The Dhtml Companion (Paperback)

by Robert J. Mudry (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
This no-nonsense guide to the new Dynamic HMTL (DHTML) standard covers all the essentials, with good coverage of DHTML as used on both the Microsoft and Netscape browsers. First, the author describes what DHTML is, while concentrating on three areas: cascading style sheets (for controlling fonts and styles), an improved scripting language (with better support for events), and a Document Object Model (DOM), which allows programmatic access to all on-screen elements. This book is good at explaining the tug-of-war between Netscape and Microsoft for defining the new DHTML standard.

This text looks at programming with screen elements and event handling. Next, it turns to the object model used to access all screen and browser elements. A discussion of style sheets comes later, only after the fundamentals have been explained. The author then proceeds to look at some of the differences in DHTML between Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape's browser.

There are many references to HTML and DHTML, but The DHTML Companion provides a logical and engaging presentation of all the essentials without overwhelming the reader with every new tag and detail. Many samples of DHTML are also included to get you writing DHTML yourself. --Richard Dragan

Product Description
DHTML is the dynamic new version of HTML which makes it easy to add multimedia to Web pages. Robert Mudrey assumes readers already know HTML and quickly gets them into DHTML. Both Microsoft and Netscape have endorsed DHTML, and this book covers both versions.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Prentice Hall; 1st edition (December 30, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0137960468
• ISBN-13: 978-0137960460
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,590,878 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great for IE, horrible for Navigator, October 26, 1999

By	A. Chaux (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Robert Mudry's book should be renamed "The DHTML Companion for IE". He does an excellent job of describing DHTML for Microsoft's Internet Explorer, but nearly excludes Netscape Navigator completely. That is fine if you are publishing web sites design strictly for IE, however in the real web designers have to accommodate as many browsers as possible. The scope of Mudry's book is too narrowly focused to be useful. Perhaps if he defined what was compatible with the different browsers certain portions of the book would be of use. Finding out that Mudry's scripts don't work in Netscape through errors and crashed browsers is not acceptable. O'Reilly's "Dynamic HTML, the Definitive Reference" is the way to go.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Book does not live up to its title in a key way. ., March 15, 1998

By A Customer

Without explicitly saying so, on the cover or in the main part of the text, this book is a one-sided look at DHTML. The cover says that the book covers the Netscape and Microsoft implemetations of DHTML, but this is misleading. Less than 10% of the book is devoted to the Netscape implementation. Readers of this book should be aware that most of the DHTML examples will not work unless one is using Internet Explorer. Had I known this I would not have been as interested in purchasing the book. I would have looked to spend my money on a book that had a good chunk of examples which would work in both Netscape and Explorer. If you are a Web designer, you don't want to alienate visitors to your site by providing interactivity that only works with one of the two major browsers, do you? In my opinion, the book is well written, but I can only guess whether the code examples will work since 1.) I do not use Internet Explorer, although I probably will at some future date, and 2) there were a number of mis-spellings of words in the text, typographic errors, which eroded my confidence about how well the book had been produced. Are there typos in the code examples too? Don't know. With these caveats, I would recommend the book to people seeking to get a handle on the powerful features of DHTML. I gave the book a rating of 6 in order to emphasize how misled I felt when I realized how little this book will help me design web pages for visitors using Netscape. Perhaps in a 2nd edition this capable author will give more space to Netscape. (My apologies for not putting copyright symbols wherever the words Netscape and Microsoft appear in this text. Just imagine they're there so I don't get in trouble, ok?)

5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect for the Learner, February 9, 2003

By	"50295" (Germany) - See all my reviews

I just got this bok for the Libary, and on looking through I was amazed. Its undoubtedly the best DHTML book I have ver seen. Simply written, assumes very little and quite thorough! Only problem is that much of it is now outdated (The specification has since evolved). So please Mr Mudry hurry up with new edition.
If there was a 6 or 7 star rating I would still awárd it. I wish all books were written this way.

- Olumide