The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group Web Design and Advanced Javascript Major Keary

Web Design: The Complete Reference

Books in the Complete Reference series published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill are of a consistently high quality in respect of content and the way in which information is organised.

Web Design assumes "that readers are fairly fluent in core Web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript and can use basic graphics manipulation tools like Photoshop or Fireworks". It is designed to serve two purposes: as a course text in Web design theory and practice, and as a reference. The book is in five parts:

Foundation: A discussion of Web design principles, including usability, Web technologies, the design process, and site evaluation.

Site Organisation and Navigation: Covers navigation theory and practice, site maps and navigational aids, and site architecture.

Elements of Page Design: This part contains comprehensive and thorough discussions of design issues; the author does not lay down preferred rules, but presents competing arguments and warnings of potential pitfalls. He also addresses the problem of browser vagary, which can frustrate the best of designers.

Technology and Web Design: This part opens with a chapter on "best practices" in respect of browser detection, HTML (with advice to move to XHTML), CSS, XML, Cookies, and client-side programming. Another chapter deals with site delivery and management issues.

Appendixes: A number of appendices contain useful data in tabulated format.

The book does not have a companion CD, but it is supported by a Web site that offers tools and sample code.
A well-written, practical reference that should satisfy the needs of Web designers who want to work at an advanced level. The information is comprehensive and is delivered using a style that neither patronises the reader nor confuses with unnecessarily technical language.

Thomas Powell: Web Design: The Complete Reference 2/e Published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill, 901 pp., RRP $74.95 incl. GST

Instant JavaScript

Instant in this book's title describes its approach, which is to provide the reader with instant information and solutions. The authors present a comprehensive account of how to put JavaScript to work, using a tutorial approach to explain the process.

The book is effectively in two parts. The early chapters deal with those topics that have to be understood in order to use JavaScript at an advanced level. For example, Maths and Numbers explains how to use math functions and manipulate numbers by way of two examples, a standard calculator and a scientific calculator. The example code is well annotated to provide both step-by-step descriptions of the projects and explanations of the principles. Strings and regular expressions, arrays and objects, forms, images, windows and links, date and time, cookies, and other topics are discussed, with annotated code, in separate chapters.

The second part is a useful description of applications built with library modules based on examples in the earlier chapters. Of particular interest is a book catalogue application that uses JavaScript "within an XML document, something that is now possible with Internet Explorer 5 and Netscape 6, to show how JavaScript can be used to work with a document object model that isn't composed of the HTML elements we typically deal with".

There are also some interesting utilities, such as a colour picker, plug-in browser detector, and on-screen keyboard. The amount of illustrative code used in the text progressively diminishes. There are two reasons: it saves space, and repetition. However, the companion CD contains the full source code for each example or project. There are some 125 complete scripts that show how to program a range of applications.

This is a resource that enables the user to find solutions quickly and with the option of studying the relative technical detail of the code. It is well done, and the book is attractively priced.

Advanced JavaScript

For those who need to extend their knowledge of JavaScript there are a number of titles to choose from, such as Chuck Easttom's Advanced JavaScript, which is the big brother of Learn JavaScript by the same author.

The book is designed to carry users through to advanced, professional-level, programming. The pace is brisk; if you are new to scripting languages the author's Learn title is worth examining for its more extensive explanatory material, which is better suited to the needs of novices. Advanced JavaScript focuses on technical detail supported by extensive listings of illustrative code, all of which is contained on a companion CD.

The code is a valuable resource that can be easily modified for one's own programming, but its real purpose is to illustrate concepts and techniques rather than to present readers with a series of how-to tutorials.
The introductory chapters contain useful information that briefly discusses CGI programs; helpers, plug-ins, and Java Applets; and what JavaScript can do. There is a tutorial on writing a JavaScript program and an instructive walk-through of a complete script.

Excellent introductions to "JavaScript fundamentals" and object-oriented programming are included in the introductory part of the book. From there the text progresses to in-depth technical discussions of the topics that users must master in order to make full use of JavaScript's capabilities. This is a thorough coverage intended for users with serious intent; once the reader has passed the introductory chapters there is no hand-holding.

Chuck Easttom: Advanced JavaScript 2/e ISBN 1-55622-852-X Published by Wordware, 703 pp. + CD, RRP $132.95 incl. GST

Reprinted from the November 2002 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia

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