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Philip & Alex's Guide to Web Publishing (Paperback)

~ (Author) "Why did the world buy 20 million expensive computers and connect them together?..." (more)
Key Phrases: magnet content, wealth clock, shrinkwrapped software, Philip Greenspun, Netscape Navigator, Summary More (more...)

4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (231 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This isn't another cookie-recipe approach to planning a successful Web site. Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing, by MIT veteran Philip Greenspun, is both broadly conceptual and deeply technical, and it assumes that the reader is willing to think seriously about the challenge of building a content site, a community site, or an e-commerce store before plunging in.

Although heavily Unix-oriented, it does not set out to proselytize a product, or even suggest that there is only one way to solve certain technical challenges. Rather, it encourages the reader to think about Web content and functionality as something designed to help visitors answer questions or do something useful. This may sound nebulous, but his observations about why Web sites go bad are illustrated with many well-chosen examples.

The core of the book is quite technical. Three long sections on publishing, community, and e-commerce architectures are illustrated by the author's data models and working open-source systems, so someone with C, SQL, and a good understanding of Internet Protocol (IP) under his or her belt will get the most out of the discussion. Such technical readers will find numerous Web addresses and other citations for further technical information. The author also invites readers to use his code if appropriate.

Although there is a lot of technical meat here, Greenspun dispenses with a dry, technical tone. Throughout, he manages to speak to the reader in a way that is always interesting and frequently bemused or ironic. The overall effect is that of a wry professor who knows his stuff, has thought about the problems, and isn't about to engage in commercial puffery. --Kathleen Caster

From Library Journal

A technical manual that is also a lavishly illustrated coffee-table book, this is the oddest, most interesting guide on web design and publishing this reviewer has ever read. "This book is a catalog of the mistakes that I've made while building more than 100 Web sites in the last five years," writes webmaster Greenspun, who teaches at MIT. Covering web publishing and web-based services in a lively, engaging tone, he makes complex technical ideas simple and accessible to beginners and nontechies who have to manage large web sites. Drop-dead photos taken by Greenspun and available for free on his site (www.photo.net) illustrate the text. Greenspun also gives away almost all the software he writes about and uses, and the entire book is available on the web (http://www. photo.net/wtr/thebook/). Still, all libraries should seriously consider getting one or two copies of the wonderful print version.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

Paperback: 608 pages
Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1st edition (April 29, 1999)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1558605347
ISBN-13: 978-1558605343
Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 7.8 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 3.3 pounds

Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (231 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #897,191 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
Why did the world buy 20 million expensive computers and connect them together? Read the first page

Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
magnet content, wealth clock, shrinkwrapped software, philip greenspun, same email address, referer header, desktop apps, comment server, tcl script, email varchar, cookie header, log analyzer, semantic tags, server program, static files, semantic markup, static site, null primary key, relational database management system, entry tunnel, personal site

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Philip Greenspun, Netscape Navigator, Summary More, Active Server Pages, America Online, Common Lisp, New York, First Data, Joe User, Action Network, Media Lab, United States, Adobe Photoshop, Morgan Kaufmann, Page View, Graphics Press, Internet Explorer, Michael O'Grady, Costa Rica, Edward Tufte, Lisp Machine, Cambridge Electric, Middle Webbish, San Francisco, Visual Explanations

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 43 books:

Travels with Samantha by Philip Greenspun on 4 pages
Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines by Apple Computer Inc. on page 133, page 143, and page 146
Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte on page 110, page 118, and page 146
A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr on page 498, page 500, and page 522
Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative by Edward R. Tufte on page 118, page 140, and page 146

See all 43 books this book cites

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PHP and MySQL Web Development by Laura Thomson

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Data Warehousing And Business Intelligence For e-Commerce by Alan R. Simon

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Customer Reviews

231 Reviews

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4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

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4.7 out of 5 stars (231 customer reviews)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book looks horrible , December 9, 1999

By	Gregg Terry (Whispering Pines, NC) - See all my reviews

... because it is the first coffee table book that I've ever bought and then proceeded to mark up - underling passages, writing notes, questions etc.

It is a totally unique book on many different levels. A computer book with photographs? I am attracted to bizarre juxtapositions, loved the concept but was confident that the execution would be lacking. I was wrong.

I didn't understand everything (this book has a good deal of code (which I skimmed over)) but at the same time is both quite accessible and an incredible resource for non-programmers. An extraordinary accomplishment.

Greenspun makes a compelling case for what he believes a web site should be and at the same time manages to offer lots of specific, practical advice. His core advice - what to do and the technologies to use - has to be on target. It's what smart people pay lots of money to smart consultants for. Unlike any other book I've read, I got the feeling that I had hired a really smart consultant who was telling me exactly what to do and what not to do.

If all of this were not enough, the book highlights several free services his site offers to other web site owners interested in providing different kinds of collaboration and interactivity. The services run on his monster machine. Cost, zero.

In closing, I'd like to give some examples of his sense of humor.

"CORBA circa 1998 is a lot like an Arizona housing development circa 1950. The architect's model looks great. The model home is comfortable. You'll have water and sewage hookups real soon now".

"Johnny drives to the bookstore and spends $30 on an 'I stole the program and now I need a book on how to use it' book".

"Desktop apps promised to deliver the power of computers to the ordinary citizen; in fact, they delivered the pain of a corporate administration job right into the ordinary citizen's home or office".

One other thing - if you're really technically inclined - he basically gives you a blueprint for making a truckload of money. With that, I'll conclude with one more quote. Just bear in mind that this is from a guy who gives away CPU cycles, gives free seminars, and will let you download this book from his web site.

"Not being a materialist in the U.S. is kind of like not appreciating opera if you live in Milan or art if you live in Paris".

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21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing, November 27, 1999

By	Alex Livesey "alexliv" (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews

This is the best stand alone book on web publishing that I have found. It serves as both a reference and a pretty good cover to cover read, which is rare. The loosely related photographs throughout and the high quality paper make it a good buy. It covers all the bases of putting up a web site including the hardware, programming, hosting, design, etc. (plus an outstanding primer on e-commerce) It provides great references for all its topics on both the web and in print. It has some small but useful tutorials on SQL and HTML which can help you at least get started. The thinly veiled contempt that Mr. Greenspun has for Microsoft and even Macintosh is somewhat off-putting for those of us not quite ready or able to embrace Unix; but he does try to point out the benefits of all major platforms, web servers and databases.He doesn't talk much of the future of web design because I don't think he believes that what defines a quality site will change much when we all have cable modems; he often mentions how most current "advances" in programming and operating systems were actually born in the 60's and 70's. Overall, the book gives a strong sense of being up-to-date,unlike most books about the web which seem dated by the time they are printed. I have yet to see a more useful resource for allowing would-be web publishers to see what they are up against.

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very readable, down-to-earth book on Web Publishing, November 19, 2001

By	P. Hudepohl (Beverwijk, The Netherlands) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Greenspun writes in a very direct, down-to-earth and, at times, self-critical manner. Graphics designers, MBA's, bloated corporate management and packaged Web solutions receive ruthless trashing (but: with good arguments to support the trashing). This book contains both technical information (albeit heavily biased towards AOLServer, TCL and Oracle) and clear explanations of the ideas and design choices.

Note, this is not a book that will teach you fancy HTML tags, really cool SQL queries or powerplay server-side scripting. You should read it for its ideas and then seek additional documentation for implementation specifics.

The book is printed on heavy, glossy paper and is stuffed with Greenspun's photographs (which may be appreciated much more at www.photo.net, a website he started several years ago). The quality of the book's binding is, sadly, quite insufficient. Even with proper care, several pages have fallen out within a few months.

In short: I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is serious about (starting in) Web design and, most importantly, online communities.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars The lessons will last while the technology changes
I thought I knew a lot about building good web sites, until I started reading this book. The author, Philip Greenspun is a professor of Computer Science at MIT and has built over... Read more

Published on October 5, 2005 by Craig Cecil

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Book
Philip Greenspun is the creator of photo.net and a very entertaining author as well. This a great book for beginners to get an overview of web publishing, online communities, and... Read more

Published on February 13, 2004 by Terry Smith

4.0 out of 5 stars Collected (but a bit jumbled) wisdom of a web pundit
This book covers such a wide range of subjects - HTML, web design, SQL, server configuration, e-commerce, accepting credit cards, scalability, futurology, search engines, choosing... Read more

Published on September 9, 2003 by Frank Carver

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the book to recommend
It's interesting how a lot of readers complain about the book being all about Phil's ego and Arsdigita,(the company he created that is now part of redhat). Read more

Published on November 2, 2002 by Jon T

2.0 out of 5 stars Not bad, but woefully outdated
Let's face it folks, this book was already outdated when it came out in 1999 and today it's even worse. Read more

Published on October 8, 2002 by Ed Macauley

5.0 out of 5 stars Still one of the best books on database backed websites
I first read this book online back several years ago and the knowledge I gained helped me immensely in my professional career in enterprise database sites. Read more

Published on July 30, 2002 by James A. Ross

5.0 out of 5 stars An opinionated book, and great fun
I came across a reference to this book while searching on the Internet for information on web design. I was looking for help with HTML. Read more

Published on June 16, 2002 by Marco Polo

5.0 out of 5 stars Stop what you are doing, and buy this book!
Do you remember the first time you used google? Didn't you want to run around and tell everyone about it, yet at the same time want to keep the secret of this gem to yourself... Read more

Published on March 20, 2002 by David Boeke

2.0 out of 5 stars Amusing, but sadly dated
Greenspun writes well. He gives a good, clear explanation of web development and e-commerce. And the jokes are often funny. Read more

Published on November 28, 2001

1.0 out of 5 stars Very insightful but not a "how to" book
What our follow reader Matt Dougherty said in his review is basically very accurate, with the exception that I am leaning more towards seeing Mr. Read more

Published on September 6, 2001 by Goksan

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