The 4D Web Companion: Links Mentioned

The links mentioned in The 4D Web Companion are kept up-to-date on this site. Complete lists of Recommended Products and Recommended Books are listed on their own pages. This page includes all other links.

4D Programming: Books, Journals and Articles

For more suggestions, visit these pages on the main site:: 4D Links; 4D Web Integration Links; Programming Book Reviews

4D NUG
http://www.4dnug.com/4d_mailing_list_faq.html: The most popular English-language 4D discussion group on the Internet. Turn here for help with 4D programming problems.
Dimensions
http://www.dimensionsmag.com/: Dimensions magazine is devoted to 4D programming tips, techniques, and resources. The magazine and sample code provide lots of help for developing 4D programming skills.
Planète 4D
http://www.planete4d.com/: This French-language 4D technical journal contains detailed information about 4D often unavailable from any other source.
Programming 4th Dimension
http://www.4dcompanion.com/products/program4D/: The most popular guide to 4D programming. This book and sample CD explain dozens of techniques for creating better 4D systems more easily. (More...)
The 4D 6.5 Companion
http://www.4dcompanion.com/products/65companion/: This book picks up where Programming 4th Dimension leaves off. The 340-page book covers all of the changes made between 4D V6 and 4D 6.5. All the information applies directly to 4D 6.7 and later. (More...)
The Joy of Triggers (Updated for 2000)
http://www.4dcompanion.com/downloads/papers/: This article includes the most complete and up-to-date information available about 4D triggers. Readers of Programming 4th Dimension should download it for important new information. There are several other articles and sample chapters available at the downloadable papers section of this site.
Regex in 4D
http://www.mitchenall.com/regex_in_4d/: Regular expressions are almost magical in their power...and complexity. Mark Mitchenall's detailed example is an excellent guide for 4D programmers new to regular expressions.
Expat4D 4D XML Parser
http://www.mitchenall.com/products/freeware/4d/expat4d/index.phtml: This shareware plug-in brings the Expat XML parser to the 4D world.

HTML, CSS, and XML

For more suggestions, visit these pages on the main site:: Usability Links; Web Design Links; HTML Book Reviews; Web Design Book Reviews; Usability Book Reviews

404 Error Pages: The Good, the Bad, and the Incredibly Odd.
http://www.404lab.com/area404.asp: Custom error pages can offer one of the easiest (and most overlooked) opportunities to improve a site. The Area404 site provides a variety of inspirational, aggravating, and hilarious examples of actual 404 (Page Not Found) error pages.
A List Apart
http://www.alistapart.com/: Easily one of the best Web design sites around. The content covers a wide range of subjects in depth. The authors are highly skilled graphic designers who are struggling with the real problems of building quality Web sites.
Browser-Safe Colors: http://www.lynda.com/hexh.html; A quick and easy location for checking the browser-safe colors. Try viewing the pages on different monitors, browsers, and machines to get a full and depressing awareness of the hopelessness of trying to control color on the Web.; http://entries.the5k.org/171/visualizer.html; This page lets you test different text and background color combinations interactively. Highly addictive. [This link is not included in the book.]
CSS Master Compatibility Chart
http://www.webreview.com/style/css1/charts/mastergrid.shtml: In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice, they're different. This joke could have been invented with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) in mind. The CSS books talk about how it should work as if it really did work that way. It doesn't. The Master Compatibility Chart is an invaluable aid when working with CSS.
Fear of Style Sheets
http://www.alistapart.com/stories/fear/: The harsh reality of CSS as it exists today. These articles are written by Jeffrey Zeldman, a champion of standards-based Web design. He is a practical idealist.
HTML Writers Guild
http://www.hwg.org/resources/: This site is a good starting point if you're looking for help learning HTML.

Usability

For more suggestions, visit these pages on the main site:: Usability Links; Web Design Links; HTML Book Reviews; Web Design Book Reviews; Usability Book Reviews

Jakob Nielsen's Usability Web site: http://www.useit.com/; Jakob Nielsen is the best-known usability expert in the world. His site is full of thought-provoking research summaries and opinions.
User Response Times: http://www.useit.com/papers/responsetime.html; How fast does a Web page have to be? The answer to this question is hardwired into the human nervous system and explained on this page.
Usability Book Reviews: http://www.4dcompanion.com/bookreviews/usability.html; Suggestions on the best available printed guides to usability.
Usable Web: http://www.usableweb.com/; This comprehensive collection of usability links is itself an excellent example of usable Web site design.

Accessibility

For more suggestions, visit these pages on the main site:: Usability Links; Web Design Links; HTML Book Reviews; Web Design Book Reviews; Usability Book Reviews

CAST Bobby Testing Service
http://www.cast.org/bobby/: Making Web sites simpler for users with disabilities, such as poor vision, often improves the site for everyone. Accessibility is an increasingly important design factor for commercial and legal reasons. The CAST site provides free automated accessibility testing tools.
Vischeck Vision Simulator
http://www.vischeck.com/index.shtml: Roughly 20% of men suffer from some kind of color blindness. This novel site enables you to simulate how images appear to people with various kinds of color blindness. Images can be tested for free at the site, with a Java applet, or with a Photoshop plug-in.
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/WAI-WEBCONTENT-19990505/: Accessibility guidelines from the World Wide Web Consortium.

Other Web Servers and Tools

Apache: http://www.apache.org/
XBitHack Documentation for Apache: http://www.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/mod_include.html#xbithack; The XBitHack enables you to tell Apache to process Server Side Include (SSI) tags inside files with any extension.
ColdFusion: http://www.coldfusion.com/
Perl Sites: http://www.perl.com/; http://www.perldoc.com/; http://perl.apache.org/
PHP: http://www.php.net/
WEBINCLUDE Documentation
http://www.webstar.com/products/webstar/docs/ws4manual.58.html: WEBINCLUDE is a custom WebSTAR Server Side Include (SSI) tag for embedding remote Web pages inside WebSTAR pages. It provides a simple way to add dynamic content to WebSTAR sites.
Active Server Page (ASP) Sites: http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/; http://www.asp.net/; http://www.asptoday.com/

Security

SSL Certificate Authorities: http://www.thawte.com/; http://www.verisign.com/
Web Bugs: http://www.privacyfoundation.org/resources/webbug.asp; Paranoid? You will be after reading this article or any of the others at the Privacy Foundation site.

Web Standards

For more suggestions, visit these pages on the main site:: Internet Standards Organizations Links; Downloadable Standards

Two-Character Country Codes: http://www.din.de/gremien/nas/nabd/iso3166ma/codlstp1/en_listp1.html; These two-character country codes are used and required by many Internet standards and services. Download a copy for quick reference.
HTML 4.01 Standard: At the World Wide Web Consortium: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/; In PDF format: http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/html40.pdf.gz; In optimized PDF format: http://www.4dcompanion.com/downloads/standards/html40.pdf
Internet Assigned Name Authority (IANA): http://www.iana.net/; The IANA is the official registrar of several Internet standards, including MIME types.
MIME Type Application Page: http://www.isi.edu/cgi-bin/iana/mediatypes.pl; Register for your own MIME type and impress your boss!
Roughly 300 Registered MIME Types: http://www.isi.edu/in-notes/iana/assignments/media-types/media-types
World Wide Web Consortium: http://www.w3c.org/; The definitive source for Web standards.

If you find an out-of-date link, please send an email.