Web Development and Design Foundations with XHTML 4th

Web Development Review
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is an excellent book to learn XHTML with CSS (the new standards of HTML). Very good for people who’ve had no prior experience in HTML, and for people trying to update their skills using XHTML and CSS. Everything is very clear, and makes perfect sense. Even though its a technical book, its friendly layout attracts the reader. But it does have typos, I’ve found over a dozen, but the reader can easily correct them with the knowledge gained from this book. It introduces programming near the end of the book such as JavaScript, PHP, Flash, etc.

Extremely well-written
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book is very well laid out and clear to understand with logical excercises. It provides website support with additional learning files. Although not inexpensive, it provides an excellent way to learn XHTML and cascading style sheets. It is the text used for my website development college class.

Don’t Waste Your Time!!
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
WASTE OF TIME

This book is a complete waste of time and it will sap your joy. You will learn far more with almost any other book. It is poorly written, the editing is non-existent, the educational constructs are poorly formed, the B.S. content is over the top, and the typos are serious enough to sabotage your web pages. In fact, the educational tone seems designed to sabotage your understanding of what you already know. Most of the details in the book are common sense and yet presented as ultra-orthodox truths from antiquity, as when the author refers to 10 years ago as “the last century.”

LACK OF INFORMATION

The presentation of information is difficult to follow because the pages are clouded with stylistic jargon ripped-off from other publishing companies which have maintained a fine reputation for educational success because they know how to educate. To see successful authoring, go to any book store and see how many books there are in the following series: DUMMIES, IDIOTS, VISUAL, MADE SIMPLE, VISUAL QUICKSTART, or MICROSOFT PRESS. These series are designed to educate, empower, and inform. This book is designed to obfuscate.

STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE

For instance, take a look at the cover of this text book (as posted here on Amazon) and you will see a paint roller. This is the author’s special icon to let you know you are still reading the same book. Section after section you see a paint roller, to open a section and to close a section. Apparently Web Design is colorful. Other icons, such as FAQ’s are just “cute” but useless, because they are not FAQ’s but just page decorations. Font decoration is random, extra spacing is random, and highlighting is random.

SUGGESTIONS

What the book needs is a table of contents that is useful, and a glossary so the book can be used as you read it. The index is skimpy (the most important part of the book) and each preview section and review section is non-usable. If you read as much as I do, I know that you have a method for learning, and for most people that method involves: Preview, Skim, Read, Review, and then use the book as a reference. This book does not have previews (more like hopeful affirmations) does not have reviews (except to tell you you’re done with the chapter, ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT encourage skimming (the pages are meaningless jumbles of jargon) and the reading sections, when available, are short, and punctuated by meaningless faux-FAQs, comprehension-testers, points to ponder, and other monotony breakers, instead of real information. There is no way to review later because the book withheld active, authentic learning in the first place. You cannot even save this book as a reference because the tables are incomplete and incoherent, and the appendixes are poorly organized.

SUCCESSFUL OPTIONS

If you are required to use this book as a text-book for a class, just drop the class. You are smarter than that. Google the words “web design” and you will get all of this information for free! You don’t need THIS book, just get a good book. The problem is, if your instructor requires THIS book then you will spend all of your time doing examples and not learning XHTML and CSS.

YOU CAN DO IT!

If you don’t have other time-demands in your life then this book can walk you step-by-step through some ideas about web programming, but it will treat you like a Junior High School student. If you ARE a Junior High School student then you are WAY TOO SMART for this book. This is a text-book written for Junior College students who want to get a job, and their school is designed to make it hard to graduate. This book will not prepare them for a job. It only weeds out the students who don’t have the guts to finish the course. If you want to be weeded out you won’t make it as a programmer. If you want to be a programmer you won’t put up with this book. If you really want to learn for fun, then get one of the other books listed above. Don’t even buy this one for $.01 plus shipping. There’s nothing in it worth looking at.

EDUCATION

My Bio and Bias: I am a doctor who teaches medical school, I have been programming computers for over 35 years, I am a life-long learner, I am a professional teacher, and my students would not put up with this book, nor would they put up with me if I required this book. My students, my peers, my friends, and most importantly, you…do not deserve this kind of condescension.

Verbose speech
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
It is an abject book with too much money that doesn’t justify them with verbose speech and very difficult to read it without a boring feeling…Web developing is not history or philosophy…A book must be explanatory but not verbose and must have rigorous structure.

Great book
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This book came to me just as described. Very fast shipping. Excellent for a beginner in web development.

Great coverage of Web accessibility & Web standards!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Comments from reviewers of this book:

“The layout of Felke-Morris’s text is excellent. I have always

disliked texts with crowded pages, distracting sidebars, and many colors. Felke-Morris’ text focuses the student on salient content and uses color, text boxes, and the like to enhance and emphasize, rather than distract. Felke-Morris’ hands-on exercises are something my current text does not even have. I really like these exercises because they give students a chance to learn and practice small chunks of material before applying the knowledge to a larger project.”

“Great coverage of web accessibility standards!”

“Great inclusion of ethical issues and accessibility tips (these are areas that I do find myself supplementing with our current text).”

“Superior aspects of Felke-Morris include:

–Inclusion of web site pages and/or addresses that have been referred

to in the text as either examples of techniques, or places to find more information, or used as a part of the end-of-chapter section on Web Research. These are a real strong point of the text.

–Use of the same four example sites through the text as end-of-chapter Cases. As each chapter is completed, each site is enhanced using the current chapter’s skills and concepts.

–The inclusion of Hands-On Practice and Web Research sections.”

Great Hands-On Approach!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
We use this book in a community college course for both online and face-to-face classes. The students really like the hands-on approach with examples, practice exercises and case studies. The 4th Edition of this popular textbook integrates XHTML and CSS topics so students learn from the beginning how to use both XHTML and CSS to configure text, color, and page layout. There is also excellent coverage of web design best practices, accessibility, usability, and Web standards. A bonus is the textbook’s companion website at webdevfoundations.net that has a page for each chapter with chapter links, additional information, flash review puzzles, iPod review quizzes, and chapter updates.