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Summary: If you had to read one book about Web development...
Review: this would be it. The best conceptual guide to using the web effectively that I've come across in six years of web watching. And one of the few technical books that have made me laugh out loud. The technical specifics (Unix, Oracle, AOLServer, TCL) are 'one way to do it' and not the most common or most easily accessible, but the concepts are timeless and priceless, and the wit is worth the price of admission, if a little wearing at times. And the tools are all available over the Net with a little effort and perseverance. So's the book, but I'm not supposed to say that here. Buy it anyway. It's great for thumbing through and doesn't require batteries.
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Summary: The best book ever written. Period.
Review: This is a copy of an email I sent Philip:A wise man ought always to follow the paths beaten by great men, and to imitate those who have been supreme, so that if his ability does not equal theirs, at least it will savour of it. - Nicolo Machiavelli Thank you for writing your guide to web publishing. It's given me a lot of ideas for dnapatent.com, my experiment in simplicity.
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Summary: Researcher Rave Review
Review: This is a copy of the actual email I sent to Philip. I was researching books for my husband to study, since he wants to get into Web Publishing & I adored the book cover on sight. We're into cats but I appreciate animal lovers in general. Then to find your new book chock full of fantastic pictures, let alone the good information I know Guy will appreciate having was almost too good to be true. So, you have an appreciative audience even from those who aren't reading your book for themselves. Keep up the great work ! LeeAnne Siverson (w/ cats Sassi, Skamp & Snuggle)
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Summary: Great book!
Review: If you're interested in learning how to write HTML code, this is not the book for you. However, if you would like to understand the various aspects of web design for database backed sites, and be exposed to a philosophy of how to implement them well, this book is for you. Philip's style is to present case studies to teach you the important concepts. His interspersed humor along the way prevents the material from ever getting dry. And, you'll never feel overly nerdy carrying the book around since even your non-techy friends will want to check out the many photos he weaves into the text. In summary, I highly enjoyed reading this book, and feel that I gained from it a good understanding of the important issues to consider when designing a database backed web site.
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Summary: Putting The Web Into Perpective
Review: I just finished Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing, and I truly enjoyed the book. Philip kept my attention throughout, a major feat for such a technical subject. More importantly, he successfully described the Web from so many angles that, well, all I can say, is that the light bulb finally went off in my head. Something now makes sense, and I have already begun using my 7 years of Oracle background to publish Web pages using PL/SQL (I'll start with what I know).
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Summary: Some good, some bad
Review: The one point Phil brings up that I heartily aggree with is that Computer Science is a religion. While he does bring up some good points and gives good advice when designing a DB-backed website, he spends much of the book proselyting his own brand of religion (AOLServer + TCL + Oracle) and one comes away with the impression that his book is a thinly-velied advertisement for his company, ArsDigita. This would be fine if the title of the book was something like "Using the ACS to build websites" or "Using AOLServer with TCL." The actual title of the book suggests something that should address web design in general.
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Summary: high level to the point of being useless
Review: This book is nothing more than greenspun ranting about the web. there is nothing usefull here. nothing. for some reason the author thinks that TCL is the be all and end all of building websites, which is ridiculous. Greenspun's recommendations on what not to buy are not bad, but don't buy this book if you're looking to actually build a website.
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Summary: Technical but human
Review: I stumbled over this book in the public library and was I lucky. This is only the second good book I've read about the IT profession; the other being "The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder. I expected a standard, hype filled book about web design. What I got was less about designing beautiful web screens and much more about designing beautiful computer systems. We learn that fundamentals of good system design haven't changed in 30 years and probably will not change in the next 30. Philip's creed is, "design a great system, then send it to a design professional." Along the way we get some history of computer science and the Internet. We get case studies. We get actual computer code. We get good advice for both technical and non-technical folks. But, best of all, we get an author with an attitude, with experience, with opinions. What sets this apart from every other technical book is that it seems like there is a real human in there. Reading it is more like a conversation with a real person than a lecture on information technology.
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Summary: Funny and insightful
Review: I read the book a year ago and found it very funny, and insightful. There are not many books that talk about technical things that are as funny and as useful as Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing and the photographs are great too (you can see how they relate to the text, sometimes in very right brained ways, which is also a lot of fun). Yesterday I needed to add message boards to my web site and I ended up using Philip's lusenet service that he gives away for free and it works great. Buy it! Read it, and reread it when you're actually designing or redesigning your site.
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Summary: Bad design, amateur photos, bloated book
Review: Usability is a valued function in print, not just on the web. Phil and Alex's way cool in-joke laden guide could be edited down by 30% without any loss in content, printed on non-gloss paper to save 30-=50% more in unneeded weight. Greenspun abuses print the way the web novices he critiques use the web--utterly superfluous production values that add no value to the user but only heap on costs and hence price; utterly gratuitous graphics which prove that force me, the book buyer, to subsidize Greenspun's embarrassingly mediocre talent as a photographer, and utter inability to generate creative or useful graphic illustrations to help communicate the rich and bountiful insights that pour forth from his fertile mind. Do not attempt to use this book if you suffer from any form of RSI... it's as though the author has intentionally created a 25 pound laptop and every programmer in the world is forced to fall over in adulation. Aparently, Mr. Greenspun did not have the opportunity to go through the 2-3 year stage of amateur dabbling in desktop graphics most of us went through with Photoshop 2.0 . What is ludicrous is that even our most eminent thinker about "information design" dares not to mention that this book is an insult to the art and craft of information design in print. Excess weight causes severe spine breakage, the absurdly wasteful use of high gloss paper means that the pages resist being underlined or marked for those who want to create notation, and the photos are as distracting and counterproductive as 100 one megabyte jpegs of baboons would be pushed into every page of my online edition of the New York Times. The varnished paper is, of course, non-recyclable. Philip, the design of your book violates every single rule you hammer away at for 570 pages. Keep the dog, hire an editor, drop the ego, practice in print what you preach on the web. Read Ed Tufte's books and make the next edition actually use graphic presentation to communicate. Respect print, it's older than you are.
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