The book is in the usual Unleashed format. That is to say the same size, weight and density as half a gold painted breeze block. The majority of the book covers Java, Java script, CGI, HTML, VBScript, ActiveX and Perl. Not much on web site design and planning. As a primer in learning a language it is very good. As a book on web design, layout security etc. it is not that useful. Rather like many C books will tell you how to program but not what application to write. As a general web book I prefer “HTML & CGI Unleashed”.
Each language is covered in a separate section. As the book is close on 1000 pages each section is as large as some books. It is easy to dip into subjects and use as a specific language reference. The only problem here is that the various languages change over time at differing rates. This will make some sections obsolete long before others. Whilst IE is on the CD Netscape Navigator is covered in the text.
Unfortunately the CD is not readable under Win3.1 It requires NT 4.0 (not even 3.51) to use. It contains the usual stuff MSVisualJ++, ActiveX, IE3 etc. Also two electronic books one on VB and one on Java.
This book is defiantly aimed at people in the web development business who develop a range of web pages or sites who will love this book. (I still use plain HTML.) Not a cheap book at 46UKP but I do not think it is over priced.