XHTML

Rating:
Summary: Learning XHTML, and how it fits in with the new standards.
Review: How helpful is the book?
After the browser wars HTML was left with attributes, and elements that aren't even standard. The book explains how this happened, and how XHTML will resolve the situation. Only a fraction of the book is purely XHTML specification information, the rest of the book is helping you get prepared for XML. The book teaches XHTML 1.0, and touches XHTML 1.1.The main focus of the book is diluted when they spend a good portion of the book talking about standards that don't even have a specification (as of the writing of the book), and others that are linked to XML. These include XForms, SMIL, XLink, XML, XSLT, XSL, CSS, script integration, SVG, and many others.
Reference Quality / Speed:
The reference side of this book is low quality in the fact that this book is not in any way a reference book. In order to use this book as a reference you would have to go to chapter 3 and look it up, but don't expect any in depth information on how to work with the attribute, or element. In order to use this reference you have to have a full HTML knowledge (Which if your reading this there is a high chance you already do). The reference is mostly used to tell you what has been taken out and what is left.
What do I need to know to read this book?
In order to read this book a working understanding of HTML 4.0 is helpful. Also when you see X in front of everything you used to hear in web development (or design) don't be afraid because they will explain it.
Beginners: Suggest learning HTML 4.0 then buy this book.
Intermediate: If you need to be prepared for future work.
Advanced: You don't need this book read Inside XML


Rating:
Summary: Taking the transistion down an easier road.
Review: HTML is the underlying code for every web page your see today and XML is fast becoming the best way to produce web pages so why not combine the two and see what happens? That's exactly what the authors of this book have done and the result is a book that makes XHTML understandable and easy to use.

Understand the book is only 400 pages and that is more than enough o make sure you have an in depth coverage of the subject matter. The authors are truly experts in the field and their use of real world examples are proof positive.

Starting with an explanation of how XHTML came to be is only the tip of what this book covers. Then you go onto covering the conversion of HTML documents to XHTML in a step-by-step process.

The authors also cover tools, CSS, XSL, xFroms, scripts, objects, multimedia and finally advanced techniques. The appendixes included with the book give you a very complete listing of XHTML elements and attributes as well as CSS properties, resources and tools.

Finally there is a cd-rom included with ready to use examples and some demo software and tools and web resources. Overall this is the first book I have reviewed on this subject and it may very well be the only one I need.

Rating:
Summary: I'm On My Way
Review: This book explains XHTML and how to convert from HTML very good but it just does not stack up as a reference. Since most people who buy books about web development and design need to use books as reference I would probably not suggest it. If you have a good understanding of HTML and you would like to learn XHTML and it's differences then I would definitely recommend this book. It also has a few chapters on xml and xsl.

Rating:
Summary: Ashmith.com Web Designer Review
Review: This book has good explanations. If you are planning to migrate from HTML to XHTML this is a good choice. Other than migrating, this book offers great working examples in the provided CD. The book covers CSS with XHTML, Intoduction to XML technologies like XForms, Xlink, and XSL. So get this book to be ready for the future. Note : Some chapters are hard to understand. You might have to read again to understand it correctly.

Rating:
Summary: Great for newbies
Review: This book provides a great overview of XHTML, from its origins and relationship to HTML, to adjacent technologies designed to work in conjunction with it. You'll primarily learn (1) how to migrate legacy HTML markup and (2) how to write new XHTML from the ground up. This book does well to cite available software to help you with both the conversion as well as the creation of XHTML. Towards the end of the book, the authors go into application-specific XML vocabularies and technologies designed to transform or style XHTML.

Novices will do great with this approach, but experienced web developers already knowledgeable with XML technologies may find the coverage of XSLT, CSS, etc. redundant with their other readings and/or life experiences. I've been in web dev for 6 years, so I was able to stop reading after Chapter 5. Perhaps this book may be construed as too shallow for the experienced developer. Or, perhaps there really isn't much more to say about XHTML to justify a thicker book. I won't know personally until I read at least one other book on the subject.

If you are new to XHTML -- as well as XML technology in general -- this book is great way to learn about the related technologies quickly.

Rating:
Summary: Great for newbies
Review: This book provides a great overview of XHTML, from its origins and relationship to HTML, to adjacent technologies designed to work in conjunction with it. You'll primarily learn (1) how to migrate legacy HTML markup and (2) how to write new XHTML from the ground up. This book does well to cite available software to help you with both the conversion as well as the creation of XHTML. Towards the end of the book, the authors go into application-specific XML vocabularies and technologies designed to transform or style XHTML.

Novices will do great with this approach, but experienced web developers already knowledgeable with XML technologies may find the coverage of XSLT, CSS, etc. redundant with their other readings and/or life experiences. I've been in web dev for 6 years, so I was able to stop reading after Chapter 5. Perhaps this book may be construed as too shallow for the experienced developer. Or, perhaps there really isn't much more to say about XHTML to justify a thicker book. I won't know personally until I read at least one other book on the subject.

If you are new to XHTML -- as well as XML technology in general -- this book is great way to learn about the related technologies quickly.

Rating:
Summary: Is it an intro, migration guide or reference?
Review: What is XHTML? Is it just another trendy acronym for web developers to toss around? Is it the child of a marriage between Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) and Extensible Markup Language (XML)? Is it worth worrying about?

The authors of XHTML have chosen to answer in a variety of ways. This book takes several approaches to explaining XHTML. They range from a high-level view of "Where did XHTML come from?" to an attribute-by-attribute listing of valid XHTML syntax to an in-depth look at Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). There are also several chapters of "What's next?" topics, each touching on an aspect of internet development (multimedia, forms, graphics, and scripts).

So what is XHTML? It is the Extensible Hypertext Markup Language. It's brings order to chaotic world of HTML by forcing adherence to XML standards. It promises to separate presentation from information (data). It can force a web page to act like data, with the benefit that anything that can access data can use your web page (like text-to-speech devices, mobile devices, and more). It's a W3C standard that has progressed beyond the 1.0 specification referred to in this book (and this book was published in 2001!).

This book could have easily been called XHTML and CSS - because they devote many pages to the key role that CSS will play in the deployment of XHTML. CSS is the way that the presentation elements are extracted from the HTML document - leaving only the data behind.

The book mostly succeeds in bringing XHTML to a wide audience. It tries to be an introduction, migration guide, and language reference. I recommend it to anyone interested in taking their internet development to the next level.

Rating:
Summary: Keeping Up with Languages
Review: XHTML or Extensible Hypertext markup Language is one of the Internet's newer languages. XHTML begins by giving a basic overview of what it is. The authors devote 70 pages to elements such as big, cite, superscript and subscript plus many, many others! They go on to explain the major differences between HTML and XHTML and browser requirements and compatibility issues.

Other subjects included in XHTML are XSL (one chapter), Xforms (a very brief discussion), Creating Dynamic XHTML Pages (18 pages) and Working with Multimedia and Graphics (Chapter 10). In comparing XSL to CSS, there is a graphic to show when and where to use each language. Don't forget to read the chapter on converting existing HTML to XHTML.

With a 100 plus pages of reference material AND a CD-ROM, XHTML should provide the reader with a solid footing in this up and coming language.

Rating:
Summary: a good place to start
Review: XHTML, by Chelsea Valentine and Chris Minnick is a useful book; it gives the reader an overview of XHTML. The book does not cover all details, but refers to web sites and other books for more information. The choice not to dive in all the details makes this book an introduction into XHTML, and not an XHTML reference, although the reader can find a lot of details in the book. It's true, you learn all the predefined XHTML markup elements, including element and attribute usage as well as syntax. After reading the book, you understand the need for converting from HTML to XHTML, and the importance of using CSS, and XSL. The book also provides a picture of how XHTML is going to develop. Readers already familiar with books such as Steven Holzner's Inside XML would not benefit from this book. Readers looking for an introduction to XHTML would find XHTML a good place to start.