Web Standards Programmer's Reference : HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, Python, and PHP

Book Description

This invaluable resource offers tutorials and real-world examples as well as thorough language references for Web markup languages (HTML/XHTML and CSS), and popular scripting languages (JavaScript, Perl, and PHP)
Examines the role of JavaScript, CGI (with examples in Perl and Python), and PHP on the Web and shows how to best use them all
Includes a valuable reference section on each technology that can be used for review and consultation

Customer Reviews:

Great beginners reference book for beginners!!.......2007-05-25

This is a great reference book for beginners... I myself am a seasoned systems analyst and already had books that covered most of the basic topics discussed in this book. There were no real world examples and nothing about the pitfalls of using web standards before they are even supported by popular browsers. Like I said at first, it is a really great reference book; and if you need one to get started, this is it! You will still need a book dealing with the methodology variations in coding.

Web standards?.......2006-08-08

This is a good book to refresh yourself on the syntax of each language, but don't try to learn web standards from this book! It spends about 10 pages in the HTML language section talking about how wonderful tables are when used to control the layout of your entire site. Anyone with any experience in HTML knows that this is a very bad idea. The Perl section had a few things wrong in the code as well. Overall, I was not impressed with this book. I probably could have gotten better tutorials for free on the internet.

replaces 6 books [one for each language].......2005-08-09

How the Web has grown! In doing so, and aiding its growth, has been the use and development of several languages. Naturally, Schafer starts with the language that birthed the Web - HTML. Actually this needs its dual ("twin") on a server, http. But Schafer discusses http in a later chapter devoted to CGI.

Hopefully, you should be able to appreciate that HTML is simple. In fact, of all that the book discusses, HTML is the simplest language. Several initial chapters walk you through HTML. It must be stressed that mastery of HTML is needed to make sense of the rest of the book.

The later languages either extend the scope of an HTML file, or they generate the file, roughly speaking. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) lets you easily factor out common definitions that are used across multiple web pages, where you can imagine that each web page corresponds to a file storing it. Schafer explains how to use CSS to simplify management of a set of HTML files. A centralised way to set common fonts and the like. More robust.

But HTML is a declarative language. Good, because laymen can more easily understand and write such languages. It's easier to say what should be done, than how to do it. But for the times when you need more expressive power on the browser, Schafer offers JavaScript. A procedural language that actually has nothing to do with Java. [The coincidence in names was a marketing ploy.]

Schafer does not ignore the server. CGI is given, as the first generation attempt at server side code. Its limitations spawned the use of Perl, PHP and Python for easier parsing of user input and generation of new dynamic pages.

Each of these languages (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Perl, PHP and Python) is often the subject of its own book. No surprise then that Schafer explaining all 6 gave us a book of this length!

Average customer rating:

Great coverage with some typos
Good Coverage of Python XML possibilities
Terse, and too many typos!

Python & XML
Christopher Jones , Fred Drake , and Christopher A. Jones
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0596001282

Book Description

If you are a Python programmer who wants to incorporate XML into your skill set, this is the book for you. Python has attracted a wide variety of developers, who use it either as glue to connect critical programming tasks together, or as a complete cross-platform application development language. Yet, because it is object-oriented and has powerful text manipulation abilities, Python is an ideal language for manipulating XML. Python & XML gives you a solid foundation for using these two languages together. Loaded with practical examples, this new volume highlights common application tasks, so that you can learn by doing. The book starts with the basics then quickly progresses to complex topics, like transforming XML with XSLT, querying XML with XPath, and working with XML dialects and validation. It also explores the more advanced issues: using Python with SOAP and distributed web services, and using Python to create scalable streams between distributed applications (like databases and web servers). The book provides effective practical applications, while referencing many of the tools involved in XML processing and Python, and highlights cross-platform issues along with tasks relevant to enterprise computing. You will find ample coverage of XML flow analysis and details on ways in which you can transport XML through your network. Whether you are using Python as an application language, or as an administrative or middleware scripting language, you are sure to benefit from this book. If you want to use Python to manipulate XML, this is your guide.

Customer Reviews:

Great coverage with some typos.......2002-03-01

This book really dvelves into the using XML with Python. The
chapter are well laid out and easy to read. There are some typos
but nothing that you can't fix. There are some problems using the current XSLT processer that ships with PyXml0.7 but you can
still apply the concepts (I used MSXML's XSLT). The best chapter (last one (:-|) ties all the concepts explained into a Web Service like app. that really shows the real strength of XML

Good Coverage of Python XML possibilities.......2002-01-31

I really liked this book because I was able to quickly start using XML with Python. I tried to use the package docs, but they were often hard to read, and didn't fill me in on the background stuff I needed to know. The examples in this book were easy to understand, and easy to see how to make practical applications from them. I didn't encounter any typos like the other reader did.

Terse, and too many typos!.......2002-01-15

I'm not very far along in the book, but I don't like what I'm seeing.
The preface purports that the book's audience need not "know anything
about XML." There is very little in the way of explaining XML, however.
The chapter on "Fundamentals" is O'Reilly at its most terse. If you already
understand XML very well, you might think this chapter an excellent
itemizing of the specification. Sadly, most people, I imagine, would be able
to retain little from this.

Regarding the code examples, the explanations hardly illuminate the API.
The code stands as is; and the commentary does only a somewhat decent job
of explaining the larger context. You could always check the documentation
given in the back of the book, but that's hardly as helpful as a good overview
and commentary.

Moreover, and in some ways worse, I have found many typos -- and I am only
as far as the first two examples. These mistakes include missing import
statements, errant capitalization, bad indentation, double underscores ('__')
written as one long underscore. This is unacceptable. I can only hope it is just
this one chapter.

Amazon.co.uk

Aimed at experienced programmers, Processing with Perl, Python, and PHP is a guide to processing XML with popular scripting languages. The author is a strong advocate of script, as opposed to C++ or Java, on the grounds of speed of development, ease of use, and cross-platform support. With explanations and examples, he shows how to parse XML using Perl, Python, or PHP and offers brief notes on other scripting languages. To make sense of the book, readers need to be already familiar with the script language of their choice, and to a lesser extent with XML itself.

The opening chapters offer a brief introduction to XML and DTD (Document Type Definition) files and explain the basic concepts of parsing XML using event-driven or tree-based APIs. Next comes a long section on XML and Perl, covering the XML::Parser module, Perl and Unicode, generating and converting XML, and using SOAP or XML-RPC. A parallel section shows how the same things can be achieved with XML and Python, and there's a further chapter on Zope, the Python application server. PHP has a shorter section, focusing on XML parsing, working with RSS (Rich Site Summary) XML documents, and XML-RPC. The last part of the book offers a chapter each on four other scripting languages: REBOL, Ruby, Tcl, and AppleScript.

The snag with this book is that few developers work with all these languages, and covering so many limits the detail on any one. Even so, it is interesting to compare the differences between the various approaches, particularly between Perl and Python, which are the author's main area of expertise. There are also helpful insights on how to convert XML to and from database formats. --Tim Anderson, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

-The only book that focuses on the usage of XML with the most popular scripting languages, including Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby, Rebol, TCL, and Mac OS X's AppleScript.
-Complete coverage of the core XML processing issues, including the basics of parsing XML documents, converting XML to and from different formats and translating objects for use with databases.
-This book goes beyond the basics into advanced topics, such as using the SAX API for Perl, and using SOAP and XML-RPC to share XML formatted information over a network connection.

Customer Reviews:

Okay book, but are you using all these languages?.......2002-06-21

This book is okay, but is your development team really using all these languages? If you need to learn XML with a certain technology, get Professional PHP4 XML or Manning's new Java and XML book and many others. Not only do these books cover the same material as this one, they cover some really advanced topics such as architecture and design issues as well as giving you heads up on the latest versions such as php 4.3.0. This book also doesn't nearly tell you about all the potential problems that you can have with working with PHP where Professional PHP4 XML will answer just about every question you ever had plus everything else you didn't think of.

A must have book.......2002-03-08

XML is not so difficult, but when coping with Perl or PHP, you need something to tell you exactly HOW to do that. Add to this Python, a very well written book, and you get Martin C. Brown's book.
I think that if you're really serious into programming XML with Python and Perl, you absolutely must have this book.

Average customer rating:

heavy reading
Good reference
Good reference for a wide range of Open Source technologies
Excellent book for developing real-world linux solutions
Not for the Kernel Hack

Professional Linux Programming
Neil Matthew and Richard Stones , Brad Clements , Andrew Froggatt , David J. Goodger , Ivan Griffin , Jeff Licquia , Ronald van Loon , Harish Rawat , Udaya Ranawake , Marius Sundbakken , Deepak Thomas , Stephen J. Turnbull , David Woodhouse , Richard Stones , and Christopher Browne
Manufacturer: Peer Information Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1861003013

Amazon.com

By tapping the strengths of the open-source movement, developers can write custom Linux software without spending a dime on licensing fees. Aimed at the experienced C/C++ programmer, Professional Linux Programming provides a wide-ranging and hands-on guide to the different pieces of the puzzle that are required to program successfully on this exciting new platform.

The book is framed as a case study for building a custom database program in Linux for a video rental store. After a tour of the requirements and a brief look at project management for creating this software, the various Linux packages that are needed to implement this system are described, along with sample code, most of which is written in C. Some packages, such as the CVS version-control package, come with most distributions of Linux; others will require downloading additional software over the Internet. In every case, you're provided with the actual command-line arguments that are needed to install, configure, and run each package.

Besides a great exploration of CVS for version control, this title offers excellent coverage of the free PostgreSQL and MySQL databases, which are two very popular choices for Linux databases. The book also does a good job of explaining UI design under both the GTK+/GNOME and KDE (two popular Linux desktops), and how to extend the reach of the sample database application by using Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) and CORBA. Of course, the finished application doesn't use every Linux API that's covered here, but the book does cast a wide net, and introduces features and tools that are available.

Two prominent chapters take you on a tour of the essentials of other programming languages. There's PHP for Web development and an appealing, enthusiastic introduction to Python (which probably will turn you into a Python convert). Later chapters provide practical tips for testing and debugging applications, including how to profile your code. The book closes with a useful guide to creating Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) packages for deploying applications, as well as an overview of your options for internationalization.

By covering so many APIs, languages, and tools effectively, Professional Linux Programming gives experienced C/C++ programmers all that they need to get started with Linux development. With its remarkably clear presentation style and abundance of practical tips, the book is an admirably useful blueprint for building custom software. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered:

Introduction to open-source software and Linux requirements
Use cases and sample C objects for sample video rental store
Version control and CVS (command-line options, revisions, branches, and multiuser version control)
Open-source freeware packages compared (mSQL, MySQL, and PostgreSQL)
Introduction to databases
Installing and using PostgreSQL
Tutorial on psql SQL
PostgreSQL C database APIs using libcq and embedded SQL calls with ECPG
Installing and using MySQL (command-line utilities and C database APIs)
Debugging with gdb
Introduction and tutorial to UI programming with glib
GTK+ and GNOME
Source trees and GNOME
UI design with Glade
Testing strategies (including regression testing, profiling, and memory bounds checking)
KDE/Qt UI programming
Introduction and quick tutorial to Python (keywords and basic syntax)
PHP for Web programming
Introduction to Remote Procedure Calls (RPCs) and CORBA
XML basics (document structure, parsing, and libxml)
Strategies for documentation (including custom man pages)
Distributing Linux applications with Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) packages
Code patches

Book Description

As Linux increases its presence throughout the world as a target platform for professional application development, its growth as a powerful, flexible system offering many free development tools assures its place in the future. By giving you easy access to this comprehensive range of tools, supporting new and nascent technologies, at little or no cost, developing with Linux allows you to apply the solution that's right for you.

In this follow-up to the best-selling Beginning Linux Programming, you will learn from the authors' real-world knowledge and experience of developing software for Linux; you'll be taken through the development of a sample 'DVD Store' application, with 'theme' chapters addressing different aspects of its implementation. Meanwhile, individual 'take-a-break' chapters cover important topics that go beyond the bounds of the central theme. All focus on the practical aspects of programming, showing how crucial it is to choose the right tools for the job, use them as they should be used, and get things right first time.

Who is this book for?

Experienced Linux programmers and aspiring developers alike will find a great deal of practical information in this book on libraries, techniques, tools and applications. You should be familiar with a simple Linux system, have a good working knowledge of programming in C, and a basic understanding of object-oriented programming with C++ for the Qt/KDE chapters.

What does this book cover?

Data storage in Linux - including coverage of PostgreSQL, MySQL and XML

Implementation of Linux GUIs - covering both KDE and GNOME

Web-based interfaces - using the PHP module for Apache

Python - including extending and embedding the language

Using RPC and CORBA to construct distributed object-based applications

Versioning (with CVS), documentation, internationalization and project distribution

Distributed hardware solutions such as diskless Linux and Beowulf clustering

Customer Reviews:

heavy reading.......2002-04-16

The biggest problem I have with this book is its weight. It's just too big and clunky to hold up to read. Splitting into two bindings would have been nice. But it does cover a lot and it needs to be large to do so.

Good reference.......2001-09-08

I bought the Beginners Guide to Linux Programming and I really liked that book. This book is a very good follow-up, but it doesn't give the reader more programming tips.
It covers many topics which makes this book a great reference for anyone who deals with Linux and even other flavors of Unix on a day to day basic. Buy this book if you are looking for a reference book on developing software on Linux that covers advanced topics.

Good reference for a wide range of Open Source technologies.......2001-01-02

This book is a follow-up to Beginning Linux Programming, but with a wider range of authors. The book is a series of chapters on various tools and applications, all of them Open Source, based mainly round things that application developers might use, though there is a single chapter on device drivers.

Most topics only get a single chapter, so there isn't as much depth as you would find in a dedicated book on each topic, but there is a very wide range of material all covered in enough depth to get the more experienced programmer started with a new topic. There are one or two weaker areas, but overall a good choice of material succinctly presented for the more experienced application developer. I've given it 5 stars as it was exactly what I was looking for - a single reference to help me create a Linux-based web database application, your mileage may vary. I recommend you at least consider it.

Excellent book for developing real-world linux solutions.......2000-12-30

This book is the sequel to the excellent' Beginning Linux Programming'. It isn't a book for kernel hackers, and it doesn't pretend to be. (There is a book being written by kernel developers called' Professional Linux Kernel Programming' - make sure that you order the correct one!). Instead, this heavyweight book is a very useful guide for those wishing to develop real world applications. It covers the tools used for developing serious web applications, such as the databases MySQL and PostgreSQL, and the excellent PHP language. When it comes to desktop and client server you are spoilt for choice - just about everything is covered. It is especially nice to see Python content - one of the areas missing from their first book as Python is very easy to learn and both powerful and flexible. If anything else was covered I'm not sure how the publishers would bind it! The level of detail is such that the reader will be able to achieve useful results based on the book alone, and any further detail is usually available as part of the documentation supplied when installing the software tools. Single subject books often just duplicate this, and quickly become dated. Where there are references to other books, it is nice to see that it is not just Wrox books which are recommended. The book is written in a style which is both readable and serves as a useful reference work, spending more time next to my computer than it does collecting dust on a shelf. I'd have no hesitation recommending this book to anyone wishing to develop Linux solutions for today and for the future - throw away those VB books now!

Not for the Kernel Hack.......2000-12-18

If you are looking for information on hacking the Linux Kernel then this book is not for you. Also it shows a total bias towards GTK/GNOME and PostgreSQL. There are places in the text which shows a complete lack of understanding of the subject under discussion. Information concerning MySQL is at best inaccurate and totally misleading. The treatment of KDE and Qt is very scant. Overall this book falls very short of expectations. It trys to be all things to men but ends up being nothing. Very disappointing indeed

XML Processing with Python (with CD-ROM)

Average customer rating:

What's this about?
Too basic, too much irrelevant material
expensive and still loaded with typos and other errors
Some good info, but misses the mark
Disappointing

XML Processing with Python (with CD-ROM)
Sean McGrath
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall PTR
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: CD-ROM

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Python & XML

ASIN: 0130211192

Customer Reviews:

What's this about?.......2003-09-08

I haven't clue what this book is about and how it relates to real life problem solving. I use SAX2 and DOM parsers daily and they are an integral part of my software projects. I fond this book to be a total waste of time and money and I would not, could not recommend it. The O'Reilly Book on the other hand it a gem

Too basic, too much irrelevant material.......2001-06-09

There are some useful nuggets in this book, but there is also a lot of material that doesn't directly relate to processing XML. The author spends an inordinate amount of space discussing things like AWK, filename globbing on Windows, installing software, and other irrelevant items. The software tools used as examples in the book were written for earlier versions of Python and the Python XML libraries; they do not work with the current releases of Python and PyXML, and no updates are available on the author's web site.

expensive and still loaded with typos and other errors.......2001-05-29

This book proves that a good publisher makes a difference, and that prentice hall does not qualify. I've never seen a computer book that contains so many errors. Combined with the hideous layout of the goldfarb series, this should be enough to keep you far away from it. BTW: i've added a second star, because valuable stuff is hidden in it; you just have to work too hard to get there.

If you're new to python, buy learning python and programming python instead. if you want to apply xml with python, use the web to learn more. Only buy this book if it's *deeply* discounted, or if you're looking for job as a book editor. Otherwise, you'll end up rewarding incompetent publishing.

Some good info, but misses the mark.......2001-05-12

Modern XML programmers should be using the SAX and DOM api's for their projects, and the related standards. Those subjects should have been the foundation for this book.

Instead the author spends lots of time talking about some "pyxie" utility that reforms XML into some intermediate line oriented ascii format for processing. He even does system calls to assist in processing. If SAX and DOM didn't exist, then yes, I suppose this is how you'd do it. This would be OK for 10% of the book, as an introduction, but not as the primary tool.

To be fair, he does talk about SAX and DOM in a couple chapters. The coverage was light and the examples weren't great.

And no discussion of XSLT or XPath? Nor of schemas? To be fair the copyright says 2000, so this may have been written in 1999, so some of those items were not around or popular back then. But if the book is updated, these would need to be added.

I think readers might do better to grab one of the Java books for now, and try to translate to Python in their head I guess. I agree with one of the other reviewers that there's a bit of filler in the book, though not as bad as some other books.

On the plus side the author is very polite and supportive and would be comforting to newer programmers.

I also like the way he keeps extending his xgrep project to have more and more features; it is nice to see an author show a large project evolving (I just kept wishing it was using DOM).

Disappointing.......2000-11-09

Very little coverage of processing XML documents using Python - plenty of discussion of Python generally, how to use C language utilities to parse XML, how to use awk to modify the output of the C language tools, etc. The book uses a large typeface and includes examples for both Linux and Windows NT screen input/output (which turn out to be nearly identical), so there's not nearly as much content as you might imagine from the page count. I'm relatively new to XML and Python and I spotted two errors in the examples within the first 100 pages. There are two appendices which sound like they're supposed to explain Python to Java and Perl programmers but turn out to be feature comparisons. That's great fodder for flamewars about language superiority, but not a big help for people with experience in other languages seeking a Python jump-start. People who shell out $() for a book on XML and Python don't need a sales pitch about why XML and Python are good choices.

I think this book could have been saved with some help from a good editor; unfortunately, that wasn't done. I can't comment on the CD as I haven't opened its envelope, as this book is being returned as totally unsatisfactory, which I don't do very often.

Average customer rating:
Xml and Python: Web Development on the Edge
Ogbuji
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Internet | Home Computing | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books | Internet & Education | Online Searching | Web Browsers | Web for Kids
ASIN: 0764547798

Average customer rating:
Xml Processing with Python
Sean, McGrath
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall Ptr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OHUHV6

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