Customer Reviews

New Perspectives on HTML and XHTML: Comprehensive (New Perspectives (Course Technology Paperback))

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

"HTML and XHTML" is my first exposure to the "New Perspectives" series, but I'm sure it won't be my last. I had a few years of web design experience, but I wanted to get into the programming side a little bit more, so I ended up taking a class and this was the textbook. I was pretty upset that I was being forced to buy an expensive book on a common subject like HTML where one can find a multitude of volumes for under $40. However, by the end of the class, I came to really appreciate the approach that this book takes.

First of all, if you are looking for a reference book, this is not it. This is a step-by-step book that teaches one basic concept per chapter with each idea being applied directly to the accompanying tutorial files downloadable from the publisher's website.

That said, if you're looking for something akin to an HTML classroom experience, this book allows you to teach yourself pretty effectively. I had the added benefit of an instructor to help me debug, but I could imagine working through the book successfully on my own without issue. The directions are very clear and aimed at the beginner. I've seen a lot of books that skip certain steps considered too basic to mention, but this book makes no assumptions.

Again, this is not a book for anyone already familiar with HTML, nor is it recommended as a reference or a refresher. You can spend much less money to get a good refresher book that doesn't cover so many basics in such detail. However, if you want a book that will hold your hand through the learning process, this is it.

I realize that most of the people buying this book will have no choice - it will be a required textbook for introductory web programming classes. I'm mostly just sharing my experience here. The book is expensive, but it IS worth it. I'm not sure if I'll hang on to mine forever, but it gave me a very solid knowledge of HTML fundamentals.

I have just completed a university level course using Patrick Carey's text NEW PERSPECTIVES HTML AND XHTML, 5th Edition. I'll admit to having an extensive background as a student and to being over 70 with 40 years as a classroom instuctor.
1. Text (physical) -- high gloss paper, small type, and colored backgrounds for charts of important information are very difficult to read even with a magnifying glass. User's light source must be perfect for the pages not to produce a glare, which again impedes readability. It is difficult to handle or lay in a position to move from section to section (I used heavy metal clamps.).
2. There is a major difference between a glossary and an index, which made locating information time consuming since the only other method is turning the pages one-by-one.
3. Instructions are confusing with little building on previous information.
4. There are long discussions of elements of the code that are no longer valid--but the student is only told that at the end of the section. Tip sections are interesting in that in more than one instance this is where information for completing a problem was located.
5. Practice lessons are a hodge-podge of excessive verbal instructions, at times using a word that have just been explained as an attribute for a different purpose -- so the student is left playing guessing games as to what they are to accomplish.
6. When it takes an experienced computer user over seventy hours to complete one assignment; it falls under the heading of absurd.
7. For what audience was the books written? To impress fellow instructors or for a student who is trying to learn the code? I don't think the author has any idea.
Nash Black, author of Indie finalists WRITING AS A SMALL BUSINESS and HAINTS.

This book does contain useful information, but you could probably learn just as easily by looking at teaching aids online. Also my teacher is very dissapointed in the book for it's lack of diferentiation between html and xhtml styles. It combines them quite often and makes it difficult for someone who is trying to learn new style code instead of depreciated code.

Also the layout of the book is terrible. There are lines all over the page that do nothing but distract the reader. Apparently white space wasn't good enough for this author.

Purchased this book for an on-line college class. So far it is pretty good. I have not found any mistakes yet and it seems to explain things very well. One caveat though, I am well versed in HTML so this is more of a review for me. My opinion may change once I get into XHTML.

There are typos in this book!! This book can be hard to follow. I too have had many frustrating hours in front of a computer with this book and its companion book New Perspectives Javascript. I have had to supplement the chapter reading with other books and blogs on the Internet.

That being said, this book will have you build some pretty slick labs. Once you build the labs, you can always go back and modify the code for other web sites that you are asked to build. Once you connect some of the dots, you will realize that there is a complex relationship between HTML, CSS and Javascript. No matter how you approach it, you will need multiple sources to learn from. This book gives you only a piece of what you need.

The upside is that if you truly master HTML, CSS and Javascript, the world will want you for your skills!! This is the future!

I have been working with computers for over 10 years & consider myself to be very computer savvy. I have ready many instructional books & have had no problems following them. This is the first book that has ever left me frustrated. The writing is horrible and terrible for a beginner. It does a terrible job of explaining the basics. I have no idea why my teacher picked this book. Every class, he'll be going over content from the book & say, "By the way, this section is deprecated, so don't use this in the real world". He says it so much, the entire book is deprecated in my opinion.

The title says it all. This is a book to keep in the overhead for your desk. It is easy to understand. The book is a textbook and the end of chapter exercises begin simple and become much more complex. I would expect it would work as a good text for a beginners course or a second or third course in the material, depending on the exercises you choose.

It is rare you will find a textbook that covers as much depth of material while keeping it simple enough a person new to the field can understand it without help.

I strongly recommend this book to schools as a primary text for HTML or XHTML courses.

This book was a required textbook for a course I am taking in HTML, XHTML and CSS. The book attempts to teach you these three things in 10 chapters. In each chapter, there is a sample to work on, and then 3 or 4 assignments at the end of the chapters.

The first two chapters - both on HTML - went fine. I've got a little experience with basic HTML, so I had no problems with those. When we got into CSS, though, it was completely new territory for me. The author went way too fast for my way of learning. I had trouble with some of the assignments because the assignment would require a property from a chapter we hadn't gotten to - for instance, the "float:" property in chapter 3 (which isn't covered for several more chapters).

I found myself leaning more and more on two other books and a website, to complete the assignments in the 3rd and 4th chapters. One of those other books went much slower and was more detailed about the whys and wherefores of each property.

My advice: if you have to buy this book for a course, then you do. But if you're looking to teach yourself HTML, XHTML, or CSS - - look elsewhere! For CSS, I highly recommend a book by Richard York, called Beginning CSS, published by WROK.

Pros: New Perspectives generally have fairly good books for beginnings. This book has good step-by-step instructions and you can download the data files to get kick start your learning process.
Cons: Text is difficult to read, and has many errors or missing instructions. For example, in Tutorial 5, the book is missing the detail that shows you how to reference table column groups using the <colgroup> element and how to apply CSS style to it.

This book is nearly useless. It has the absolute worst Index I've ever seen in a book. Good luck finding where things are referenced. The chapters, while instructive, make far too much use of reference boxes, which make the text difficult to follow. The chapters hold your hand through a process, and give the reader very little room for independent analysis. The end of chapter Case Problems are nice, but if you run into trouble, you're absolutely on your own. Nowhere to be found are solutions to the problems, leaving the reader out-on-a-limb should they have difficulties.

I would literally reccommend any other book on HTML. I'm so frustrated with this book that I'm shocked I found the gravity to give it 3-stars rather than 1.