BKINTNSH.RVW   971230

"Internet in a Nutshell", Valerie Quercia, 1997, 1-56592-323-5,
U$19.95/C$28.95
%A   Valerie Quercia val@oreilly.com
%C   103 Morris Street, Suite A, Sebastopol, CA   95472
%D   1997
%G   1-56592-323-5
%I   O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
%O   U$19.95/C$28.95 800-998-9938 fax: 707-829-0104 nuts@ora.com
%P   450 p.
%S   Nutshell
%T   "Internet in a Nutshell"

The first of the larger, catalogue type of Internet guides was Ed
Krol's "The Internet User's Guide and Catalog" (cf. BKKROL.RVW),
recently updated with special reference to Windows 95 (cf.
BKKROL95.RVW).  Krol's work was published by O'Reilly, whose Nutshell
series has garnered justifiable praise in both the publishing and
computer industries.  Quercia, therefore, has large shoes to fill in
taking on this title.

The Internet, unfortunately, does not appear to be a good candidate
for the Nutshell reference format.  The Internet is not a single
entity, or even a single type of entity, but a complex amalgam of
collections of technologies, protocols, applications, products,
programs, and services.  this does not easily reduce to a quickly
accessible set of lists and tables.

Quercia has done a decent and serviceable job of producing a general
Internet guide, different in style but comparable in scope to
Gilster's "Internet Navigator" (cf. BKINTNAV.RVW) or Comer's "The
Internet Book" (cf. BKINTBOK.RVW).  the strong Web emphasis accurately
reflects the large and growing experience of the net by those who are
presented primarily with a browser interface.

The author's division of the book into parts is reasonable from the
user's perspective, although the logic behind some fo the chapter
divisions may be less so.  Part one consists of the obligatory
introductory chapter.  Part two takes a detailed look at Web browsers,
with chapters on Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer.  It should
be noted, however, that these chapters, and most of the rest of the
book, which looks at email, news, and even ftp through the Netscape
Communicator and Internet Explorer/Mail/News interfaces, deal with
Netscape 4.01 and MSIE (Internet Explorer) 3.02.  Since browser
development has been extremely rapid of late, those with older, or
newer, products may find themselves at a disadvantage.

Under the category of "Finding Stuff" in part three, there are
chapters on Internet addressing, landmark sites, directories and
search engines, finding people, and telnet.  All of these topics
contain information suitable to the novice or intermediate user. 
Email and Usenet news are logically listed together in part four.  The
chapter promoting them seems weak, but it is followed by good advice
on strategies and survival, mailing lists, news, Netscape Messenger
and Collabra, MSIE Mail, and MSIE News.

Files, in part five, are handled quickly but well.  There is
discussion of file types and extensions, ftp and file transfer, a UNIX
ftp command reference, as well as a brief look at file compression and
archiving.  Part six looks at helpers and plugins for the browser
interfaces, first looking at configuring Netscape and MSIE for helper
apps, and them briefly looking at plugins and ActiveX controls.  Web
authoring, in part seven, looks at basic authoring needs, HTML
(HyperText Markup Language), colour, characters, and enhancements. 
Part eight covers IRC (Internet Relay Chat) briefly but reliably, with
an overview chapter plus a reference to those commands found in the
mIRC program.

Given the scope of the Internet, and the relatively small size of this
book, something had to be left out.  One limitation is the choice of
software.  Except for WS_FTP and mIRC, everything relies on either
Netscape Communicator or MSIE.  (Macintosh users are not completely
forgotten, and a number of Mac specific points are noted.)  In regard
to much of the rest of the material, it is well chosen to suit the
general needs of the novice or intermediate user, with a smaller
number of points that would be of use to advanced Internet denizens. 
Coverage is quick, but realistic for the non-specialist.  It provides
a good jumping off point, so long as the reader does not stop there.

copyright Robert M. Slade, 1997   BKINTNSH.RVW   971230