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Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing

by Philip Greenspun

Synopsis

Written in the late 1990s this book describes many elegant ways to design different types of websites. During the course of the the book, Greenspun also elaborates on managing a team of programmers, qualities of different programming languages and his preferences.

Review

Greenspun is a highly qualified teacher at MIT and knows what he is talking about. This book explains in easy terms the problems and the corresponding solutions for many problems. After reading his book (and a few more of his articles that he publishes on the Internet) I felt quite cheated when I looked back at my education.

Besides somewhat weaker insights about philosophical ideas related to the Internet and technology I drew the following conclusions out of his book:

• It pays to have a handful of very good qualified vs. having a large team of mediocre programmers
• Plan to keep your programmers for life and not just for a project
• Rely on facts not on marketing (somehow obvious, yet not widely use)
• It is not true that programs always have to be faulty and poorly tested.

I recommend this book, and for that matter and other publication of Mr. Greenspun.

Click here to read an online version of "Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing".

photographs courtesy Philip Greenspun

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