During the last decade, many tools for Web design have been developed, including those available via the Mac OS X platform. Although it is not as popular as some tools, like PHP: hypertext processor (PHP), Flash, and Extensible Markup Language (XML), the Mac OS X platform offers many opportunities for Web developers. The goal of this book is to present the features of Mac OS X, and to be a handbook for those who are designing and making Web sites using Mac OS X as a platform. In my opinion, this goal has been achieved.

The book is divided into ten chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the reader to Mac OS X, by presenting some of its features. In chapter 2, the graphic possibilities of the Mac, and methods for graphic design, are presented. Chapter 3 presents ways to develop static Web sites. Chapter 4 describes elements of browser development using the Mac. Chapter 5 describes methods for creating dynamic Web pages. In chapter 6, ways to use a Mac with Unix applications are presented. Chapter 7 is dedicated to Apache configuration, and creating modules for Apache. Chapter 8 demonstrates how to design and create databases using MySQL on the Mac platform. Chapters 9 and 10 present some other aspects of using the Mac, including server-side language environments and multimedia, and a description of Mac OS X’s free resources.

Generally, this book should be useful for those who would like to use Mac OS X to design and create Web sites. It is written in an intelligible way, and contains many figures and code examples, which undoubtedly facilitate understanding the material. Another feature of the book is the author’s humorous language, which makes the contents more interesting. This helps a great deal when studying the material in the book.