As the Internet moves forward, you, as a webmaster, have to become increasingly knowledgeable and adept in a greater number of programming languages and technologies. First, there was HTML, then along came JavaScript. CSS was the next hot thing. Each time you’ve had to hit the books to upgrade your skills.
By now most of us have a large collection of books about HTML, JavaScript, HTML 4, XML, etc. sitting by our computers for reference. What if you could squish that stack of books into one? Impossible you say. Well, not anymore. O’Reilly just released Webmaster in a Nutshell 2nd edition. The book manages to crunch several languages and technologies into one, compact, reference book
The authors, Stephen Spainbour and Robert Eckstein, managed to cover HTML 4.0, CSS, XML, CGI, SSI, JavaScript 1.2, PHP, HTTP 1.1, and administration for the Apache server in one book that weighs in at 523 pages.
Part I of the book provides an introduction to HTML 4.0, followed by a complete reference to the language, including chapters on frames, tables and forms.
It also features an excellent introduction to Cascading Style Sheets, including a complete reference to the 53 properties that can be used, is also included in Part II of the book. Part III provides an introduction to XML, an emerging technology that could eventually dominate the Internet.
Part IV is a complete reference to JavaScript/JScript 1.2. This part of the book includes a nice diagram that illustrates the client-side object hierarchy.
Part V covers CGI and PERL, including detailed information about Server Side Includes, the Perl CGI.pm module and web server programming with mod_perl (a module for Apache).
Part VI discusses PHP, an HTML-embedded scripting language that allows you to create dynamic sites, process forms, and pull data from any ODBC compliant database.
Part VII of the book covers HTTP 1.1 (hyper text transfer protocol). This section of the book includes an overview of Cookies, Media Types, Client Requests, Server responses and status codes.
Part VIII deals with server configurations, in particular, Apache, which is the most popular web server software used today, dominating roughly 70% of the market. This section provides information about dozens of modules for Apache, in addition to extensive information about improving server performance, which I found particularly interesting and useful.
Rather than having separate books covering JavaScript, HTML, PHP, and Apache by your desk, buy Webmaster in a Nutshell and have it all in one place.
At $24.95, this is one book that will pay for itself a thousand times over in time saved and increased productivity.
Rating: 5/5
O’Reilly – View the table of contents and read about the author.
Matt MickiewiczMatt is the co-founder of SitePoint, 99designs and Flippa. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.
