Philip & Alex's Guide to Web Publishing. [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Dieser Titel ist in englischer Sprache.
Dieses Buch ist keine weitere "Kochbuch-Anleitung" zur Planung einer erfolgreichen Website. Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing des MIT-Veteranen Philip Greenspun bietet einen breiten und dennoch hochtechnischen Ansatz. Es wird angenommen, daß der Leser bereit ist, sich ernsthaft mit der Herausforderung auseinanderzusetzen, die der Aufbau einer Content-Site, einer Community-Site oder eines E-Commerce-Store darstellt, bevor er sich an die Arbeit macht.

Obwohl das Buch stark Unix-orientiert ist, protegiert es kein bestimmtes Produkt und behauptet nie, daß es nur einen einzigen Weg zur Lösung bestimmter technischer Probleme gäbe. Stattdessen wird der Leser dazu ermutigt, Web-Inhalte und Web-Funktionalität als etwas zu sehen, das darauf ausgerichtet ist, dem Besucher dabei zu helfen, Antworten auf bestimmte Fragen zu finden, oder das sonst irgendwie nützlich ist. Das mag vage klingen, aber seine Beobachtungen zu den Faktoren, die eine Website schlecht machen, sind mit vielen sorgfältig ausgewählten Beispielen erläutert.

Der Hauptteil des Buches ist verhältnismäßig technisch. Drei lange Teile zum Publizieren im Web, Community und E-Commerce-Architekturen sind mit den Datenmodellen und funktionierenden Open-Source-Systemen (Systemen mit offengelegtem Quellcode) des Autors illustriert. Jeder, der C oder SQL beherrscht und sich mit Internet Protocol (IP) auskennt, wird von diesen Erläuterungen profitieren. Solch technisch-orientierten Lesern werden hier zahlreiche Web-Adressen und andere Quellen für weitere technische Informationen geboten. Der Autor fordert die Leser zudem auf, in angebrachten Fällen seinen eigenen Code zu verwenden.

Obwohl es hier vor allem um technische Probleme geht, ist Greenspuns Sprache nie trocken und rein technisch. Durch das gesamte Buch hindurch gelingt es ihm, den Leser auf interessante und häufig verblüffende und ironische Weise anzusprechen. Er erweckt den Eindruck eines gewitzten Professors, der sein Metier kennt, sich mit den entsprechenden Problemen auseinandergesetzt hat und der sich nicht in den weitverbreiteten kommerziell orientierten Ausschweifungen ergeht. --Kathleen Caster

Computing and coffee tables go together like chalk and … artichokes, so this excellent volume comes as something of a surprise. There are no pages of closely packed type and dull screenshots here. Instead, expect amusing pictures (including ones of pig racing and Web-savvy dog Alex), well-chosen examples and engaging writing. Drawing on 20 years of Internet experience, MIT professor Philip Greenspun takes an in-depth look at the process of putting content on the Web. The book tackles a variety of conceptual and technical issues, including server set-up, building community, e-commerce architecture and how to learn HTML--in 21 minutes. Though the core of the book is quite technical, Greenspun's straightforward approach and amusing anecdotal style make the guide accessible to potential publishers of all skill levels.

Few introductions to Web publishing match this one in terms of insight, humour and adaptibility. Whether propped on a coffee table or used as office reference, it's sure to provoke interest and conversation. --Chris Russell

This isn't another cookie-recipe approach to planning a successful Web site. Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing, by MIT veteran Philip Greenspun, is both broadly conceptual and deeply technical, and it assumes that the reader is willing to think seriously about the challenge of building a content site, a community site, or an e-commerce store before plunging in.

Although heavily Unix-oriented, it does not set out to proselytize a product, or even suggest that there is only one way to solve certain technical challenges. Rather, it encourages the reader to think about Web content and functionality as something designed to help visitors answer questions or do something useful. This may sound nebulous, but his observations about why Web sites go bad are illustrated with many well-chosen examples.

The core of the book is quite technical. Three long sections on publishing, community, and e-commerce architectures are illustrated by the author's data models and working open-source systems, so someone with C, SQL, and a good understanding of Internet Protocol (IP) under his or her belt will get the most out of the discussion. Such technical readers will find numerous Web addresses and other citations for further technical information. The author also invites readers to use his code if appropriate.

Although there is a lot of technical meat here, Greenspun dispenses with a dry, technical tone. Throughout, he manages to speak to the reader in a way that is always interesting and frequently bemused or ironic. The overall effect is that of a wry professor who knows his stuff, has thought about the problems, and isn't about to engage in commercial puffery. --Kathleen Caster

A technical manual that is also a lavishly illustrated coffee-table book, this is the oddest, most interesting guide on web design and publishing this reviewer has ever read. "This book is a catalog of the mistakes that I've made while building more than 100 Web sites in the last five years," writes webmaster Greenspun, who teaches at MIT. Covering web publishing and web-based services in a lively, engaging tone, he makes complex technical ideas simple and accessible to beginners and nontechies who have to manage large web sites. Drop-dead photos taken by Greenspun and available for free on his site (www.photo.net) illustrate the text. Greenspun also gives away almost all the software he writes about and uses, and the entire book is available on the web (http://www. photo.net/wtr/thebook/). Still, all libraries should seriously consider getting one or two copies of the wonderful print version.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"If you want to be a part of where the Web is going, you need to read this book... -Dave Clark, Chief Protocol Architect of the Internet, 1981-1989 This is required reading in my seminar on information design: a wise book on Web design and technical matters by an author with a good eye in addition to good programming skills. -Edward Tufte, WIRED Magazine, June 1998 Your book is the best one I've read about web publishing, bar none. -J. Paul Holbrook, Director, Internet Technologies, CNN

This book offers a general approach for how to think about publishing on the Web. The content ranges from insightful discussions of how to integrate relational databases with Web servers in a way to optimize Web server performance while enhancing the dynamic and interactive content of a Web site.

From the author's preface: This book is a catalog of the mistakes that I've made while building more than 100 Web sites in the last five years. I wrote it in the hopes that others won't have to repeat those mistakes. For the manager in charge of a Web publication or service, this book gives you the big picture. It is designed to help you to affirmatively make the high-level decisions that determine whether a site will be manageable or unmanageable, profitable or unprofitable, popular or unpopular, reliable or unreliable. I don't expect you to be down in the trenches typing Oracle SQL queries. But you'll learn enough from this book to decide whether in fact you need a database, whom to hire as the high database priest, and whom to allow anywhere near the database. For the literate computer scientist, I hope to expose the beautiful possibilities in Web service design. I want to inspire you to believe that this is the most interesting and exciting area in which we can work. For the working Web designer or programmer, I want to arm you with a new vocabulary and mental framework for building sites.

There can be more to life than making a client's bad ideas flesh with PhotoShop and Perl/CGI. For the users of the world, I document a comprehensive open-source approach to building online communities and show a collaborative Web-based way that we can dig ourselves out of our desktop application morass.

less stupid than the last book
This book is a catalog of the mistakes that I've made while building near 100 Web sites over five years. I wrote it in the hopes that others won't have to repeat those mistakes.

In a society that increasingly rewards specialists and narrowness, Web publishing is one of the few fields left where the generalist is valuable. To make a great site, you need to know a little bit about writing, photography, publishing, Unix system administration, relational database management systems (RDBMS), user interface design, and computer programming. I have thus assumed no specific technical background among my readers and have tried to make the text self-contained.

Just like my previous book (Database Backed Web Sites), this book explains how to build a database-backed public Web site that can survive 100 hits/second. However, it contains a much more interesting parallel theme: the true benefits of computers won't be delivered until we can replace desktop applications with collaborative Web-based applications.

One of the most interesting all-new chapters describes a comprehensive technical and social approach to building community sites where the database works harder so that the moderators can relax. Another chapter sets forth the ideal workflow for a team of people building a new Web service.

The strangest and perhaps most beautiful thing about the new book is that it is printed in four colors with 250 of my photographs interspersed throughout. This is the world's first coffee table Web nerd book.

Philip Greenspun has had the primary responsiblity for teaching and developing database curriculum at MIT. He is a successful designer of Web services using his Database/Web integration approach for Internet and Intranet sites like the Hearst Corp. and MIT Press