Product Description

Put everything you need to know about HTML and XHTML at your fingertips. For nearly a decade, hundreds of thousands of web developers have turned to "HTML and XHTML: The Definitive Guide" to master standards-based web development. Truly a definitive guide, the book combines a unique balance of tutorial material with a comprehensive reference that even the most experienced web professionals keep close at hand. From basic syntax and semantics to guidelines aimed at helping you develop your own distinctive style, this classic is all you need to become fluent in the language of web design. The new sixth edition guides you through every element of HTML and XHTML in detail, explaining how each element works and how it interacts with other elements. You'll also find detailed discussions of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), which is intricately related to web page development. The most all-inclusive, up-to-date book on these languages available, this edition covers HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0, and CSS2, with a preview of the upcoming XHTML2 and CSS3. Other topics include the newer initiatives in XHTML (XForms, XFrames, and modularization) and the essentials of XML for advanced readers. You'll learn how to: Use style sheets to control your document's appearance; Work with programmatically generated HTML; Create tables, both simple and complex; Use frames to coordinate sets of documents; Design and build interactive forms and dynamic documents; Insert images, sound files, video, Java applets, and JavaScript programs; and Create documents that look good on a variety of browsers. The authors apply a natural learning approach that uses straightforward language and plenty of examples. Throughout the book, they offer suggestions for style and composition to help you decide how to best use HTML and XHTML to accomplish a variety of tasks. You'll learn what works and what doesn't, and what makes sense to those who view your web pages and what might be confusing. It is written for anyone who wants to learn the language of the Web - from casual users to the full-time design professionals - this is the single most important book on HTML and XHTML you can own.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #82162 in Books
• Published on: 2006-10-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 678 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
HTML is a familiar FLA (four letter acronym) but what about XHTML? Is it merely a typographical error or simply XML by another name? The readable preface to this book puts us right and there is more detail in Chapter 1 which is also an interesting potted history of the web and web technologies.

HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is for controlling layout and specifying hypertext links for documents viewed with a browser. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) controls its standardisation. XML (Extensible Markup Language), also defined by the W3C, is a standard that allows structured data to be presented in a standard way that it can be understood by many different technologies, for example, relational database engines and web browsers. Use of XML for the exchange of data between businesses on the Internet is increasing rapidly. Now, finally, comes XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language), which is HTML reformulated to bring it into line with the XML standard.

The authors try to instil good habits and style considerations, as well as an appreciation of kumquats (a recurrent theme in the examples). They revile use of the blink tag extension that causes text to oscillate between two colour states and blink, constantly, irritatingly and advocate visiting a wide range of Web sites to learn what works and what doesn't.

The comprehensive coverage of the topic is divided into chapters like Text Basics, Formatted Lists, Forms, Frames and Executable Content. HTML & XHTML: The Definitive Guide is a feature-driven guide to what the languages can do rather than a guide to producing a finished item, but it should help a beginner to make good progress nevertheless, and is written in an approachable style. --Mark Whitehorn

Major Kearny, Book News, Jan 2003
Another essential reference...especially recommended to those wanting to make the transition to XHTML.

Molly Ives Brower, Internet References Services Quarterly, Vol 6, No 1, 2001
A library that circulates this book may soon find itself
charging a lost item fee, because it can become an
indispensable reference in a short period of time.

Customer Reviews

A reference rather than a tutorial
If you need a handy HTML or XHTML reference, then this is the book for you. If you are a complete novice, then you need to read another book, such as 'Learning Web Design' by Jennifer Niederst (yet another O'Reilly book) first.

Did I say this was just a reference? Well, this is untrue. If you have some experience this book cuts nicely through the jargon and dogma and explains how an HTML document is structured, and then describes in detail all the elements (tags) in the structure. The book is organised in such a way that the HTML Quick Reference at the back of the book is cross-referenced to the main text down to the exact page (as is the CSS Quick Reference).

When it comes to the issues about standards and deprecated attributes and tags in the HTML 4.01 standard, Musciano and Kennedy are pragmatic and practical, rather than treating this as some form of religious debate. They are realistic enough to suggest that you should adhere to the standards wherever possible, but be prepared to make concessions where otherwise you would not be able to achieve what you want. There is also some good discussion on browser take up of CSS 1 and CSS 2.1.

The only beef I have is that in Chapter 6, Links and Webs, the explanations of URLs and of TCP/IP port numbers are not as good as they could be. It seems the writers have sacrificed clarity for brevity. Be that as it may, I have found this book invaluable and use it on a daily basis.

Essential Book in a web page designer's tool box
This book couldn't have been more perfect for me. I was on the brink of understanding HTML in depth before buying this book. After reading I am now more fluent and more confident in what I use in my pages. I have a more wide spread knowledge of what I can use in my pages with a better understanding of the standards that uniform the web. I am now creating pages to standards - not to browsers.

This book has given me a very opening and logical insight into XHTML and XML.

A non-patronizing guide to modern html
"HTML and XHTML: the definitive guide" will give you a thorough grounding in creating web pages. XHTML, by the way, is just HTML5 - the more mature version of the whizzy dynamic HTML4.

This book does not patronize - not that it's not "for idiots". It doesn't have cartoons, or annoying icons saying "kule stuff" either.

What it does do is to take you through the process of creating websites - from your first steps through to the deep end of HTML. Each element is detailed with sufficient examples; nothing is glossed over. Particular strengths are

are the trickier areas - its treatment of forms, GET and POST, frames, CSS and tables are very clear.

The book is careful to delineate what it deals with and what it doesn't. Although it touches upon Java, Javascript, Applets and server technology, these tend to be pointers to the reader - saying what the various things do, evaluating the options and pointing you to an O'Reilly book to buy!

"Kule stuff" includes the chapter on XML (should be on your resume!), "tips, tricks and hacks", the tag reference summary and some rather excellent history on the internet and all the various parties that try and work together to make it work. It's a neat book - personally, I'm an XML-type who's having to reverse-engineer my know-how down to HTML and it hits the mark for me!