March 1998
Beyond HTML
Dynamic Navigation with DOM
By Mark McManus
The Document Object Model specifies how Web browsers should deal with HTML, CSS, and XML documents, and also defines a structure to describe Web pages. As Mark shows, knowledge of your document structure makes building dynamic, interactive pages easier.
XML: Can the Desperate Perl Hackers Do It?
By Michael Leventhal
While he wouldn't write an XML processor in Perl, the language can still be used to do useful things with XML documents. To prove his point, Michael presents a program that checks whether an XML document is "well formed."
Creating Your Own Tags with Cold Fusion
By Leon Chalnick
Allaire's Cold Fusion includes an API that allows you to create custom HTML tags that can return values, call third-party DLLs, and perform other advanced functions. Leon shows you how.
C O L U M N S :
Webmaster's Domain
After a year of waiting for tools to mature, Lincoln D. Stein decides that Java and HTML have become further Balkanized, but sees a glimmer of hope in the abstraction of interfaces to Web data sources.
Visual Designer
This month, Lynda Weinman looks at the effective use of color, and discusses color principles that might be unfamiliar to the average Web publisher.
Doing Justice to the Web
With over six hundred gambling-related sites on the Web, Catherine Sansum Kirkman wonders whether virtual gambling is legal. If you're wagering from within the U.S., chances are you're breaking the law.
Database Developer
The past year has seen an explosion in Web-oriented database standards, technologies and tools. In his debut column, Ken North sorts through database architectures and shows how to select the right tools for the job at hand.
Programming with Perl
One of the great challenges within a stateless protocol like HTTP is how to maintain a session. Randal L. Schwartz shows how you can keep a process alive during an entire conversation.
Java Alley
Java's Swing library is a collection of user-interface components that greatly enhance features found in the AWT. This month, Bruce Eckel begins his discussion of Swing and shows how you can add tool tips, icons, buttons, borders, and more.
D E P A R T M E N T S :
Script Junkie
Working with visitors from around the globe can prove to be challenging, especially when it comes to presenting weights, measurements, currencies, and the like. Nancy Hickman provides a collection of JavaScript tools that will help you internationalize your Web site.
Lab Note
Wiring a Web database to your site can often prove to be a time-consuming and frustrating process. But as Rick Dobson explains, Tango Enterprise 3.0 makes it easy.
The Home Page
Editor-in-Chief, Michael Floyd talks about "Achieving Greatness."
News & Notes
WIDLing Away at XML; AgentSoft Announces Shipment of LiveAgent Pro.
The Last Page
Michael Swaine and his "Birds of Prey."
