Introduction

Coming to web development with a blank slate can be pretty intimidating. There are a lot of things to learn about the proper construction of a website, and the most successful websites have a great deal of thought and work put into thembefore they’re even put into production

Although it can be scary, there has never been a better time to get started than the present. Web browsers are finally starting to reach a point where they all follow web standards (more or less). You have to do less fiddling with things to get them working properly now than ever before. We don’t want to jinx it, but we think we can finally start letting our guard down a bit and start trusting browser manufacturers more (yes, even Microsoft).

Who is this book for?

This book is intended for people who are new to developing for the Web and those who are interested in overhauling their current work to be standards-compliant. It is relevant to individuals working within companies and institutions, as well as for those who freelance.

How is this book structured?

This book offers a brief history of the World Wide Web and then walks the reader through several chapters on each of the areas relevant to developing a website. Each chapter covers a separate process or technology relevant to working with the Web today.

Readers learn about planning a website, managing the design and development process, and development using web standards; we also provide an overview of server-based technologies and share sample projects along the way.

Conventions used in this book

To keep this book as clear and easy to follow as possible, the following text conventions are used throughout.

Important words or concepts are normally highlighted on the first appearance in italic type.

Code is presented in fixed-width font.

New or changed code is normally presented in bold fixed-width font.

Pseudo-code and variable input are written in italic fixed-width font.

Menu commands are written in the form Menu Submenu Submenu.

Where we want to draw your attention to something, we’ve highlighted it like this:

Ahem, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Sometimes code won’t fit on a single line in a book. Where this happens, we use an arrow like this:

This is a very, very, very long section of code that should be written all on the same line without a break.

Prerequisites

Have you heard of the Web? Ever used Facebook? How about searched for something on Google? Prerequisites passed, this book provides a great introduction to standards-based development for a novice audience. It doesn’t stop there, however. Intermediate and advanced readers will also learn new concepts they’ll be able to apply to their professional practice.