HTML & XHTML : The Definitive Guide (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Plenty of books can teach you HTML quickly, getting you up to speed and hacking out Web pages in no time. HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide offers a more comprehensive and pragmatic look at the de facto markup language of today, as well as the emerging next step.

This title systematically presents HTML markup, beginning with the basics--such as the anatomy of an HTML document, text, and links--and proceeding to cascading style sheets, JavaScript, and XML. Along the way, it discusses related issues, such as problems with displaying background images, and browser-specific behavior with tables and other elements. Each element is covered in as much depth as is necessary to frame the key implementation issues.

Most of the book is entirely relevant to basic HTML coding without any concern for XHTML. The latter, more cutting-edge flavor of markup is covered in depth near the end of the book. The entire specifications for the HTML 4.01 and XHTML 1.0 Document Type Definitions (DTDs) are included among the appendices.

While HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide is an excellent tutorial for learning markup the right way, it is also a superb desktop reference guide to keep nearby for daily use. Perhaps, there is no greater compliment for a Web development book. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered:

• Markup basics
• HTML document structure
• Text handling
• Images
• Multimedia
• Links and URLs
• Formatted lists
• Tables
• Forms
• Cascading style sheets
• Frames
• JavaScript
• Applets and objects
• Dynamic documents
• Netscape Layout Extensions
• XML
• XHTML

Review

'... a well priced and written, comprehnensive HTML and XHTML guide which continues to be useful as a language reference' Rating 9/10 Linux Format, December 2000 'If you want the very best reference manual to HTML and its latest developments ... this is it. I guarantee that no matter which other web page design books you might have on your shelves, this is the one to which you will keep coming back ... again and again.... www.mantex.co.uk

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Product Details

• Paperback: 677 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 4 edition (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059600026X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596000264
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (152 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #420,534 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to code good HTML, buy this book, June 1, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: HTML: The Definitive Guide (Nutshell Handbooks) (Paperback)

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.

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 5 stars for beginners, 3 for old pro's, August 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: HTML: The Definitive Guide (Paperback)

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.

53 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars excellent reference, but just a good tutorial, December 16, 1999

By	James A. Donaldson (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HTML: The Definitive Guide (Paperback)

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.