|
The HTML Pocket Reference, 2nd Ed. is another in O'Reilly's series of handy pocket references, and is useful for anyone who uses HTML on a regular basis.
What's in the book?
The book begins with a useful listing of 'tag groups', in which each of the tags covered in the book is classified into a particular group. For example, <input> is listed with 'Form Tags', and so on. Next up is a 'tag structures' section, which shows the relationship between the different tags, such as <title> being used inside <head> tags, etc.
Following these two sections, and comprising the bulk of the book is an alphabetical reference to HTML tags and attributes from the W3C 4.01 HTML specification.
Each tag entry indicates whether the tag is a standalone tag or whether it has a corresponding closing tag, and includes a little browser compatibility chart showing which versions of which browsers support the tag under question. Included in this chart are Netscape versions 2,3,4, and 6, Internet Explorer 2,3,4,5,5.5, and 6, WebTV, Opera 5, and whether or not the tag is part of the HTML 4.01 standard. Following this one-line chart is a brief description of the tag and its use.
Following in each entry you'll find whether or not the tag supports the core attributes of the HTML 4.01 specification: id, class, style, and title, indicated by the abbreviation '%coreattrs'. Internationalization support offered by the tag is indicated by the abbreviation '%i18n', and support for the core events defined in the HTML 4.01 DTD is indicated by '%events'. Each attribute available for the tag is then listed, followed by a brief description. In many cases a simple example is provided of how the tag is used. The author is careful to note different browser incompatibilities when needed. One tag that is missing for some reason is the <img> tag, which, as it appears was left out by a mistake. The info for the <img> tag can be found on the examples section of the book's website, and I imagine O'Reilly will include it in future printings.
The book finishes with several charts of available character entities, so you can really impress people with your ability to use funky characters like these: ¥ µ ¶. Finally, a one-page decimal-to-hexadecimal chart is provided for decimal values 0-255.
How useful is it?
If you're new to HTML, then you'll probably want to find a book that covers the topic a little more in-depth, but this book will still be useful once you've gotten a grasp of the basics. If you're experienced with HTML the book's usefulness may vary. If you've memorized every attribute available for every tag, then you may not need it. If you're like the rest of us, and sometimes can't remember whether the size attribute of the <input> tag indicates how long the text field is, or whether it indicates how many typed characters are allowed in the field, then you'll find this book very useful.
As for me, I'm a database/systems administrator by trade, but I occasionally work on projects where I'm putting together web sites by hand-coding HTML. Since coming into posession of this book, I find myself reaching for it very often while working on such projects, so it passes the practicality and usefulness test with flying colors. At 95 pages, it's really concise, but usually tells me just what I need. This book combined with O'Reilly's JavaScript Pocket Reference, and the CSS Pocket Reference, make up a great trio for anyone who works with web pages.
Overall rating: 8/10
|
