Rating:  - Truly an Excellent Offering from O'Reilly
Not that it's any great surprise, but O'Reilly has put out another great reference. This book has everything. It covers Microsoft, Mozilla, and W3C DOM, CSS1, CSS2, CSS-P, JavaScript and ECMA-Script...the works. This book gives special attention to what works in different browsers and different versions, giving you all the tools you need to create great cross-browser web sites.
This book departs from the first edition in that it no longer claims any support for Netscape 4, which, for all intents and purposes, is a dead platform. The DOM that Netscape tried to work in to version 4 never got accepted by the W3C, and then when Netscape 6 came out, they made the absolutley correct decision to kill the old DOM and move toward the standard. Having said that, this book does still provide adequate coverage of Netscape 4. I say, in doing that, Goodman has gone above and beyond the call of duty.
In short, I wanted to build a website that took advantage of what DHTML has to offer, and having been frustrated by the lack of quality tutorials and references on the web, I bought this. I found it to be very well written and comprehensive to the extreme, and I was up and running with a cross-browser site in no time. If you are going to do web UI development, grab this book.
Rating: - Great Reference
This ia a great reference for any tags that you are unsure of how to use, if it's supported, what attributes are available. I highly reccomend it as reference material, if you're looking for anything else like how to do web design then you're in the wrong place. This is meant for the experienced HTML coder.
Rating: - O'Reilly has a good rep for a reason.
This book's title is just what it says: The Definitive Reference.
I also have JavaScript: the Definitive Ref. Don't get both unless you really are using DOM for DHTML and also using JavaScript for other scripting. These two books are at least 1/3 redundant information. They are both EXCELLENT books and I recomend both highly... just not together.
This is all you really need to do DHTML, don't buy dummies, don't buy the big red book; all you need is this one. It's a doorstop, but has enough info to get you up to speed in using DOM and any JavaScript that you're likely to need.
Rating: - EXCITINGLY DYNAMIC
Brimming with authoritative information, this edition of "Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference" harbours all the relevant ingredients that programmers would need in order to keep pace with the latest advances in the field. These include: HTML 4.01, CSS2, JavaScript 1.5 and DOM Level 2.
Also, there are comprehensive coverage on both Internet Explorer 6 and Netscape Navigator 6. The chapters of this versatile text are excitingly dynamic. All those editorial errors which featured in the previous edition have been rectified. This book is an impressive reference source. It is one of the most precious volumes that web authors and developers should keep at hand.
Each of the entries it illustrates has a sample example, which helps the reader to assimilate the gist. Again, the book included information on which version of Netscape or Internet Explorer that is compatible with each element.
It is a superlative text, which is worth every cent that buyers spend on it.
Rating: - Web Developers need to worship this Bible
Simply put, this book is amazing. It is a complete reference for HTML, CSS, and much of JavaScript (focusing on DOM). If you are looking for a more complete JavaScript reference, I highly recommend Flanagan's JS book, also in the O'Reilly series. Let's face it... It's hard to remember every CSS property, HTML tag, and DOM attribute. Sure, you could do what I used to do and haul 3-4 books around everywhere, or you could get this one book and save yourself the trouble.
What I found most amazing about this book is that it has *every* CSS-2 property that exists. Some of them aren't even supported by Netscape or IE, but they are part of the W3 CSS standard and this book includes them, and even explains their purpose. I find this most amazing. Hopefully Micro$oft and NS will get off their behind and make a fully compliant CSS-2 web-browser :).
Let me tell what this book is not. It is not a tutorial, how-to guide, or system of wonders for those just starting out in web-development, DHTML, or CSS. Although it does have a brief tutorial section (about 180 pages), the core of the book (the remaining 1000 or so pages) is the most concise DHTML reference I have ever seen. This book measures a whole inch thicker than the old version and it's fresh with content, supporting the lastest CSS-Level 2 browsers (Netscape 6+ and IE 5+). The author makes it clear in the beginning of the book that many of the techniques and references presented here are not backwards compatible with Version 4 browsers; as he cleverly mentions, since browsers are free to download, there is no reason for anyone to still be using an older browser. If you're looking for V4 support, he recommends his previous edition. It is nice to know this edition wasn't bogged down with dated material that most of us will never need. V4 compatibility is a pain in and of itself.
When CSS-3 makes its debut in the next year or two (wishful thinking :)), I'd be happy if Mr. Goodman's next version of this text will be half as good as this one. Hopefully it won't take 4 years to come out, though. I do think this current version was needed about 1-2 years ago. It's nice to have it now. This one gets an A+++ in my book!
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