Philip & Alex's Guide to Web Publishing

by Philip Greenspun

Book Overview

From the author's preface:This book is a catalog of the mistakes that I've made while building more than 100 Web sites in the last five years. I wrote it in the hopes that others won't have to repeat... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1558605347
• ISBN13: 9781558605343
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 3.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.8" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

Still the book to recommend

It's interesting how a lot of readers complain about the book being all about Phil's ego and Arsdigita,(the company he created that is now part of redhat). It seems those people didn't understand much of the book or found the subject disappointingly tougher than they thought... Yes, web publishing requires more intelligence and thoughfullness some would like to believe. And this book makes you realise that, whether 1998 or 2002. Most web sites that are data driven these days still use the same principles explained in this book. Most don't use the ACS but the whole idea behind the ACS is one that comes from a sincere desire to facilitate the creation of dynamic (data driven) web sites. One can tell Greenspun is more than a technologist, but a humanist as well. This would explain the appearance of the book some like to critisize. Certainly Greenspun ego is present, but what can you expect from someone who's got a vast array of knowledge and wisdom to share. Definitely a book any intelligent person will love. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what it takes to create web services. Also, this book is the perfect reference for teaching a class on website development, in a manner that gives students a broad perspective before they delve into the inevitable geek stuff: web application programming, data models, and SQL queries. I've used this book at work to educate some of my cooworkers who were programmers or designers, and to give clients instructive lectures on the subject.

Very readable, down-to-earth book on Web Publishing

Greenspun writes in a very direct, down-to-earth and, at times, self-critical manner. Graphics designers, MBA's, bloated corporate management and packaged Web solutions receive ruthless trashing (but: with good arguments to support the trashing). This book contains both technical information (albeit heavily biased towards AOLServer, TCL and Oracle) and clear explanations of the ideas and design choices.Note, this is not a book that will teach you fancy HTML tags, really cool SQL queries or powerplay server-side scripting. You should read it for its ideas and then seek additional documentation for implementation specifics.The book is printed on heavy, glossy paper and is stuffed with Greenspun's photographs (which may be appreciated much more at www.photo.net, a website he started several years ago). The quality of the book's binding is, sadly, quite insufficient. Even with proper care, several pages have fallen out within a few months.In short: I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is serious about (starting in) Web design and, most importantly, online communities.

The best book I bought last year

_Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing_ is everything that most computer books are not: it is well-written, well-organized, thought through thoroughly, funny, opinionated, beautifully laid out, beautifully illustrated, and, best of all, it will not be obsolete in three years. Anyone who is interested in database-backed Web sites (especially people who are not experienced with RDBMS) owes it to himself to take a look at this book. I've read it cover-to-cover twice: the first time to get a sense of the subject (and to be entertained), the second time to learn how to get started. Even though I'm using MySQL/PHP & Cold Fusion/Apache rather than the Oracle/AOLServer combination that Greenspun recommends and focuses on, about 90% of his book is still relevant to what I am doing. This is the best book I have bought in a long time, and I recommend it to anyone interested in the subject.

This book looks horrible ?

... because it is the first coffee table book that I've ever bought and then proceeded to mark up - underling passages, writing notes, questions etc.It is a totally unique book on many different levels. A computer book with photographs? I am attracted to bizarre juxtapositions, loved the concept but was confident that the execution would be lacking. I was wrong. I didn't understand everything (this book has a good deal of code (which I skimmed over)) but at the same time is both quite accessible and an incredible resource for non-programmers. An extraordinary accomplishment.Greenspun makes a compelling case for what he believes a web site should be and at the same time manages to offer lots of specific, practical advice. His core advice - what to do and the technologies to use - has to be on target. It's what smart people pay lots of money to smart consultants for. Unlike any other book I've read, I got the feeling that I had hired a really smart consultant who was telling me exactly what to do and what not to do. If all of this were not enough, the book highlights several free services his site offers to other web site owners interested in providing different kinds of collaboration and interactivity. The services run on his monster machine. Cost, zero. In closing, I'd like to give some examples of his sense of humor. "CORBA circa 1998 is a lot like an Arizona housing development circa 1950. The architect's model looks great. The model home is comfortable. You'll have water and sewage hookups real soon now"."Johnny drives to the bookstore and spends $30 on an 'I stole the program and now I need a book on how to use it' book". "Desktop apps promised to deliver the power of computers to the ordinary citizen; in fact, they delivered the pain of a corporate administration job right into the ordinary citizen's home or office".One other thing - if you're really technically inclined - he basically gives you a blueprint for making a truckload of money. With that, I'll conclude with one more quote. Just bear in mind that this is from a guy who gives away CPU cycles, gives free seminars, and will let you download this book from his web site."Not being a materialist in the U.S. is kind of like not appreciating opera if you live in Milan or art if you live in Paris".

Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing

This is the best stand alone book on web publishing that I have found. It serves as both a reference and a pretty good cover to cover read, which is rare. The loosely related photographs throughout and the high quality paper make it a good buy. It covers all the bases of putting up a web site including the hardware, programming, hosting, design, etc. (plus an outstanding primer on e-commerce) It provides great references for all its topics on both the web and in print. It has some small but useful tutorials on SQL and HTML which can help you at least get started. The thinly veiled contempt that Mr. Greenspun has for Microsoft and even Macintosh is somewhat off-putting for those of us not quite ready or able to embrace Unix; but he does try to point out the benefits of all major platforms, web servers and databases.He doesn't talk much of the future of web design because I don't think he believes that what defines a quality site will change much when we all have cable modems; he often mentions how most current "advances" in programming and operating systems were actually born in the 60's and 70's. Overall, the book gives a strong sense of being up-to-date,unlike most books about the web which seem dated by the time they are printed. I have yet to see a more useful resource for allowing would-be web publishers to see what they are up against.