Shelley Powers Books

UNIX documentation typically comes in one of two flavors: at one extreme, light and fluffy books that assume you are a terrified PC user who needs to learn enough UNIX to get by at work, or massive and obscure tomes written for gurus, and indistinguishable from the most incomprehensible man pages. This UNIX book, in contrast, assumes that you are basically a competent and intelligent individual, and that you are sufficiently secure in your self-image at work that you simply want to get things done, simply, by taking advantage of the real power of UNIX without having to learn "man-speak". It doesn't skimp on clear introductions and overviews, but the focus of the book is on practical examples of the most useful UNIX commands and utilities. A minor quibble: the enclosed CD-ROM is a bit heavy with utilities and packages that are probably already resident on your UNIX system (like Perl, Emacs, pbmplus), but it does contain scripts that are used throughout the book and that you'd probably rather not type in. Highly recommended for anyone who really wants to use UNIX, and not just cower or pose.

Do you think that only professionals with expensive tools and years of experience can work with web graphics? This guide tosses that notion into the trash bin.Painting the Web is the first comprehensive book on web graphics to come along in years, and author Shelley Powers demonstrates how readers of any level can take advantage of the graphics and animation capabilities built into today's powerful browsers. She covers GIFs, JPEGs, and PNGs, raster and vector graphics, CSS, Ajax effects, the canvas objects, SVG, geographical applications, and more -- everything that designers (and non-designers) use to literally paint the Web.More importantly, Shelley's own love of web graphics shines through in every example. Not only can you master the many different techniques, you also can have fun doing it.Topics in Painting the Web Graphics are not essential to the web experience, but they do make the difference between a site that's functional and one that's lively, compelling, and exciting. Whether you want to spruce up a website, use photos to annotate your stories, create hot graphics, or provide compelling displays for your data, this is the book for you.

Developing add-on controls and components is increasingly attracting the attention of developers. This book provides information and real-world examples to create custom ASP components using one of the three major development tools: Visual Basic; C++ and Java++.

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a structure for describing and interchanging metadata on the Web, applicable to various domains such as library catalogs, bioinformatics, and artificial intelligence projects. Despite its potential, RDF has been perceived as complex due to its intricate specifications. This book aims to demystify RDF by addressing practical, solvable problems, enabling readers to understand and implement RDF solutions effectively. It provides a foundational explanation of RDF, featuring real-world applications like Mozilla and FOAF, along with infrastructure guidance for building custom applications. The initial part delves into RDF specifications, covering key documents such as RDF Semantics, Concepts, and the RDF Schema. The second section emphasizes programming language support and tools for reviewing, editing, parsing, storing, and manipulating RDF/XML. Subsequent sections explore RDF's data roots, programming support, and practical implementation strategies. Whether your focus is on large-scale information aggregation or smaller projects like weblog syndication, this book equips you with the essential knowledge to apply RDF in various contexts.

If you're new to JavaScript or an experienced web developer seeking to enhance your skills, this resource offers comprehensive coverage of this essential web development language. You'll explore everything from primitive data types to advanced features, including Ajax and dynamic page effects. By the conclusion, you'll be equipped to work with sophisticated libraries and web applications. This edition emphasizes best practices and provides examples of JavaScript in action, guiding you on integrating the language with the browser environment and adhering to proper coding techniques for standards-compliant websites. You'll learn the structure of JavaScript applications, including basic statements and control structures, and identify various JavaScript objects such as String, Number, Boolean, and Function. The book also covers browser debugging tools, event handling, and form events, along with the Browser Object Model and the Document Object Model. You'll gain insights into browser cookies and modern client-side storage techniques, as well as using XML or JSON with Ajax applications. Following proven learning principles, this resource helps you absorb concepts at a manageable pace, enabling you to create powerful and responsive applications across any browser.