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Publisher:
SamsNet
Author: Rick Darnell
ISBN: 1-57521-299-4
Publication Date: June 97
Retail Price: $49.99
If you've been to one of the large online book stores lately looking for that definitive guide to HTML, then you undoubtedly know just how many books are available that make just that claim. I just got a chance to take a look at HTML 4.0 Unleashed. It was published in June of 1997, but I decided to take a look at it anyway. It is one of those definitive books, and it actually does a pretty decent job of fullfilling that goal. It covers most of the latest Web developments, including:
- HTML 4
- Dynamic HTML
- Cascading Style Sheets
- Netscape Communicator 4
- Internet Explorer 4
- JavaScript Style Sheets
- HTML 3.2 Syntax
- Frames
- Tables
- Forms
- Hyperlinking
- Layers
- Internationalization
- XML
- Image Maps
- Interface and Navigation Design
- CGI
- Java and JavaScript
- ActiveX and VBScript
- Databases
- Web Servers
Understand that this is not a "how-to" book, but rather an encyclopedia of HTML...thankfully is it indexed well (the index takes up 60 pages). Author Rick Darnell makes it easy to make yourself an expert by doing three things:
- He tells you what he's going to explain.
- He explains it.
- He shows you an example of what he's just explained.
As an example, suppose you wanted to know how to hide your JavaScript from Web browsers which can not interpret it. First Rick states the subject:
Hiding Scripts from Incompatible Browsers
Then he explains how to hide your script:
"To prevent an older or noncompatible browser from incorrectly processing your JavaScript code, you must use HTML comment tags correctly."
"To hide your JavaScript, you must nest a set of HTML comment tags inside the <SCRIPT> tags. etc, etc"
HTML 4.0 Unleashed then goes on to show you an example of how to accomplish the task.
Darnell moves from one topic to its logical conclusion, explaining all the moves in between. He doesn't assume you already know it, but doesn't go into unneeded discussions as well.
Included as an appendix is an HTML Quick Reference which lists all the available HTML tags and character entities, as well as an HTML 3.2 Reference Specification.
The book covers many different tools, such as HTML editors, Visual tools, Web servers, utilities and more. That's a good thing, since the accompanying CD-ROM contains many of the tools which are mentioned. Although there are a lot of tools included, many of them are already outdated. Among the tools included are:
- NetObject's Fusion 2 demo
- IE 3
- HotDog
- BBEdit
- HomeSite free
- Cel Assembler
- ActiveX Control Pad
- Web graphics
Also on the CD-ROM are examples and code from the book, as well as the HTML version of two other books, Java 1.1 Unleashed, and Laura Lenay's Web Workshop: ActiveX and VBScript.
Is the book worth your $50? If you're new to HTML, I'd say you are better off finding a "how-to" book such as one of the Laura Lemay series, and if you're an experienced Web developer, you may already know all this stuff anyway. But it does come in very handy to have access to all this stuff in one volume. It'll be there for you to look something up when you need it, and before long you'll find that your copy is a dog-eared, raggedy looking, well-used book. Besides, fifty bucks is pretty cheap for an encyclopedia.
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