I found it hard to fault this book since it does exactly what it says on the tin (well, the back cover). If there is a problem, it is that the book is too big.

This is mainly a reference book. The 200 pages of guidance at the start is not a beginner's tutorial, so if you are new to any of the technologies covered, you should look elsewhere for a gentle introduction. But you will probably want this by your side as well. The guidance on, and widespread indicators of browser compatibility are invaluable and are themselves a good enough reason to buy the book.

The 280 dense pages on HTML/XHTML and 540 pages on the Document Object Model, could easily form their own books and are truly comprehensive. In contrast, the CSS and JavaScript references might not be complete enough for some. The author has another book that covers JavaScript in considerable depth.