October 2000
Tools of the Trade
Wrenching Decision: Choose Your Favorite Tools
A Compilation of Industry Recommendations
Surveys may tell you what tools the majority of people buy, but only developers and designers in the field can tell you which ones they actually use. Find out which products 10 professionals choose for their own sites.
Serving Dynamic PDF Files
By Godfrey Nolan
Although Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF) is a reliable way to post picture-perfect information on the Internet, few Webmasters dare to generate PDF files dynamically. As Godfrey points out, a few software components could change all that.
S T R A T E G Y :
Upper Hand
Associate Products Editor Mana Tominaga lists eight fun gadgets for busy businesspeople.
Corporate Strategist
ASPs make a comeback. Cheryl Currid helps you decide if your company is ready to outsource its toolset.
Web Sites off the Rack
Some big companies are teaming up to develop and host sites for small business. Sandy Tapper distinguishes actual competition from exaggerated threat.
Product Reviews
Microsoft Project 2000 and CAi SuperProject and SuperProject/Net
Product Reviews
Three Web customer interaction management tools
D E S I G N :
Integrated Design
Put away those fancy graphics programs—sometimes a simple text editor is all you need. Molly Holzschlag hails the unsung heroes of Web development.
Inside Design Shops
Hip-hop breaks through to the Web. Lucas Daniel takes a look at how designers are keeping up with culture.
Page Views
Turodrique Fuad and Marc Yergovich of Papermedia show how they built an emotional non-profit site, "Refugee Camp in the Heart of the City."
Product Reviews
Canvas 7 Professional
Product Reviews
DDJ Holdings Swish and Blue Pacific ASP Turbine
Product Reviews
IBM HotMedia
P R O G R A M M I N G :
Java@Work
Still developing GUI-based programs the hard way? Al Williams suggests trying the document-view architecture for a change.
Programming with Perl
When multiple copies of a script do battle on his server, Randal L. Schwartz, with a few lines of code, ensures that there's only one winner.
Script Junkie
Al Williams reminds you not to overlook using regular expressions within your JavaScript apps.
XML@Large
Walking the DOM was never this easy. Michael Floyd takes a look at the Microsoft MSXML parser.
A Database-Independent API for PHP
PHP may be great for some tasks, but when it comes to database connectivity, the language could use a little help. Sterling Hughes gives his humble opinion.
Product Reviews
Sun Forté for Java Community Edition
Product Reviews
Inprise/Borland JBuilder
I N F R A S T R U C T U R E :
Connections
Understanding the five challenges of distributed site design is just the first step. John Stewart leads the way.
Platforms
Ray Valdés shows you how to perform your own research with an automatic site survey tool.
Product Reviews
VA FullOn 2X2 and Penguin 1U Server
E N D TO E N D :
The Home Page
Editor in Chief Amit Asaravala can't stop making recommendations.
Webmaster's Domain
Lincoln D. Stein examines the small-and-specific toolbox philosophy versus the large-and-multipurposed philosophy.
Redirect
Dale Dougherty sings the praises of iMovie for video editing.
Haiku Review
What happens when product press releases are written but noone reads them? They get recycled here.
Help Desk
Brett Error describes the qualities of a good Web developer.
Bookmarks
Eugene Eric Kim gives props to Building Web Applications with UML for setting a process for developing Web applications.
The Last Page
Risks are everywhere, but how much should you worry about the various catastrophes that might befall? Michael Swaine doesn't know, so he's asking you.
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