Press releases

Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference, Third Edition: A Comprehensive Resource for XHTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript

Press release: January 16, 2007

Sebastopol, CA--Plato had it pegged right in Danny Goodman's case: necessity was truly the mother of invention. When Goodman needed a one-volume reference to XHTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript for his own consulting and development work, he was forced to create one for himself. "After struggling in the early Version 4 browser days with tangled online references and monstrous printed versions of Netscape, Microsoft, and World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) documentation for Dynamic HTML features, I had had enough. My human brain could no longer store the parallels and discrepancies of the hundreds of terms for HTML attributes, styles sheets, and scriptable object models. And no browser maker was about to tell me how compatible a particular feature might be in another browser. It was clearly time to roll my own reference," he recalls.

The task was daunting: "In many cases, even the documentation from browser makers' sites was wrong. I set out not only to compile the date in a single volume, but to test as much as I could in real web page conditions across a wide range of browsers and record my findings for quick lookup later. This book is the most-used volume sitting next to my computer.""

Now in its third edition, Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference is the comprehensive reference for designers of rich Internet applications that need to operate in all modern browsers, including Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, Safari, and Opera. Users can see browser support for the latest standards-based technologies, including CSS Level 3, DOM Level 3, Web Forms 2.0, XMLHttpRequest for Ajax applications, JavaScript 1.7, and many more.

"Web standards and implementations in modern web browsers have evolved significantly since the publication of the second edition. The term 'Ajax' didn't even exist back then. Therefore, it was time to expand coverage to include not only the new terminology that had been added, but also the latest available browsers," notes Goodman.

Goodman points out that interest in richer, more interactive web applications has rejuvenated content developers' explorations of JavaScript, CSS, and DOM. "Now that popular, everyday web sites are using these technologies to improve the visitor experience, it seems like every web site wants to include some of those features in their designs," he says. "Getting these techniques to work across a wide range of modern browsers benefits greatly from a reference that shows what features are implemented in various browser versions. Having reference material for HTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript in a single volume is an incredible timesaver." The new edition:

  • Provides at-a-glance references for the tags, attributes, objects, properties, methods, and events of HTML, XHTML, CSS, DOM, and core JavaScript.
  • Includes handy cross referencing for looking up attributes and all the items that recognize it, including interrelated HTML tags, style properties, and document object model methods, properties, and events.
  • Offers appendices for quickly locating values useful in HTML authoring and scripting.
  • Includes a glossary with quick explanations of some of the new and potentially confusing terminology of DHTML.

Danny Goodman is a veteran author and programming consultant to corporations and top intranet development groups. His expertise in implementing sensible cross-browser, client-side scripting solutions is in high demand and allows him to "get code under my fingernails while solving real-world problems." He's written over 40 books, including bestselling O'Reilly titles such as the first and second editions of "Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference" and "JavaScript & DHTML Cookbook."

Praise for the previous edition:

"If you're working with HTML in any way, shape, or form, this book is an absolute requirement."

--Joel Spolsky, http://www.joelonsoftware.com

"This has been without a doubt the definitive HTML reference book ever since it was first published in 1998...a great value, essentially consisting of four reference books in one. For XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, and DOM. No webworker's bookshelf should be without this weighty tome...it's time to update to the new edition."

--Netsurfer Digest

Background and Market Information: http://del.icio.us/oreillymedia/dhtml

Additional Resources:

Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference, Third Edition Danny Goodman
ISBN: 0-596-52740-3, 1307 pages, $59.99 US, $77.99 CA
order@oreilly.com
1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000

About O’Reilly

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