Posts filed under 'Books'
My latest book, Getting StartED with CSS, has been published, and is already in stock at Amazon.com. “Who needs yet another book on CSS?” you may ask. The reason I wrote it is because I felt the process of learning CSS was made too hard by the books that I used to learn it. Let’s face it. Learning CSS can be an uphill struggle. It’s not because the basic syntax is difficult. In fact, it’s quite easy. The main problem lies in the infinite number of ways you can combine properties and selectors to achieve the effect you want. Another big problem has been the inconsistency in the way browsers have rendered CSS.
This second problem is finally becoming less acute, thanks to the release of Internet Explorer 8 in March this year. IE8 supports the whole of CSS2.1, and its accurate rendering of CSS puts it on a level with other standards-compliant browsers, such as Firefox, Safari, and Opera. Getting StartED with CSS was written after the release of IE8, so it’s bang up to date; and it concentrates on CSS as rendered by modern browsers, rather than getting bogged down in details of hacks to persuade older browsers to behave. However, since the bane of web designers’ lives, IE6, is likely to be around for some time to come, the book does offer advice on how to deal with the most common bugs in IE6.
Where I hope my book stands out from others is in the way it avoids throwing a whole load of theory at your before you can achieve anything practical with CSS. Instead of forcing you to wade through a detailed explanation of classes and other selectors before you start using CSS, I show you how to achieve practical results with the most basic selector of all, the type (or tag) selector, which redefines the default look of HTML tags. I don’t get into classes until Chapter 4 (of 12).
Another difference is the way I approach the box model, an understanding of which is essential to working with CSS. Instead of bamboozling you with a whole pile of theory, I devote a whole chapter to showing how margins are used to create space between elements and lay them out. The following chapter builds on this by discussing how to add backgrounds and borders. Finally, a third chapter brings the whole box model together by adding padding, width, and height into the mix. My aim is that by introducing each aspect of the box model gradually, you build up a better understanding of how it all fits together. By the of the twelfth chapter, you have studied all visual and print properties in CSS2.1, including some of the less well-known ones, such as generated content.
Perhaps my only disappointment with the book is that it’s printed in black and white. However, the plus side is that the publisher has given it a relatively inexpensive price tag, at least for a computer book. The cover price is $24.99, and many online sellers are offering it for a discount. Sadly, the price is more expensive outside the USA, but that always seems to be the case with books.
The book’s companion website contains a complete reference to all CSS2.1 visual and print properties, and selectors, together with lots of examples of the properties in action. I hope you’ll find the site useful even if you don’t buy the book. But, of course, I hope you will decide to buy. 
November 28th, 2009
In a few hours’ time, I get in a plane and fly off to Los Angeles for Adobe MAX. It’s my first time in southern California, so I’m really looking forward to it. It will also be great to hang out with like-minded people for a few days. Writing books can be a lonely occupation at times. If you’re going to MAX, look out for me and say “Hi!” If you’re lucky, you might even get a free copy of one of my books.
October 1st, 2009
The chapters are written, the screenshots taken, and the copy editing has begun. . . My new book, Getting StartED with CSS, is bang on schedule to hit the bookstores in November. The book is aimed principally at beginners, but after a gentle start, it moves at a fairly rapid pace. So, if you’re one of those people who have dabbled, but still “don’t get CSS”, then this book is for you, as well.
My motive for writing the book was the release of Internet Explorer 8, which offers full support for the whole of CSS2.1. Of course, it will take some time before older, buggy versions of Internet Explorer finally disappear. Even so, the rapid uptake of IE8 means that more than half of all people surfing the web now use a standards-compliant browser. IE8’s support for CSS2.1 is as good as Firefox, Safari, Google Chrome, and Opera. In some respects, it’s even better. If cross-browser support for CSS has been holding you back, it shouldn’t do so any longer.
The other thing I had in mind is that most books I have read on CSS either throw a lot of rules at you all at once, or they just concentrate on “cool” techniques. My aim was to avoid front-loading the book with a mass of rules. After outlining a few basics, I introduce new rules and concepts only as they’re needed. However, you can’t avoid rules in CSS; and by the time you reach the end of Getting StartED with CSS, you will have studied every visual and print property in the CSS2.1 specification. The book teaches you some cool techniques, but the main emphasis is on understanding how CSS works by explaining how everything fits together and showing you how to use CSS analysis tools, such as Firebug, the Web Inspector panel in Safari 4, and the Developer Tools panel in IE8.
Like most of my other books, it’s a mixture of reference material and hands-on exercises. There’s also a very comprehensive appendix that lists all properties with their permitted values, and references back to the chapters where you can find a full description of how to use them.
September 4th, 2009
If you’re in the United States and own a Kindle, you can now get PHP Solutions, PHP Object-Oriented Solutions, and Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8 delivered wirelessly to you in just a minute after placing your order on Amazon.com. This means that most of my books are now available on Kindle.
The only recent ones not yet available on Kindle are The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 and The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4. Both are long and contain a large number of screenshots, so it might take some time to convert them. Once they are, though, I’m sure Kindle owners will be delighted at no longer needing to lug such heavy books around. 
I only wish that Amazon would make Kindle available in Europe (and other parts of the world), too. I’ve been itching to get my hands on a Kindle.
March 20th, 2009
My publisher, friends of ED, is feeling in a generous mood. Each Thursday until further notice, it’s offering a selected friends of ED eBook for just $10. The catch? You have to snag it within 24 hours. This week’s $10 offer is Web Development Solutions: Ajax, APIs, Libraries, and Hosted Services Made Easy by Mark ‘Norm’ Norman Francis and Christian Heilmann. The clock started ticking at 0800 UTC, so go grab it while you can. And don’t forget to check http://friendsofed.com/dotw/ each Thursday to see the Deal of the Week.
March 5th, 2009
O’Reilly, the leading computer book publisher, has posted the results of a detailed analysis of the state of the computer book market in 2008. What both surprised and delighted me is the revelation that my book, The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP is listed by O’Reilly as the number 3 best seller in what it calls the Large Programming Languages category.
O’Reilly classifies a programming language as “large” if more than 100,000 copies of books dedicated to that language sell during the year. That’s the total for all titles, not how many copies of each book that sell. According to O’Reilly’s data (gathered from Nielsen BookScan, which tracks roughly 70% of book sales in the USA), books on PHP were the third most popular category, selling a total of more than 173,000 units. The bad news is that 129 titles were competing for the same PHP book market, making the average sales for each title a meagre 1,340. I haven’t seen my sales figures for Q4 2008, but I’m pleased to say that the figures for the first three quarters put my sales well above the average. However, they’re not all that big, which is why I was surprised to find my book at number 3. O’Reilly lists the top 5 as follows:
- Pro C# 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform
- Sams Teach Yourself PHP, MySQL and Apache All in One
- The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS3 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP
- Head First Design Patterns
- PHP 6 and MySQL 5 for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
It’s interesting to note that three of the top 5 are about PHP, confirming my belief that PHP is a strong language that’s here to stay for a long while.
With so many books competing for a relatively small market, you might wonder why authors like me continue to write. Researching, writing, and editing a book takes many months of hard work—and all for the sake of a couple of dollars royalty on each copy sold. Part of the answer lies in the fact that I like writing. I did it for many years in my career as a radio and TV journalist; it’s what I’m good at. It’s also nice to see my work in print. In TV and radio news, I might have been seen or heard by millions, but once the news bulletin was over, that was it. Although computer books have a relatively short shelf life, they certainly last longer than a news bulletin; and I hope my readers get practical value from them.
The other thing that drives many of us to write is the hope that, one day, we’ll hit the big time. O’Reilly has also analyzed the top three best-selling writers of computer books: David Pogue, Scott Kelby, and Andy Rathbone. Between them, they account for nearly 6 percent of the computer book market. Andy Rathbone, who comes in at number 3, sells more books each year than I have sold since I started writing about PHP and web design five years ago. David Pogue, the biggest seller, clocked up an impressive 190,000 copies last year. I’m sure he’s delighted—and let’s be honest, he deserves success because he’s a good writer—but it pales into insignificance alongside JK Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter.
Anyway, thank you to everyone who bought my book and helped me reach number 3 in the Large Programming Languages category. And thank you to O’Reilly for doing all the number crunching.
February 27th, 2009
The problem I reported yesterday with the friendsofed.com domain appears to have been resolved, and the main website is now back online. To get the source code for my books, go to the friends of ED downloads page, and select the link for the relevant book. The books are listed alphabetically using the full title, so for example The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4 is listed under T, not under E. You can also get the source code from my site, as indicated in yesterday’s post.
If you’re contemplating buying one of my books, and want a better idea of what they’re like, sample chapters in PDF format are available for each title. Just go to the list of web design books at friends of ED, and click the link for the title you’re interested in. This brings up a description of the book; you can download the sample chapter from the links on the right.
February 22nd, 2009
Normally, the source code for my books is available from the downloads page of the friends of ED website. However, there appears to be a problem with the friendsofed.com domain registration, and the site is currently offline. I have no idea how long it will take friends of ED to get back online, so I have uploaded the source files for my Dreamweaver and PHP books to my website (foundationphp.com).
You can find a link to the zip file for each book at the bottom of the following pages (files added for “Foundation PHP 5 for Flash”):
The problem with the main friends of ED website does not affect the friends of ED forum, where you can post any questions about the books and any problems you might encounter.
February 21st, 2009
I seem to be jinxed with the way phpMyAdmin “celebrates” the publication of one of my books by changing its setup process. It happened twice with Foundation PHP for Dreamweaver 8. I updated the instructions between the first and second printings, but was caught out by a second change. Now it’s happened with The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP. The book was published on 1 December, and on the very same day phpMyAdmin 3.1.0 was released, changing the setup procedure yet again.
I’ll create a full tutorial on the revised procedure when I get time, but you can find a summary of the main differences on the updates page for The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4.
December 7th, 2008
phpMyAdmin, the popular front-end to the MySQL database, has issued the first stable release of the version 3.0 series. The basic functionality remains unchanged, but there are some important differences. To begin with, phpMyAdmin 3.0 requires a minimum of PHP 5.2 and MySQL 5.0. Don’t try installing it with earlier versions of PHP or MySQL—it won’t work.
The main changes affecting the phpMyAdmin user interface concern the creation of new tables. They can be summarized as follows:
- When setting a default value for a column (field), you need to select a value from the drop-down menu. The options are
None, As defined, NULL, or CURRENT_TIMESTAMP. If you select As defined, type the default value you want the column to have in the field immediately below.
- As before, phpMyAdmin treats all columns as
NOT NULL. In other words, all columns require a value to be inserted in them. To make a column optional, select the Null checkbox. In the version 2 series, this was a drop-down menu.
- To set an index on a column, choose the appropriate index type from the
Index drop-down menu. The choices are PRIMARY, UNIQUE, INDEX, and FULLTEXT. In the version 2 series, these were represented by radio buttons.
- To create an auto incrementing column (normally used in conjunction with a primary key), select the
A_I checkbox. In the version 2 series, this was a drop-down menu called Extra.
October 5th, 2008
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