Customer Reviews

Web Development and Design Foundations with XHTML (4th Edition)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book is very well laid out and clear to understand with logical excercises. It provides website support with additional learning files. Although not inexpensive, it provides an excellent way to learn XHTML and cascading style sheets. It is the text used for my website development college class.

We use this book in a community college course for both online and face-to-face classes. The students really like the hands-on approach with examples, practice exercises and case studies. The 4th Edition of this popular textbook integrates XHTML and CSS topics so students learn from the beginning how to use both XHTML and CSS to configure text, color, and page layout. There is also excellent coverage of web design best practices, accessibility, usability, and Web standards. A bonus is the textbook's companion website at webdevfoundations.net that has a page for each chapter with chapter links, additional information, flash review puzzles, iPod review quizzes, and chapter updates.

I like the book. It goes into a lot of detail on how yo write XHTML. It starts you off from the beginning any really describes everything to you down to them meaning of every text.

The book however is cluttered with words. I didn't expect to see it full of pictures or anything, after all it's an XHTML book. But even math text book writers are finding more and more ways to make reading the text book interesting and easier to read.

The writer does however engage the reader with most of the stuff you will learn, so that's a big plus.

But, lump after lump of long winded paragraphs are a good way to make readers get really tired, really fast.

This book came to me just as described. Very fast shipping. Excellent for a beginner in web development.

This book walks you through the history of the internet, the development of web pages and then step by step shows you the user how to create dynamic webpages.

This book was written well. I bought this book for an XHTML class I'm taking and I must say ... I've learned a lot about web site building. Some books that I have read on XHTML were written in a very confusing way and, in turn, made the whole learning process difficult. This book, however, fills the hunger that you may have for web site building with practice exercises and easy to follow explanations.

Highly recommended!!

This is an excellent book to learn XHTML with CSS (the new standards of HTML). Very good for people who've had no prior experience in HTML, and for people trying to update their skills using XHTML and CSS. Everything is very clear, and makes perfect sense. Even though its a technical book, its friendly layout attracts the reader. But it does have typos, I've found over a dozen, but the reader can easily correct them with the knowledge gained from this book. It introduces programming near the end of the book such as JavaScript, PHP, Flash, etc.

This is an excellent textbook for a beginning web design course. The hands-on exercises encourage active learning. The Student Files provide solutions to these so that students can self-assess their progress. There are four case studies that continue throughout the book that provide opportunities for students to apply their newly-learned concepts and skills. What really sold me on this textbook is the way it integrates XHTML, CSS, AND accessibility!

Great book! It was easy to learn to design web pages with XHTML and CSS with all the hand-on examples and practice exercises in this book. This college textbook presents XHTML, CSS and web accessibility techniques, explores web design best practices, and even includes web promotion techniques for web designers! The companion website has links to useful websites and updates to the chapter. I highly recommend this book for web design or web development courses.

WASTE OF TIME
This book is a complete waste of time and it will sap your joy. You will learn far more with almost any other book. It is poorly written, the editing is non-existent, the educational constructs are poorly formed, the B.S. content is over the top, and the typos are serious enough to sabotage your web pages. In fact, the educational tone seems designed to sabotage your understanding of what you already know. Most of the details in the book are common sense and yet presented as ultra-orthodox truths from antiquity, as when the author refers to 10 years ago as "the last century."

LACK OF INFORMATION
The presentation of information is difficult to follow because the pages are clouded with stylistic jargon ripped-off from other publishing companies which have maintained a fine reputation for educational success because they know how to educate. To see successful authoring, go to any book store and see how many books there are in the following series: DUMMIES, IDIOTS, VISUAL, MADE SIMPLE, VISUAL QUICKSTART, or MICROSOFT PRESS. These series are designed to educate, empower, and inform. This book is designed to obfuscate.

STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE
For instance, take a look at the cover of this text book (as posted here on Amazon) and you will see a paint roller. This is the author's special icon to let you know you are still reading the same book. Section after section you see a paint roller, to open a section and to close a section. Apparently Web Design is colorful. Other icons, such as FAQ's are just "cute" but useless, because they are not FAQ's but just page decorations. Font decoration is random, extra spacing is random, and highlighting is random.

SUGGESTIONS
What the book needs is a table of contents that is useful, and a glossary so the book can be used as you read it. The index is skimpy (the most important part of the book) and each preview section and review section is non-usable. If you read as much as I do, I know that you have a method for learning, and for most people that method involves: Preview, Skim, Read, Review, and then use the book as a reference. This book does not have previews (more like hopeful affirmations) does not have reviews (except to tell you you're done with the chapter, ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT encourage skimming (the pages are meaningless jumbles of jargon) and the reading sections, when available, are short, and punctuated by meaningless faux-FAQs, comprehension-testers, points to ponder, and other monotony breakers, instead of real information. There is no way to review later because the book withheld active, authentic learning in the first place. You cannot even save this book as a reference because the tables are incomplete and incoherent, and the appendixes are poorly organized.

SUCCESSFUL OPTIONS
If you are required to use this book as a text-book for a class, just drop the class. You are smarter than that. Google the words "web design" and you will get all of this information for free! You don't need THIS book, just get a good book. The problem is, if your instructor requires THIS book then you will spend all of your time doing examples and not learning XHTML and CSS.

YOU CAN DO IT!
If you don't have other time-demands in your life then this book can walk you step-by-step through some ideas about web programming, but it will treat you like a Junior High School student. If you ARE a Junior High School student then you are WAY TOO SMART for this book. This is a text-book written for Junior College students who want to get a job, and their school is designed to make it hard to graduate. This book will not prepare them for a job. It only weeds out the students who don't have the guts to finish the course. If you want to be weeded out you won't make it as a programmer. If you want to be a programmer you won't put up with this book. If you really want to learn for fun, then get one of the other books listed above. Don't even buy this one for $.01 plus shipping. There's nothing in it worth looking at.

EDUCATION
My Bio and Bias: I am a doctor who teaches medical school, I have been programming computers for over 35 years, I am a life-long learner, I am a professional teacher, and my students would not put up with this book, nor would they put up with me if I required this book. My students, my peers, my friends, and most importantly, you...do not deserve this kind of condescension.