reviews/web_design_in_a_nutshell.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page title="Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd ed" keywords="">
<item>
<p>Author: Jennifer Niederst</p>
<p>ISBN: <isbn>0-596-00196-7</isbn></p>
<p>Publisher: O'Reilly</p>
<p>Reviewed by: Earle Martin</p>
</item><item>
<p>There seem to be two schools of thought when it comes to designing web
pages. The first school is the Bells and Whistles school, beloved of
graduates of design courses, and frequently involves intricate custom
interfaces, Flash widgets and other chrome. The second school is the Do It
Right school, also known as the Church of Nielsen. Alumni of this school
want usability, usability, usability. Their sites often sacrifice sheen for
functionality.
</p>
<p>It is, of course, beyond the scope of this review to debate the merits of
these two methods. However, it provides me with an easy way into the subject
of the book being reviewed, as I've noticed that advocates of the second
method are often self-taught, possibly having come from some sort of
hackerly background already. So, if you want to get into designing
websites, but have no previous experience in doing it, is <em>Web Design</em> the
book for you?
</p>
<p>In a word, no. Due to the way it's arranged, this book is definitely not
the beginner's guide you're looking for. Due to the way that t he large
amount of information within is presented, a neophyte would likely find it
overwhelming. More specifically, the organisation of chapters in the book is
a little muddled.
</p>
<p>As an example of this happening we can take media-specific stylesheets,
dissected in Chapter 5, "Printing from the Web". This is a useful topic, but
misplaced, because the introduction to stylesheets and analysis of the general
principles of their usage aren't given until Chapter 17. That said, when it
finally arrives, the CSS chapter has a good breakdown of CSS properties, and an
appendix to the book contains a large and detailed reference table of the
various main browsers' support for each of them (taken from Meyer's <em>CSS
Pocket Reference</em>, also published by O'Reilly).
</p>
<p>Illustrations are copious and excellently clear. The comparison of how the
main browsers render items such as form elements is a superb feature and
certain to be of much use to those whose job it is to produce precious
layouts. However, the figures are occasionally marred by careless
typographical mistakes, such as in the demonstration of DHTML z-index
positioning which is quite broken, and would lead to no small frustration on
the part of anyone trying to learn from it.
</p>
<p>I also have a small quibble with the author's explanation of relative
pathnames. Although her explanation is absolutely valid, the example that she
gives ('&lt;A HREF="/users/jen/pers/art.html"&gt;') could lead to
confusion, as it uses a UN*X-esque directory structure. In a Web context, the
root directory of a site isn't going to be the same as the root directory of
the server that it's running on (at least, one would hope not). Of course, this
book is about web design rather than webserver configuration, but this still
grated with me.
</p>
<p>The book contains an outstanding comparison of the features of different
browsers, including screenshot comparisons of the way different browsers
display things such as form elements. There are also three very welcome
chapters analysing the JPEG, GIF and PNG image formats and the issues
associated with using them on the Web, such as palettes, dithering and file
sizes, all topics which require a lot of knowledge in order to be employed
effectively on a website.
</p>
<p>I was a little disappointed - although not particularly surprised - to see
that there was no coverage of the <link> relations (such as "next",
"contents" and "glossary") beyond their being briefly mentioned, which is a
shame, since web pages are generally lacking in metadata. It does, however,
have a concise introduction to XML, a decent explanation of XHTML and even a
mention of RDF. Other chapters include a detailed breakdown of the different
formats of streaming audio and video, basic usage of JavaScript, Flash and
Shockwave, SMIL, and even WAP and WML.
</p>
<p>To my somewhat greater disappointment, in the inevitable brief section
covering CGI, most of it is spent analysing usage of Matt Wright's notorious
<em>formmail</em> script, and a strong recommendation is given of his Script
Archive. As members of this community know well, the code quality of
Wright's scripts is dubious, and the long source code chunk of <em>formmail</em>
reprinted in the book will surely only be cause for confusion. If pre-rolled
scripts are to be suggested, then a resource such as the
<a href="http://nms-cgi.sf.net/">nms</a> scripts,
which have been thoroughly vetted for quality, would be a much better choice.
</p>
<p>Where <em>Web Design</em> really shines is as a reference work. The appendices are
copious and contain information - such as tables of browser-specific tags,
deprecated tags, character entities, tag attributes and the aforementioned
magnificent CSS support charts - that many HTML coders had to spend years
painstakingly cramming into their skulls. Whilst this is undoubtedly
laudable, having information like this in a neat and handy form will make
your life much, much easier. (I speak from personal experience.)
</p>
<p>Talking of learning, that brings me back to the point on which I began this
review. Does the book take a stand on the issue of style versus usability?
The answer is that it doesn't. The author takes an admirably non-partisan
stance on things, choosing instead to offer lists of the pros and cons of
such issues as framesets or Flash, leaving the reader to make their own
choice. The end result is that the writing is sane, but not strident, and
this is to be welcomed.
</p>
<p>In summary, <em>Web Design in a Nutshell</em> is, barring a few small flaws,
excellent. Hopefully the third edition will recognise and correct these, and
maybe even improve the chapter structure. I would recommend it to anyone
who's already familiar with the basics of building websites. If you're
coming at it completely fresh, there are probably better guides to pick to
ease you into things. However, that said, you might well want to buy this
book as well, as its detail and clarity are sure to make it a cherished
and well-thumbed feature on your bookshelf.
</p>
</item>
</page>
reviews/web_design_in_a_nutshell.xml
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<page title="Web Design in a Nutshell, 2nd ed" keywords="">
<item>
<p>Author: Jennifer Niederst</p>
<p>ISBN: <isbn>0-596-00196-7</isbn></p>
<p>Publisher: O'Reilly</p>
<p>Reviewed by: Earle Martin</p>
</item><item>
<p>There seem to be two schools of thought when it comes to designing web
pages. The first school is the Bells and Whistles school, beloved of
graduates of design courses, and frequently involves intricate custom
interfaces, Flash widgets and other chrome. The second school is the Do It
Right school, also known as the Church of Nielsen. Alumni of this school
want usability, usability, usability. Their sites often sacrifice sheen for
functionality.
</p>
<p>It is, of course, beyond the scope of this review to debate the merits of
these two methods. However, it provides me with an easy way into the subject
of the book being reviewed, as I've noticed that advocates of the second
method are often self-taught, possibly having come from some sort of
hackerly background already. So, if you want to get into designing
websites, but have no previous experience in doing it, is <em>Web Design</em> the
book for you?
</p>
<p>In a word, no. Due to the way it's arranged, this book is definitely not
the beginner's guide you're looking for. Due to the way that t he large
amount of information within is presented, a neophyte would likely find it
overwhelming. More specifically, the organisation of chapters in the book is
a little muddled.
</p>
<p>As an example of this happening we can take media-specific stylesheets,
dissected in Chapter 5, "Printing from the Web". This is a useful topic, but
misplaced, because the introduction to stylesheets and analysis of the general
principles of their usage aren't given until Chapter 17. That said, when it
finally arrives, the CSS chapter has a good breakdown of CSS properties, and an
appendix to the book contains a large and detailed reference table of the
various main browsers' support for each of them (taken from Meyer's <em>CSS
Pocket Reference</em>, also published by O'Reilly).
</p>
<p>Illustrations are copious and excellently clear. The comparison of how the
main browsers render items such as form elements is a superb feature and
certain to be of much use to those whose job it is to produce precious
layouts. However, the figures are occasionally marred by careless
typographical mistakes, such as in the demonstration of DHTML z-index
positioning which is quite broken, and would lead to no small frustration on
the part of anyone trying to learn from it.
</p>
<p>I also have a small quibble with the author's explanation of relative
pathnames. Although her explanation is absolutely valid, the example that she
gives ('&lt;A HREF="/users/jen/pers/art.html"&gt;') could lead to
confusion, as it uses a UN*X-esque directory structure. In a Web context, the
root directory of a site isn't going to be the same as the root directory of
the server that it's running on (at least, one would hope not). Of course, this
book is about web design rather than webserver configuration, but this still
grated with me.
</p>
<p>The book contains an outstanding comparison of the features of different
browsers, including screenshot comparisons of the way different browsers
display things such as form elements. There are also three very welcome
chapters analysing the JPEG, GIF and PNG image formats and the issues
associated with using them on the Web, such as palettes, dithering and file
sizes, all topics which require a lot of knowledge in order to be employed
effectively on a website.
</p>
<p>I was a little disappointed - although not particularly surprised - to see
that there was no coverage of the <link> relations (such as "next",
"contents" and "glossary") beyond their being briefly mentioned, which is a
shame, since web pages are generally lacking in metadata. It does, however,
have a concise introduction to XML, a decent explanation of XHTML and even a
mention of RDF. Other chapters include a detailed breakdown of the different
formats of streaming audio and video, basic usage of JavaScript, Flash and
Shockwave, SMIL, and even WAP and WML.
</p>
<p>To my somewhat greater disappointment, in the inevitable brief section
covering CGI, most of it is spent analysing usage of Matt Wright's notorious
<em>formmail</em> script, and a strong recommendation is given of his Script
Archive. As members of this community know well, the code quality of
Wright's scripts is dubious, and the long source code chunk of <em>formmail</em>
reprinted in the book will surely only be cause for confusion. If pre-rolled
scripts are to be suggested, then a resource such as the
<a href="http://nms-cgi.sf.net/">nms</a> scripts,
which have been thoroughly vetted for quality, would be a much better choice.
</p>
<p>Where <em>Web Design</em> really shines is as a reference work. The appendices are
copious and contain information - such as tables of browser-specific tags,
deprecated tags, character entities, tag attributes and the aforementioned
magnificent CSS support charts - that many HTML coders had to spend years
painstakingly cramming into their skulls. Whilst this is undoubtedly
laudable, having information like this in a neat and handy form will make
your life much, much easier. (I speak from personal experience.)
</p>
<p>Talking of learning, that brings me back to the point on which I began this
review. Does the book take a stand on the issue of style versus usability?
The answer is that it doesn't. The author takes an admirably non-partisan
stance on things, choosing instead to offer lists of the pros and cons of
such issues as framesets or Flash, leaving the reader to make their own
choice. The end result is that the writing is sane, but not strident, and
this is to be welcomed.
</p>
<p>In summary, <em>Web Design in a Nutshell</em> is, barring a few small flaws,
excellent. Hopefully the third edition will recognise and correct these, and
maybe even improve the chapter structure. I would recommend it to anyone
who's already familiar with the basics of building websites. If you're
coming at it completely fresh, there are probably better guides to pick to
ease you into things. However, that said, you might well want to buy this
book as well, as its detail and clarity are sure to make it a cherished
and well-thumbed feature on your bookshelf.
</p>
</item>
</page>