Rating: 
Summary: Scientific approach
Review: This book gives a very thorough introduction to the Mozilla platform. Some familiarity with XML, CSS and especially javascript and programming in general is certainly useful.
It takes a little time to get used to McFarlane's style, and the structure of the book. If you're in a hurry you might be better of with the O'Reilly Mozilla book.
This book looks quite thorough from a theoretical point of view. It even comprises a small overview of javascript.
Fundamental concepts of the Mozilla platform, like XUL, XBL, RDF, XPCOM and the structure of Mozilla applications, to name just a few, are explained thoroughly and clearly.
If you're serious about Mozilla programming, and have the patience to get a firm grasp of the basics, this is an excellent book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Reference on Mozilla, but not a good tutorial
Review: This book is packed with a great deal of information about the various objects and tags available for development, but not particularly well organized for those who are just trying to learn this platform. As mentioned in a previous review, much of the content dealing with all of the available options and styles would have been more appropriately placed in an appendix, and more detailed code examples should have been provided. The chapter on RDF (which is probably one of the most difficult aspects of Mozilla programming) was poorly done. The author goes into excessive detail of the most fundemental aspects that even a beginning programmer would glaze over then suddenly jumps into this very confusing syntax leaving the reader lost in space. You will need to go to the XUL Planet site for better instruction.
Overall, this book would make a great reference for those already familiar with this platform, but those learning it will have to find supplemental material for good instruction.
Rating: 
Summary: Breaking New Ground: Mozilla Applications
Review: This is one of the most fascinating technical books I've read in some time. This book teaches something you want to know about, if you are a web programmer. Your education is not complete without it. You can definitely handle this, too. Discover why RAD on Mozilla is cool.Nigel McFarlane's book offers an introduction to the vast of the capabilities of the Mozilla browser. Want to build an application? Download and install a copy of Mozilla (it's free), get this book, and start exploring Mozilla's vastly sophisticated application development framework. You don't need deep expertise in Mozilla internals to get applications started. I am working on a project for a client that will emphasize graphics. This book is helping me get started with it, even though I have no deep knowledge of Mozilla's workings. I'm now dabbling with XML User Interface Language (XUL), XML Binding Language (XBL), and Resource Description Framework (RDF), thanks to this book. I'm also getting indirect exposure to Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), MathML, and Chemistry Markup Language (CML), as an unexpected side benefit. The Mozilla.org developers have implemented to some degree these interesting and deeply complex XML-related standards. The book is easy to read. McFarlane is able to take extremely complex material and explain it in a way most people will understand. Go ahead, read the first few of Chapters 1 and 15: they will draw your interest and bring you into the next paragraph and the next. You can pick up this book, read the introductory material, and go right into Mozilla and start working. You will understand what McFarlane is talking about. The writing format should sustain your interest in experimenting and learning more and then going on to do your own applications. I personally appreciate the choice of font, line spacing and font size. It seems easier on bifocal equipped older folks such as me. Each chapter begins with interesting diagrams referred to as "Not Perfectly Accurate (NPA) diagrams". They help you see how the chapter topic fits in to the application class object framework being discussed. There are all the things you come to expect of a good tech book: numerous screenshots, well-laid out tables, plenty of source code to dabble with. The publisher has done an excellent job of laying out and producing the book. There are very few typos compared to those littering many other technical books. This book is going to give programmers using the Mozilla platform for applications a competitive edge. Mozilla, today, is available in many forms and is widely deployed. AOL deploys Mozilla in those stupid tin CD cans, and that gives Mozilla enormous critical mass. You can download Mozilla Firebird and Mozilla Thunderbird right now if you would like lighter-weight browser or email clients, respectively. Mozilla is catching on, and it is getting better every day. I highly recommend that you buy and read this book and then do some apps with Mozilla. McFarlane suggests you visit his web site http://www.nigelmcfarlane.com/ , and it doesn't exist. Some readers might buy a book on the strength of the topic, the book examples, and the author's promise of downloadable source code. It can be disappointing not to see the promised web site and source code. But don't worry, the publisher offers downloadable source code through http://authors.phptr.com/mcfarlane. My other concern is that I wish this book were physically a bit larger in size. I like 8.5 inch X 11 inch page formats for books with a lot of screen shots and tabular data. An overall must-have book.
| 
