5 comments about HTML Dog: The Best-Practice Guide to XHTML and CSS.

1. I spent some time really digging into other books in this category (library) with the intention of getting up to speed with modern web coding and best practices. I found this text to be the most useful, both as a learning resource and future reference guide and so, HTML Dog is now on my shelf. Note: The book is meant as a companion to an extensive online archive, and works well in this regard, as the more gimmicky (read: "fad") techniques are best excluded from the printed text.



2. He has nice writing and presentation style.
   The book presents a nice introduction to those looking for a quick information. The quick is actually questionable, since you will have to go to his website and click each link to see output of simple HTML tag illustrations.
   
   It lacks depth on many topics, and having to go to his home page to see the outputs of simple tag illustrations is boring. Books should have the information where I needed it, quickly see the output to know what is going on. If I need an e-book, I will buy one.
   Most of the illustrations only give a real web-site, and not the codes he is trying to illustrate.
   Whether he is got a nice web-site is not really relevant.



3. This book is not a comprehensive encyclopedia of every CSS nuance, but it presents all the main areas in a very clear, but not dumbed-down manner. Basically it answered my three questions:
   1. I wanted to re-write an older web site using CSS and modern HTML web stds, so where do I start?
   2. What is my best approach?
   3. Why would I want to do it that way?
   So along the way it clarified for me how I should use divs for page structure, improve my navigation lists, specify font size in the best manner, and most of all how to use css in a structured way with minimal rewriting of styles etc for subtle changes in page requirements.
   The book is probably most useful if you want to follow his emphasis and use XHTML Strict with CSS.
   Very nicely written, very cleanly laid out. The associated website is useful, but the book stands alone as a very useful reference or starter for someone wanting to design their pages in an effective standards-based way.



4. HTML Dog is an amazing book for those who works with web sites development. Easy to read, easy to use, cheap to buy!



5. A well thought out book, easy to read and understand without knowing HTML or CSS. This is one of those book you cannot trash but only keep in your packet.

5 comments about SAS Programming in the Pharmaceutical Industry.

1. Based on input from someone who just got a job at a large pharma in Southern California, the material in the book is DIRECTLY relevant to programming and reporting in the industry. Future versions could be a bit more detailed, but again, as an overview it is excellent.



2. It is not easy to explain easy things easily, but this author is different. He knows how to say more in few words. I liked this book too much. It is easy to read, easy to understand, and easy to follow. Wish we had more writers like him.



3. Just love the way this book is written! A must for every SAS user working in the Clinical Trials / Pharma industry!!!



4. This is the first time I personally bought a book from Amazon and found it extremly satisfying as far as the pricing, quality and the delivery of the product is concerned.



5. Excellent book.....explains in detail which could be understood very easily by any one with basic knowledge in SAS programming.....highly recommended for those who wants to pursue their SAS programming career in pharma industry

5 comments about Color Confidence: The Digital Photographer's Guide to Color Management (Tim Grey Guides).

1. Digital photographers don't pay enough attention to color management. This book is exactly what is needed to remedy that lack. You'll find all the basics here, and enough in-depth information to start you on the road to calibrating and fine-tuning your digital equipment to accurately reproduce the colors you see.



2. I was really disapointed by the book. I wanted something that would have been closer to the theories and technicals aspects of color profiles. This is mainly a step by step book to follow with specific software (or even hardware) to reach some goal. It is very software and hardware specific - not generic. I learned more about "how color profiles works together" on websites than in the book.



3. A really very useful book that explains a complex subject about as clearly as you could hope for. Covers a great range of topics beyond color management. I highly recommend this book.



4. This is the best book that I have used on this subject. Clear explanations, illustrations, etc.



5. Color Confidence
   Strengths: Screen shots are ok ample size and very reabable. They tie into the tutorials. Good glossary and index are very helpful for searching and finding targeted information.
   
   Weaknesses: Wish there were circles, pointers or some visuals to indicate within the screenshots targeted information.
   
   Intermediate/Advanced
   Introduction
   
   Working with color is the "heart and soul" for creating photos and then making them better.The focus is to get the best color results and this book's emphasis is getting the best color results. Since I have read the author's book previously, I was interested in finding more tips and tricks about color management and it if this book has more ideas then I know. Color Confidence does just that, giving you better insights to working with color for your photos.
   
   The author, Tim Grey, is a renown Photoshop and digital photographer . He is Microsoft's Chief ambassador to professional photographers and presents workshops on digital imaging. This book is the latest version of this book.
   
   The book has 8 chapters, index and glossary. There are not many brilliant photographs because most of the "action" involves working with the software tools and the amply sized screenshots provide the visuals to drive across the main points of the author. . Notes are also "peppered" throughout the fourteen chapters.
   Hands- on guides provide; choosing , calibrating your monitor and scanner; configuring Photoshop color settings, evaluating images and making accurate color adjustments; managing digital camera color with presets and custom profiles; working with color-adjusted and black-and-white images; learning how to build custom printer profiles or generic ones; preparing/adjusting images for print; evaluating prints against standard targets; problem solving out when prints don't match; producing accurate color images for the web, e-mail or digital slideshows, becoming familiar with process-specific workflows: (scan to print, digital capture to print, CMYK output etc.) The Glossary is well done and the and the index has very specific oriented to target, search and fine targeted discussion, hands-on work and more.
   
   Appendix has a sample workflow checklist which makes sense. I like that the chapters for target objectives are included here (but I would have been even better if the pages were listed). Finally the index is well done.
   
   Conclusions
   
   This book is not for beginners. It is a fine one for intermediate and advanced photographers. Beginners may find it however useful once they upgrade their skills, learning about photoshop and with other graphic editors and and practicing the working with photos.
   
   I would have liked to have seen arrows or pointer to the parts of the histogram that the instructions "talk about." With some other of the author's books ,there has been too much " verbiage" and all the words make your "head swim". However in this book, while there are a lot of words, the information is tightly focused regarding the tasks and tutorials so it is an easier reading. Screenshots tie into the tutorials and make for a good reading regarding color management. I'd recommend

5 comments about Sun Certified Web Component Developer Study Guide (Exams 310-081 & 310-082) (Oracle Press).

1. I got this book partially because I prefer more of a textbook format than the Head First books. This book's format was more straightforward, so I got it along with the Head First Servlets and JSP. However, I have found a lot of errors, inconsistencies and confusing explanations in this book. Some of the errors are minor, but others really cause fundamental confusion. I'm searching for an errata for the book now. (There may not be one -- I'm not finding it yet.)
   
   Although the Head First books have a comic, cartoonish quality that I don't generally care for, I must say that their editing is better, their explanations are always understandable, and I find myself going to that book to clear up my confusion with this one.
   
   That being said, there is a lot of very good information in this book and some of the explanations and examples are pretty good. You might consider getting both books because they both cover the material in different ways.
   
   I was tempted to give the book four stars, but I've just hit another few errors that are really irritating. (The author is trying to explain the difference between the forward() and include() functions for handling servlet requests. But his code examples mistakenly are showing forward() where apparently he meant to type include(). These examples do not match the explanation at all. See pages 183 and 184.)
   
   Another egregious error: In the Head First Servlets & JSP book, they make a point of saying "You need to recognize WRONG method names like: getPrintWriter(), getResponseStream(), [...]" etc. And there's a big X in a circle on top of these names. Look at the SCWCD book by D. Bridgewater on page 179. Guess what method he uses inside the code example -- getPrintWriter() !!! (Gee, and I was wondering why my code would not compile.) In that SAME code sample, you can see him getting a PrintWriter object and calling the "write" method on it. I was perplexed by this because I saw them using the "println" method in the same situation in the Head First book. Well, apparently there is a difference, even though the code does work. Sierra and Bates in Head First make a point of saying you should use "println" with a PrintWriter and a "write" with a ServletOutputStream. They explain why, of course. I don't know about you, but these sorts of errors are confusing. I'm not even mentioning the multitudes of small typos throughout the book, like: java.servlet.forward.path_info. (servlet is in the javax package, not java.)
   
   In any case, the book might be worth getting, and if you are able to find an errata it would make the book much more usable. If you do not find an errata that covers all of these errors (I've only mentioned a few), then be sure to get some other resource to check this one against so you can understand parts that are erroneous or confusing.



2. I would not recommend this book even though it covers all of exam objectives and has a lot of examples and exercises. The reason is that there are a lot of errors that make this book hard to read. It is very irritating, annoying and time consuming.
   Here are just some of errors I found in the book.
   1. Answer to question 13 on page 88: "...HttpServletRequest.getHeaders() returns all request header names..." It is not correct because the method that returns all request header names is getHeaderNames(). There is no getHeaders() method (with no arguments) in HttpServletRequest class.
   2. Page 82 question 19. Author mistakenly took the code from question 8 so the question 19 and answer to it on page 90 are completely irrelevant.
   3. On page 559 author says that the type for 'items' attribute is java.lang.Array. There is no such class in Java!
   4. Page 637 answer to question 8: "...J to 14 (c:forEach, again)". If you look at question's code on page 625 you can see that correct answer should be: J maps to 'body'.
   
   Number of errors, big and small, is very high in this book. This is the case of unprofessional work both on the part of author & editor.



3. The author probably has great insight into the subject matter;unfortunately, he does not know how to convey his knoeledge to the reader. The practice test questions are ambiguous and full of errors. There was probably minimal editing of questions and answers; as a result, a reader has to correct the errors and then try to fully comprehend the explanations to the practice questions. It is an inefficient way to study and learn. Head First,despite its errata (it has corrections at its website), is a superior product. This textbook is not worth the headaches.



4. After I finished the first chapter self-test, and saw that there were two obvious errors in the answer key (questions 7 and 19), I considered buying another book. I searched for an errata listing for the book online, with no success. I emailed the author and techical editor. To his credit, David Bridgewater replied promptly, but was not much help: he suggested that the publisher probably has it on their website (as of when I emailed him, they did not); and he also sent me corrections to two places in the book, but there are a lot more just two errors in the book.
   
   The technical editor did not reply to my email. This comes as no surprise; perhaps she is embarrased at the poor job she did editing this book. She obviously did not give thorough consideration to the self-tests.
   
   I decided that I did not want to spend the time or money to get a different exam guide, and that 99% of the book was most likely accurate, and the errata are probably easy to spot (even if they are really annoying), so I trudged on.
   
   I regret that decision. I am now at the end of chapter 4, and have spotted a total of five major errors in the self-tests, and at least a dozen minor errors in the self-tests and the text of the chapters. Also annoying is the ambiguous wording in some of the self-test questions; some of the phrases used are open to interpretation, and should be worded to be less ambiguous.
   
   Without knowing how good or bad other SCWCD exam guides are, I'd feel pretty confident in recommending that you should probably go with a different study guide that this one.



5. This book material is actually decent, accurate and complete, but exposed in a very disorganized and confusing way, with a writing style that will put you to sleep in seconds. It also contains some typos, a defect particularly unforgivable in a certification book. For style , organization and overall coolness 'Head First SCWCD' is way ahead of this book, but it does have a drawback: no code examples. Certification book or not, lack of code examples is a mortal sin (of laziness) by the authors. This book does have a few code example (structured as exercises) for the most important sections in each chapter, and a final 'lab' (simple exercise) at the end of each chapter. I like that, but I also have to say that the code examples are sometimes unnecessarily convoluted, and badly structured. Each small example is a single web application. Trust me, you will soon get tired of having to decompress and mess with every single damn war of these examples. How about a single web application organized as an Eclipse project with a ant build file to build it and deploy it instead? So, if you already have enough practice in coding java webapps, and just want to brush up the dusty corners and get used to the nasty, useless, tricky questions that plague certification exams, 'Head First SCWCD' should be your favorite choice.
   But if you like to do a little practice and see the concept you're studying in action, this book would be more appropriate. This book can also be used to actually learn Servlet & JSP, not just to pass the exam.
   Finally, a big plus is having the entire pdf version of the book on the accompanying CD, which also contains a free exam simulator. (All things you don't get with the O'Reilly book).

4 comments about AdvancED DOM Scripting: Dynamic Web Design Techniques (Advanced).

1. This is truly a next generation book for building software on the web. There is nothing like it anywhere else. If you want to add the functionality, scalability, accessibility and the inevitable "bling of web 2.0", then you NEED to buy this book.
   
   Jeff's writing style and tone in this book are perfect. He makes complicated topics simple and intuitive and presents real-world examples you can use today.
   
   Only Caution: Don't buy this if you're a beginner (it's an AdvancED book for a reason). You'll want a good understanding of CSS, Javascript and HTML to get the most out of this book. All professional web software engineers will want this book close by 24/7.



2. The author clearly knows his stuff but I find the book hard to understand. Is it the author or my level of javascript experience? Hard to say. I will say this - you probably want to know javascript very well before getting this book. For those taking learning steps in javascript like myself, this book is far from the next step from Jeremy Keith's books.



3. UPDATE (3-17-08)
   
   I bought this book again because the material is definitely good. I'm really bummed Friends Of Ed let it go to press with all these errors though. I mean, come on--I'm finding errors all over the place! That is a great disservice to Sambells. But I've decided the material is worth wading through the many, many copy editing oversights. I'm crossing my fingers I don't get stuck troubleshooting typos in the code that choke my browser. That could easily waste hours of my time.
   -=-=-
   
   I was pretty excited after I dropped the $50 or so to by this book because the contents are right down my alley. Unfortunately, I could hardly make it out of Chapter 1 for all the typos and editorial oversights. Here are a few as an example:
   
   PG 34 -- "myVarialbe" instead of "myVariable"
   PG 35 -- "when you retrieving" instead of "when you are retrieving"
   PG 36 -- references a function called "initAchors()" that isn't used in the example code for that example. initAnchors() appears in the next example on the next page.
   PG 37 -- number of iterations in loop changes from 3 to 5 from 1st example to 2nd example for no apparent reason - this is confusing and distracts from the point being made.
   PG 37 -- Figure 1-7 shows three objects in diagram instead of the 5 needed (one for each loop)
   
   This is all in just 3 pages!
   
   This is the part of the book I started reading first so I assume the rest of the book is going to be as poorly edited/ proofread. This surprises me as I own over 5 or 6 titles from the Friend Of Ed series and I don't recall ever seeing so much as a typo in any of them.
   
   Overall, I think the book shows promise. But I can't tolerate errors like this in a programming book. They are difficult enough to read already without having to figure out what the message was "supposed" to be.
   
   I'm returning this book to the store. When it reaches a later edition I may give it another go. It needs some serious "debuggin" first though.



4. This is the greatest Modern JavaScript, DOM Scripting, and AJAX book I've ever seen. Having done AJAX since 1999 before the buzzword ever became popular, I can say that a book this exhaustive has never been written before now. It covers everything from the JavaScript's often misunderstood variable scope to the deep interaction with the DOM and everything in between.
   
   This book is an intermediate to advanced book that requires that you have some understanding of our every day web technologies. If you are a web developer, then you are required to know XHTML and JavaScript anyway. This isn't just some surace level "how-to" book. This covers the deep internals of AJAX and will make you an expert.
   
   Feel free to ignore anyone who claims this book contains spelling errors or other things that in no way change the overall structure of the book and that any thinking person can get around. No ant will ever make a sky scraper fall; it's irrelevant. This isn't an English book or a book for novices. It's a practically graduate-level JavaScript/DOM/AJAX book that requires you to be a thinking person to begin with.

1 comments about Creating Web Graphics for Dummies.

1. Book Review for AAUG Communique
   Title: Creating Web Graphics for Dummies
   Authors: Bud Smith & Peter Frazier
   Pages: 312
   Publisher: Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2003
   Price: $24.99
   Web: www.dummies.com
   Phone: 1-800-762-2974
   Pro: The eye-catching yellow covers of the For Dummies books are
   widely acknowledged to maintain a high standard of excellence
   when it comes to their how to books and Creating Web Graphics
   for Dummies is no exception.
   Con:The book's back and forth between the world of Microsoft and Apple's way to create great graphics for the web I found distracting at times.
   Rating: 4.5 Moose
   Reviewer: Penelope Wells

   Graphic design authors, Bud Smith and Peter Frazier recently produced
   Creating Web Graphics For Dummies. The focus of this book is to teach
   both amateurs and semi-pros alike how to create good looking graphics
   for the Web. The importance of minimizing the user's waiting time which
   is less about the means of transmission and more about what's on the
   page is also discussed. The authors don't try to cover everything
   related to Web page design and graphics rather this book is part of Bud
   Smith's other For Dummies books related to this topic, including
   Creating Web Pages; Web Design and Web Usability.

   This book follows a certain progression starting out with an
   introduction to topical and how-to information allowing you to start to
   do web graphics tasks right away in the first section.

   Part II covers specific graphic tools, and devotes a lot of space to
   Window's Paint, Microsoft's Paint Shop Pro followed by Adobe's
   Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

   Part III is a step by step guide on how to get your photos into your
   web site, and, without causing problems for the user. There's also a
   section devoted to the mechanics of compressing photos.

   Part IV, the do's and don'ts of using GIF images in your Web Site and
   how and when to use animated GIFs.

   Part V refers to useful online resources. The authors also include some
   graphic tips for creating a business web site in contrast to a personal
   home page.

   There's a CD-ROM in the back of the book which allows you to try out
   versions of Adobe's Photoshop, Elements and Illustrator, and other
   software geared more for Microsoft and PC users.

   Overall Creating Web Graphics for Dummies is a well-written book and
   serves the student well. However, the authors guide us through many
   tasks with more reference using Microsoft's software programs. For a
   novice in both graphics and the web and one who prefers to focus on
   information and instruction for the Mac at this stage, I found some
   parts of this book confusing and distracting. According to the
   authors Microsoft's user-friendly Paint Shop Pro is now on a par with
   Photoshop Elements leaving the user with more software choices for
   creating eye-catching graphics for your web page.

2 comments about Computer Science: A Structured Programming Approach Using C (3rd Edition).

1. I am a new beginner for learning the C programming, and this is
   our textbook. It's really helpful. I'll recommend it to others.
   BTW, the condition of the book is not so good as what I expected.
   Looks like a used one. That is the only thing I am not so satisfied.



2. If you want to learn C, this book might eventually get you there, but it felt pretty fluffy. 1000+ pages is a little much for such a simple language as C.
   
   I also was floored to see code samples in the book that have syntax errors and don't compile.

5 comments about UNIX Network Programming, Volume 2: Interprocess Communications (2nd Edition) (The Unix Networking Reference Series , Vol 2).

1. This book is a must own for every serious programmer on the unix platform. It provides an insight on various forms of IPC APIs available on the unix platform. It provides coverage of both System V and POSIX standards, there is no match to it as far as IPC is concerned. The Appendices in the end also provide a performance comparison between pipes, FIFOs, posix message queues, System V message queues, doors and Sun RPC. I have not seen another book provide such a wide and deep coverage of this topic. What more - it all comes from the GURU himself!



2. Since anyone considering buying a technical book always needs to know what it covers, here's the table of contents:

   Part 1. Introduction

   1. Introduction

   2. Posix IPC

   3. System V IPC

   Part 2. Message Passing

   4. Pipes and FIFOs

   5. Posix Message Queues

   6. System V Message Queues

   Part 3. Synchronization

   7. Mutexes and Condition Variables

   8. Read-Write Locks

   9. Record Locking

   10. Posix Semaphores

   11. System V Semaphores

   Part 4. Shared Memory

   12. Shared Memory Introduction

   13. Posix Shared Memory

   14. System V Shared Memory

   Part 5. Remote Procedure Calls

   15. Doors

   16. Sun RPC

   Epilogue

   Appendix A. Performance Measurements

   Appendix B. Threads Primer

   Appendix C. Miscellaneous Source Code

   Appendix D. Solutions to Selected Exercises

   Bibliography

   Index

   This is the third and least of Stevens' three books on UNIX programming (he also coauthored a multi-volume work on TCP). It is the not the least because it is necessarily the worst, but because it has the shortest and has the narrowest application domain.

   Having said it is the least, it remains a work of the highest quality in an industry that is notable for the huge quantity of bad books that it produces. The structure of this book will be familiar to readers of his prior two books: the lowest-level building block around which Stevens structures the book is the individual function call. For each call (or minor variations on a single call), he provides the C prototype, and then, in text, explains what the function does, what it's arguments are for, and then provides a small C program that demonstrates it in action (all of the sample programs can also be downloaded from the web). These function-level building blocks are arranged into related sets, each of which is a chapter in the book. Each chapter has a wrapper that explains the basic concepts behind the functions in that chapter, and some review exercises at the end. The chapters in turn build on each other, with the most basic ones at the beginning and the more difficult ones towards the end.

   In spite of the book's many positive qualities, one thing that this book brings to light, however, is that there is a thread-sized hole in Stevens' UNIX writings. "Advanced Programming in the UNIX Environment" had a great deal of information about processes, but nothing about threads. "UNIX Network Programming: Volume 1", discussed multi-threaded socket programs, but didn't go into any depth on threading. This volume, although it discusses thread synchronization, only touches on general threading issues. Thus, the works, taken as a group, go into some of the important issues and uses of threading without giving the reader a solid grounding in the subject. As threading increases in frequency, this deficiency has grown in importance.

   Another difference between this book and its predecessors is that it deals with an area where standards are much weaker than the others; thus, the chapters often have to explain different implementations for accomplishing a task rather than building a basic-to-advanced sequence. This obviously is in no way Stevens' fault, but many readers will find that half the book, which is already the thinnest of Stevens' programming books, is concerned with API's which do not exist on their platform of interest.

   To sum up, while this review clearly shows the reservations I have about this book compared to its predecessors, it must still be stressed that Stevens' is a technical author of the highest level. If you do have a need to understand any of the subjects in this book, you won't find a better teacher from which to learn it, and that is why I am still giving the book five stars.




3. The real power of UNIX or any application for that matter is in interprocess communication. I found early on that to accomplish any large project would require the cooperation of interprocess communication. Now I find that simple administration skills also require knowledge of this interprocess communication.
   
   My first foray into the field was to use semaphores to flag processes to run at the proper time. Later I needed to use pipes for a front-end in communication to SNA. Again I found IPC's could help inform and control processes that were in canned packages and not accessible any other way. The list of useful tools can go on and on. I also had to find the NT equivalent as it became popular.
   
   UNIX is still out there in many forms and if one is to survive in the field an understanding of interprocess communications is imperative.
   
   The Abbreviated Table of Contents:
   Part 1. Introduction
   1. Introduction
   2. POSIX IPC
   3. System V IPC
   Part 2. Message Passing
   4. Pipes and FIFOs
   5. Posix Message Queues
   6. System V Message Queues
   Part 3. Synchronization
   7. Mutexes and Condition Variables
   8. Read-Write Locks
   9. Record Locking
   10. POSIX Semaphores
   11. System V Semaphores
   Part 4. Shared Memory
   12. Shared Memory Introduction
   13. POSIX Shared Memory
   14. System V Shared Memory
   Part 5. Remote Procedure Calls
   15. Doors
   16. Sun RPC
   Epilogue
   Appendix A. Performance Measurements
   Appendix B. Threads Primer
   Appendix C. Miscellaneous Source Code
   Appendix D. Solutions to Selected Exercises
   Bibliography
   Index
   
   One final note is that with systems dispersed globally Remote Procedures Calls are taking precedence in Interprocess communications.



4. I cannot fathom a guess as to how many times the books in this series have saved my in project work over the years. The only drawback with this series is that some publisher should endeavor to keep them up to date. Serious Unix system programmers must have copies of the complete series.



5. Programming UNIX or Linux networks is a piece of cake with these books. You need the set, Vol 1 & 2.
   
   As a professional programmer of 20 years I use the book as a refernce for all my new programs. I have used the books to break into the world of VoIP and audio CODEC network programming.

3 comments about New Perspectives on Creating Web Pages with HTML, XHTML, and XML, Comprehensive, Second Edition (New Perspectives (Paperback Course Technology)).

1. One of the best books on the subject I've encountered in the last thirteen years of working with the internet. The tutorials are excellent - in that they appeared to be well debugged prior to publication. They do an excellent job in preparing a student for any of the four cases found at the end of each section. The only weakness encountered was that there was no comprehensive reference table of tags and associated attributes.



2. What originally attracted me to this text was that the code examples use valid XHTML. Unfortunately, the book is obviously a rewrite of an older book written with 1995-era design and structure approaches. Formatting attributes within the HTML tags have merely been replaced by inline styles, defeating the purpose of having a style sheet in the first place. Not until Tutorial 7 is there an external style sheet. There is even a chapter on how to design a site with tables; i.e., the old school way, and one can sense the author's comfort throughout that chapter. While it's good to be familiar with that approach, since one will run into such sites and have to work with them, to have such a large portion of the text devoted to it seems inappropriate in 2006 (this edition's printing). When HTML elements are employed in a modern fashion, there is some faltering, such as the label tag for an input element being followed by a break tag instead of setting its display property to block in the stylesheet, thus requiring as many break tags as there are labels. And as with many of the Course Technology books, the page numbers restart with each major section: the HTML section ends at HTML 578, then there are some additional cases (HTML ADD 1, HTML ADD 2, etc), then XML ends at XML 224, then there are appendices HTML A1 through HTML J16, then an XML appendix, then Ref 1 through 27 (reference section). At least the index indicates both the HTML and XML sections. One could complete this very thick book and be an expert at creating web sites the way we used to do it in the mid-nineties, the only enhancement being that the sites would be valid. I do think that many of the exercises could be reworked to be quite valuable, and I should mention that much of the instructional text is well done. The book is printed on very thin paper, as are many of the Course textbooks, but there is color throughout. I would not recommend this text to anyone considering adopting it as a class text.



3. This is a typical course technology book with sections that go on forever leaving the students to wonder about what they just created and how could they ever do it on their own. Do your students a favor and skip this book.

5 comments about JavaScript for the World Wide Web, Fifth Edition (Visual QuickStart Guide).

1. Believe it or not, this book is an acutal textbook for a course I am taking in college. I was hoping for a book better than this for a college course.



2. The authors are not very good at explaining things, even relatively simple things such as the prompt() method or the dot syntax. It could be much clearer and they could do it with fewer words. The authors take a rambling tone that doesn't quite give you the information you need. You can't depend on the authors to give you meaningful explanations. You have to experiment and try different things.
   It's possible to learn JavaScript with this book, but it will take much more time than is necessary. In five editions, why couldn't they have improved this book? What are they doing? Other Visual Quickstart Guides are the same way. I hope the Visual Quickstart Guides go out of business and some other company takes over the market share. They've been cavalier toward their customers and don't deserve to be in business much longer.
   Other books like JavaScript: The Definitive Guide by Flanagan, and JavaScript: The Complete Reference by Powell and Schneider are better at explaining the language even though they are considered to be more advanced books.
   The same authors have published JavaScript & AJAX for the Web, which has almost the exact same content only it has a couple of AJAX chapters thrown in. Check out the review by another customer (at this point it is the only review). His critique is very similar to this one.
   On the positive side, the authors manage to get most of the information across and the content is relevant for the majority of users.
   If you choose to buy this book, use it as more of a guide and do not depend on it. Purchase other books to supplement it.



3. This is useful as a reference book or to learn JavaScript. I do not use it often, but when I need it I am very glad to have it on my shelf. Good examples.



4. This book was well packaged for delivery. I like it for the clarity with which the authors present the various lessons.
   
   I hope to derive a lot from it and to add to my skills.
   
   I am still going through it and so far it has been very exciting. Thank you for the good business. A value for the money.



5. It's downloads don't work, and the book requires that they be used.
   the examples will not run as written in the book.
   They do not conform to the w3schools standards.
   it cannot be used outside Microsoft products.
   Like Firefox.