HTML 3.2 standard, with coverage of basic style sheets and JavaScript.

Other books force you to adopt the author's style as you go through the book slowly, step by step, building an entire site in the process. This book instead features a short tutorial at the beginning, which gives the basic structure of HTML, and mentions a few tips on good style. (indenting, comments, the importance of content over design, etc.) The bulk of the book is a rock-solid, well-written REFERENCE. NOT A TUTORIAL. This is not "The Definitive Guide to Building Web Sites". It is a book on HTML code, and it will not tell you what to use the tags for, it assumes you know what you want, and the basic HTML elements you want to use (tables, vs. frames, for instance).

In conclusion, if! you are not a programmer, that this should be the second, not the first HTML book you buy. However, if you already know some HTML, or you are a programmer that wants to learn a new language, then buy this book.

Peter Mescher

P.S. for the reviewers that said this was outdated: The most recent revision (3/98) goes up to Netscape 4 and IE 4, with a decent chapter on CSS. A good site does not use bleeding edge, non cross-browser tags anyway, so a book last edited two months ago should get the job done.

This book truly is a definitive guide and anyone interested in web development should have this on hand! The authors cover every single tag along with all the related attributes, even those deprecated in the HTML 4.01 standard, and unlike several other books I've looked at, they do not restrict the topics to the purpose of these tags but also advise the reader on when and where to use them. Clarifications of browser differences help the reader be more cautious when writing HTML. Furthermore, the book offers insight on effective design, both of the web page and of the HTML code itself, which I found to be very helpful. Also included is information on CSS, character entities, history of HTML, and HTML DTD's. Something else I found interesting is the assertion that HTML is not a programming language. I applaud the authors for making that distinction- it is a widespread misconception that HTML is a programming language, but actually, it is not.

The cover may be unattractive and the reader may think that the book is dry and technical, but that's not true. The authors do take a conversational approach, occasionally adding humor and sarcasm (but not in a condescending tone like other authors!) making the book fun and easy to read.

HOWEVER-- I would NOT recommend this book to the absolute beginner. The organization is not exactly suited to the needs of a beginner; the book gives more information than is necessary before moving onto the basics (in fact, even while discussing the basics of HTML, the beginner might be confused) Instead, this book should be read by someone who may have dabbled in HTML but now wants to be a serious web designer. For someone just starting out in web design, you might take a look at something from SAMs or the popular HTML Goodies by Joe Burns. (Just make sure that you get something that is up-to-date, as HTML standards are continuously under review and subject to frequent modification.)

This book is written for any one interested in learning and using HTML, from the most casual user to the full design professional. As a novice, I found this book extremely useful to me and infact it had built me from nothing to advanced level. I would recommend to any one who wants to learn HTML in a proper way instead of short cut methods of those tutorials of "learn HTML" in 10 minutes,etc.

I read the book from cover to cover with the intention of learning HTML this way, but what I found was that the reference qualities of the book made doing it this way painful. Because it is a reference, I found myself slogging through a lot of repetitiveness in various tag explanations. I could cite from memory now the section on every tag explaing the lang and dir attributes. This is critical for a reference that needs to be thorough and consistent and not assume that you've read through the entire book as I have, but makes using it as a tutorial inefficient. I read Elizabeth Castro's HTML book afterwards and found it a much better tutorial (and still a fine reference although not as thorough). Bottom line: if you want a tutorial, get Castro's book - it's a bit simplistic at times, but you'll learn what you need to know a lot faster. If you need an excellent reference, then get this book as well.

I'm not sure whether to advise this as a good "first" book for people looking to learn mark-up for the web, since it was not mine. However, having already learned the absolute basics about HTML, tables, frames, etc., and a small bit of XML, I found the book of considerable value.

Lighter on examples to make room for intelligent discussion of web design, the book has already set me straight on some of the many "bad" habits I have picked up, and proved a painless and rapid transition to XHTML. Much of the focus is on understanding why it's good design to do something a certain way, and the reader is alerted to soon-to-be-deprecated tags and attributes, as well as good discussion of the newer ways of doing things.

I honestly believe that if you have never used HTML before, with this book and the ability to search the web for its many tutorials on HTML, XHTML, XML, CSS, etc., a newbie could rapidly begin designing web pages effectively. Although there is a clearly logical progression through the book, each chapter stands on its own, such that it is quite possible to jump straight to one of the last subjects in the book and begin targeting the area of your choice.

Not exactly the most gripping thriller I've ever read (i.e., could be used instead of sleeping pills if reading more than a few pages at a time), but it is EXTREMELY informative for reference purposes. If you're reading this from cover to cover to try learning HTML, I'd suggest stocking up on coffee...or using one of the Visual Quickstart books instead. However, if you already know some HTML, This book is EXCELLENT for reference and brushing up on tags you've not used lately.

I have been using HTML: The Definitive Guide as my general HTML reference book since the first edition; it is the book I reach for when I want to check the use of some obscure tag or attribute.

That being said, this is not a good, general introduction to Web page design. Rather, the book works best as a reference for those with a solid, intermediate knowledge of HTML who want to contextualize what they know and move on to the next step.

This is a book about HTML, and it does not cover all aspects of making Web pages. Such things as DOM, DHTML and JavaScript are really beyond the scope of this book, and are covered in other, also excellent, O'Reilly publications.

If one is serious about Web design then one needs to learn HTML and code it by hand; The Definitive Guide is an excellent resource for this.

When I got this book I had built two websites with an editor, and couldn't tell a tag from a hole in the ground. I bought the book HTML: The definitive guide and within a week I was coding my pages cleanly by hand! Since that time (6 mos.)I have created two domains coded by hand, that look as good or better than many sites that I visit. This book is a good primer for novices, and a great reference for experts. (Especially those who code with an editor)

HTML is hyper-text markup language and XML is eXtensible Markup language so when the two are combined you have XHTML. Learning either language is hard enough but together this can be exhausting, however you no longer need to worry as the definitive guide is at your disposal.

The authors' make is easy to follow as they include hundreds of examples, diagrams, pictures, table and figures. The books broken down into 17 chapters starting with the basic understanding of HTML and XHTML.

They go on to cover areas and topics such as text, links, tables and frames. They also cover style sheets, rules, images multimedia, lists, CSS, forms, JavaScript and dynamic documents, by this time you are now at chapter 13 with even more information to follow.

The authors devote whole chapters to XML and XHTML and finally tips and tricks making this a truly definitive guide to work with. Also included is the most complete HTML and XHTML quick reference guide card I have ever come across, I have mine right next to my computer.

Considering I have taught HTML for over three years and helped developed pages in FrontPage, this is by far the best book I have seen that covers both HTML and XHTML. This is one book you may not want to pass on if you are in any part of the web design arena.