Beginning XHTML (Programmer to Programmer) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Today's Web authors need to know about XHTML, which is the current W3C recommendation for Web page authoring. XHTML is an application of XML that remains backwards compatible with HTML 4.0. The advantage is that it brings much-needed discipline and structure to the Web, and enables proper separation of content from presentation. This is becoming more important as devices other than traditional browsers expect to find useful content on the Web.

The Wrox Beginning series aims to teach all you need to know from scratch, although in practice they are more advanced than the title suggests. This book begins with background information about HTML, XML, and the parent of both, SGML. Next, there is a full explanation of the structure of an XHTML document. Further chapters cover links, images, tables and frames. There is an excellent introduction to Cascading Style Sheets.

The second half of the book covers more advanced topics, including XML, Web site design, achieving browser compatibility, and supporting multimedia. Next, there is an explanation of forms, JavaScript scripting, and programming the Document Object Model. At the back of the book, there are several appendices providing a complete reference to the three levels of XHTML (Strict, Transitional and Frameset), a Style Sheet and JavaScript reference, and information on third-party resources such as HTML Tidy, a great free-to-use tool for testing and converting your documents.

Several of the authors work with the W3C, and Beginning XHTML contrives to be both authoritative and enthusiastic about XHTML. Whether you are just starting with Web authoring, or an HTML expert who needs to get up to speed with the new standard, this is an excellent read. --Tim Anderson

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.

XHTML (eXtensible HyperText Markup Language) 1.0 superseded HTML 4.01 in January 2000 as the next generation W3C standard for marking up web pages. XHTML offers the functionality and widespread acceptance of HTML with the extensibility and the new audience that XML offers. No longer will multiple versions of the same page be needed for varying user agents - one XHTML page will suffice.

Exstensible HyperText Mark Up Language (XHTML) allows Web developers to design their web pages for use with non-desktop users, such as portable phones, pagers and Portable Digital Assistants. As a hybrid technology, XHTML retains the simplicity of use of HTML, whilst adding some of the extensible functionality of XML. Because of the concise nature of XHTML, it should not require much overhead from the client machine, making it ideal for the time when users can surf the net through their mobile phones. This book is aimed at users of HTML looking to extend access to their Web pages and anyone wanting to understand how to provide Web access through non-desktop clients.

Online discussion of the topics in this book available at Wrox's P2P site.

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.