Html Dynamic

Dynamic Html Web Magic (Magic (New Riders))

Format: Paperback
Author: Jeff Rouyer
ReleaseDate: July, 1998
Publisher: Hayden Books
Rating:

Ugh - Only supports Windows
x and Explorer 4/5. I pointed my browswer at the website for the examples in the book and was shocked to find the following message:

"Currently this site uses DHTML as implemented in
Netscape 4.x under the Windows platform . . . "

Folks, this is the antithesis of what web designers should be doing.

Great graphics, but limited content
This book focuses primarily on animation and dynamic menus, while there is more to Dynamic HTML. This book is visually enhanced with lots of full-color screen shots and color that separates the code samples from the text. Much of the animation can be accomplished in Flash, but this is a good alternative to paying for expensive software and relying on the end-user to have the appropriate plug-in. This book is one of the few that I originally found to be cross-browser compatible and is very useful and well-documented for the animations and menus. The visual screen shots make it easy to flip through and find what you are looking for . . . as long as it's in the book.

Save your money, don't even buy it USED
That pretty much says it all. If I could re-title this book, it would be "How To Go Out Of Your Way To Spend Four Weeks Creating in DHTML What You Could Do In One Day With Flash".

My problem with this book is that it goes against the basic concept of software development that says "use the right tool for the job". And let's get real, the DHTML in this book is NOT the right tool. For example, consider the chapters on image animation. The author spends a huge amount of time and effort to show how to create many different graphics and write many different layers in order to glue them together with complex DHTML so that'll animate as one flying bird. That's great, but what did you really accomplish? The user has to download all of those different graphics, which considerably slows down the page. The page is fatter because of all the layers and DHTML to glue them together. And the page will render slower because the browser has to evaluate all the DHTML, load the images, and load the animation. Instead, why not spend one hour using a graphics program to create one animated GIF that loads quickly with *NO* threat of browser incompatibility. And that's the way this entire book read: I bet I can show you a somewhat-decent way of doing anything that animated GIFs or Flash can do, no matter how complex and unrealistic my implementations may be in the real world. That's great as an experiement or research thesis, but so would a book about how to type on a keyboard using only your nose and one ear. Sure it's possible, but who's going to do that?!?

This book was an absolute waste of my money. I walked away remembering why Flash and animated GIFs exist and how helpful they can be. If you're looking for a book on building Dynamic web pages, I suggest "DHTML For the World Wide Web" or "JavaScript For The World Wide Web".