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39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A comprehensive, lucid reference book & tutorial., June 6, 2000
XHTML 1.0 Language And Design Sourcebook -- The Next Generation HTML Ian S. Graham John Wiley & Sons, 2000 ISBN: 0-471-37485-7 Paperback, 692 pages, ...XHTML 1.0 Language And Design Sourcebook -- The Next Generation HTML is an extraordinary book. Before I explain 'why' it may be necessary to explain 'what': What is XHTML?Some months ago, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) replaced the HTML language with a more complex, subtle, precise, and powerful language called XHTML. In January of this year, another acronymic body, the OEB, selected XHTML to become the standard language for the world of publishing ebooks. XHTML works optimally with the new language called Cascading Style Sheets (or 'Style Sheets' for short, or 'CSS' for shorter), which not only yields handsome formatting features, but also allows designers to make instant updates throughout the website by simple changes via one master document. HTML was relatively easy to learn and use, so why the change? ... XHTML documents are easily convertible to an influential language called XML. And XHTML documents will be readable by the plethora of new browsers: Braille, text-to-speech, TV browsers, browsers for PDAs, cell phone browsers, and more to come. While these benefits are appealing, they are useful only to those of us who become fluent in the new languages. Learning these new languages is the problem, and the solution is Graham's new book, devoted to the details of XHTML and CSS. Let us return to our sheets. Aristotle, the great Greek Philosopher, once explained his literary method: "Think like a philosopher and speak like a common man." Throughout this work, Graham tackles all the intricacies of XHTML and CSS with this same kind of intelligent prose. The very first pages of the book's introduction, which describes the six components of the Internet, made me understand -- deeply understand for the first time -- the structure of the whole Internet. Each succeeding chapter confirmed this first impression: as a technical writer, Graham is a genius. He illustrates how each part fits snugly into a greater whole; he anticipates every one of his readers' questions; and he explains how things work -- the easy, the uneasy, and everything in between -- with a style that is patient, vivid, easy to follow, brilliantly clear. Graham begins by exploring markup languages in general, then gives the best explanation that I have read anywhere about how to convert HTML documents to XHTML. The chapters that follow delve into CSS details, progressively moving from the simpler topics to ones which are more complex. After thorough lessons in the how-to basics about all the essential CSS features, the book concludes with advanced Style Sheet tools, scripting, XHTML handled as XML, and a whole chapter containing all the elements and attributes in the latest specifications of XHTML 1.0 and HTML 4.01. There's no CD-ROM with the book, but there's something even better: a companion website... which can be downloaded in less than five minutes. The site provides updates to the book, and codes for many of the book's examples. Beginners and expert users will find here, in one book, everything they need to immediately begin writing simple and complex documents in XHTML and CSS. Clearly, as a comprehensive reference book as well as a lucid tutorial about the hottest Web topics in town, XHTML 1.0 LANGUAGE AND DESIGN SOURCEBOOK is headed straight for the computer bestseller lists, and for all the right reasons. We eagerly await the book's companion volume, The XHTML 1.0 Web Development Sourcebook, scheduled for release during this Summer, 2000. Michael Pastore, Reviewer
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