From the creator of Travels With Samantha and The Bill Gates Wealth Clock! comes this title that Internet geeks will know well. At once a book on how to do sites the Greenspun way, and an intermediate/high end tutorial, this book shows how to implement a Relational Database backed Web site.
Paperback: 362 pages
Publisher: Ziff Davis Pr (May 1, 1997)
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 1 x 9.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
Reviews
"I have an almost visceral reaction to slow, ugly web sites that show off the work of graphic designers while ignoring the needs of customers. Even if you know nothing about computers, this book will save your company thousands of dollars by steering you away from expensive mistakes. I wish it had been available years ago."
- Mark Hubbard
"As a first time web site builder the book offered nononsense advice on what to do and what not to do without the patronizing attitude or text book jargon. If you use nothing else just check out the mailing list set-up. So efficient and easy to maintain. Also check out the data base ideas for keeping track of your digitized images and if your into it its well worth checking out flashpix."
- A. C.
"Short and focused books are hard to find (ASP by Fedorchek and Rensin is one of the few I remember buying in the past year that wasn't by O'Reilly). So I'm gonna buy this one just to show a bit of support for the intelligent book author.
An honest and straightforward take on engineering practice - good quality is hard to find. Getting people (clients) to think and make informed choices will always be tough. This book is going to make a great educational tool."
- AC
"We have distributed this book throughout our organization because it not only gives details on Web publishing, but gives the reader a feel for the "social environment" of the Web. It is much more than a book about Web databases, although that is what is really driving Web development. Our managers as well as our technicians and programmers enjoyed the book because it is written in an enjoyable, humorous way. We not only use it as a reference, but we all find ourselves going back to read passages and compare our own experiences to incidents mentioned in the book. The only problem is the title. It doesn't really do justice to the wealth of information and enjoyment that any reader will experience."
- msamis
"I can't think of anyone in the web industry -- engineers, content producers, advertising sales, etc. -- that wouldn't benefit from the remarkably common-sensical (yet somehow lucidly revealing) presentation that Greenspun's spun.
The only problem is that the title makes it look like a techie book -- one for database techies. There is plenty of that covered, but for me (a non-database techie) there's so many gems sprikled throughout that I recommend it to anyone, techie or not.
I spent 2.5 years writing a book of my own, yet I feel this is one of the best books I've ever read. The only problem I could point out, besides the ill-conceived title, is that some of Greenspun's nomenclature gets overused and somewhat weary. A small price to pay for the fantastic light he sheds on common-sense web publishing."
- Jeffrey Friedl
"MIT computer science professor Greenspun has been designing and implementing web sites (big successful ones) for years rather than months, and it's obvious from the book he knows of what he speaks. No punches are pulled skewering software and hardware companies for design flaws, bad customer service, etc... names are named! A fair amount of code is given, but the main attraction is his intelligent overviews of all the major issues I, a novice to this area, was looking for (e.g. fundamental design issues, pros and cons of various scripting languages and servers and database engines). The site design perspectives in particular are very valuable. Grenspun has a wicked sense of humor... reading the book literally had me laughing out loud every few pages! The book is written for 'the intelligent layman', and he 90%+ succeeds IMHO; there were parts I felt I needed more more programming background to really understand. Other than that one caveat, I view it as an almost flawless book that I'd recommend to anyone interested in this topic. BTW he has a dynamite web site"
- A. C.
"There is seemingly an endless supply of books about 'The Web', so it's hard to get excited about any one in particular. Philip Greenspun's "Database Backed Web Sites: the thinking person's guide to web publishing", on the other hand, is very good. As opposed to being a compendium of HTML tags and pre-made home pages "so you can be online tonight!", the book's aim is to make the reader aware that there's more to the web than cute Java scripts and silly animated GIFs. The main idea is that a static web site resembles a coffee table book with pretty pictures: you look at it once or twice, then it's just taking space. Greenspun explains how to create web sites with databases behind them to manage the content, provide interactive discussion forums where the users provide a lot of the content, and help analyze the server logs to see what your users are doing while visiting your web site. Instead of the step-by-step approach, teaching is done by case studies, which I consider a preferrable approach, since it makes the reader think and forces understanding before something can be produced. There's plenty of light humor throughout the book, without getting too silly or distracting from the main purpose. And the book doesn't come with a CD. This is actually a good thing, since the author makes what would be on the CD available on the Internet via FTP servers. This has the advantage that the material can be updated over time. The book includes a light discussion of Internet connectivity options, as well as a somewhat detailed description of the web server software and operating systems in use. While not complete (VMS, for example, is not mentioned), it's impossible to be current while publishing a book. Even a monthly magazine is out of date before it hits the stand. In sum, definitely recommended reading."
- Javier
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