Beginning Xhtml [Anglais] [Broché]

The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) is the next-generation base markup language for the Web. XHTML moves the now standard HTML to a valid XML syntax to fill the current compatibility gap between HTML browsers and XML parsers. Beginning XHTML introduces the reader to XHTML, but goes well beyond the relatively minor language differences to provide a well-rounded tutorial on Web markup.

This book easily meets the authors' goal as a "hands-on practical approach to learning how to build Web pages." Although the text begins with a straightforward explanation of why XHTML exists and its differences from HTML, most of its content explores particular markup topics such as frames, multimedia, style sheets, and scripting. Readers who follow the numerous examples closely will soon find themselves implementing the syntactical rules of XHTML, even if they are used to regular HTML code.

Plenty of tips and detailed explanations of important concepts distinguish this book from many of the other HTML books on the market. For example, the authors take the time to explain some of the subtleties of image size optimization like running solid colors horizontally in GIF files to maximize compression. Another quite useful example shows how to use JavaScript to pass data between separate pages in a frameset.

Tons of highlighted code snippets and screen shots illustrate the material, and the detailed blow-by-blow commentary gives the book a nice flow. If you're looking for an HTML tutorial, forget it and pick up this forward-looking XHTML title. --Stephen W. Plain

Topics covered: XHTML history, linking, image formats and optimization, tables, frames, meta-data, style sheets, XML, site structure, page design concepts, XHTML-supported media types, multimedia integration, XHTML forms, JavaScript, Document Object Models (DOMs), Mozquito Factory, and FML.

XML (eXtensible markup language) is the newest markup standard for the Internet - it is the new HTML. XHTML is a language that uses the vocabulary of HTML and the syntax of XML, and as such makes the best of both worlds. It allows you to markup pages with the simplicity of HTML, but has additional power, because it is extensible, which means that you can create your own tags. As we move forward to a world where we can access the Internet via devices other than the browser, XHTML will become increasingly important, allowing you to write the same content once, which can then be viewed in a variety of ways.

This book is for anyone wanting to mark up web pages and use scripting to enhance the quality of their pages. It will be useful for those who wish to enter the world of web development with an advantage over existing developers, for those who are already developing pages and wish to stay current with the latest technological changes, and for those who want to access new markets and reduce their workload.

Frank Boumphrey currently works for Cormorant Consulting, a firm that specializes in medical and legal documentation.

He started programming in the dark ages of punch cards and machine language. One of his first projects was to help write a program that differentiated between an incoming Soviet ICBM and a flock of geese. The fact that we are reading this is evidence that it probably worked!

Semi-retirement returned him to his first interest of computing and now he tries to get medical institutions to organize their medical records in a semi rational fashion, and on the side lectures to medical personal and healthcare executives on documentation issues.

His main objective at the present is to help XML to become the language of choice in web documents.