Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing
by Philip Greenspun · first published 1999
65% recommend35% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Teaches how to build websites and web companies from first principles rather than tool trends, using a database-backed approach, napkin-style diagrams and a personal voice. Free online, and still worth reading.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
Related books
2007–2026Software engineering for Internet applications
Eve Astrid Andersson
Recommended by 10 · mentioned by 1410 recommend · 14 mention10 recommend · 1410 recommend
2009–2025C# in Depth
Jon Skeet
Recommended by 29 · mentioned by 3929 recommend · 39 mention29 recommend · 3929 recommend
2008–2026TCP/IP Illustrated
W. Richard Stevens, Kevin R. Fall, Gary R. Wright
Recommended by 58 · mentioned by 8458 recommend · 84 mention58 recommend · 8458 recommend
2008–2026Expert C programming!
Peter Van der Linden
Recommended by 88 · mentioned by 11188 recommend · 111 mention88 recommend · 11188 recommend
2009–2026Unix Network Programming
W. Richard Stevens, Bill Fenner, Andrew M. Rudoff, Richard W. Stevens
Recommended by 54 · mentioned by 6954 recommend · 69 mention54 recommend · 6954 recommend
2007–2026Computer Networks
Andrew S. Tanenbaum, John David Wetherall, David J. Wetherall, Nickolas Feamster
Recommended by 50 · mentioned by 10450 recommend · 104 mention50 recommend · 10450 recommend
2007–2026Hackers & painters
Graham, Paul
Recommended by 109 · mentioned by 245109 recommend · 245 mention109 recommend · 245109 recommend
2007–2026The C Programming Language
Brian W. Kernighan, Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie
Recommended by 246 · mentioned by 501246 recommend · 501 mention246 recommend · 501246 recommend
…Felleisen, The Little Schemer Friedman and Wand and Haynes, Essentials of Programming Languages [1st edition] James F. Gimpel, Algorithms in Snobol4 Paul Graham, On Lisp Philip Greenspun, Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing Grune and Jacobs, Parsing Techniques: A Practical Guide Daniel Hillis, The Connection Machine Kernighan and Pike, The Practice of Programming Kernighan and Pike, The Unix Programming Environment…
on “Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?” ↗Both your site and the original post are great starts. Anyone reading or writing these sorts of fundamental web programming tutorials should look at Philip Greenspun's books Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing and Software Engineering for Internet Applications, both available free online (The latter is a stripped down version of the former, written for goal-oriented MIT students who don't want anecdotes or…
on “What is a Web Framework?” ↗A tangent comment, but his website is such a fun throwback. I remember finding the Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing (https://philip.greenspun.com/panda/) when it was first put up. What an amazing eye opener for me at the time to what the internet would/could be. Plus I loved his napkin-style diagrams and interspersed…
on “Early Retirement (2006)” ↗Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing: http://philip.greenspun.com/panda and other Greenspun writings. Yes the technical stuff in that book is dated, but what I really liked was the approach to building websites (and companies) from "first…
on “Articles, Ideas, Books and/or Concepts that have changed your life” ↗Start with these 2 books from Philip Greenspun: - Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing - Internet Application Workbook, http://philip.greenspun.com/books/
on “Ask HN: Web Fundamentals for a Newb” ↗…or Tcl) or a complex powerful language (e.g., Common Lisp or Java). http://philip.greenspun.com/wtr/aolserver/introduction-1.htm... Philip also discusses this idea in chapter 13 of his classic book, "Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing" (http://philip.greenspun.com/panda/). But as Alan Kay points out, this RPC-type model still hasn't evolved to a point where you can pass around self-contained objects that are RCATWD.
on “The Deep Insights of Alan Kay” ↗First part of the question (actual influences): 1) Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing (not strictly a book). http://philip.greenspun.com/panda/ 2) The "Dragon Book" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principles_of_Compiler_Design 3) Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach Second part…
on “Ask HN: What three books impacted your career the most?” ↗Philip And Alex's Guide To Web Publishing, http://philip.greenspun.com/panda/ . It's even almost as old as SICP but as far as I remember, the stuff in it is still mostly valid. Especially the part where it describes javascript as "the blink…
on “What’s the web dev equivalent of SICP?” ↗This was cool back in the early days of the web. It was used by Philip Greenspun, who wrote the classic "Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing": https://philip.greenspun.com/panda/
on “AOLserver is America Online's Open-Source web server” ↗Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing: https://philip.greenspun.com/panda/
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite book on web development?” ↗…based on a TCL server. All the pages were backed by TCL code that we could pull out of a database on the fly. It was based on the work done around AOL server at the time. It was pretty cool to read "Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing", he had done lots of the same things we had.
on “Tcl/tk vs. the web” ↗…thanks for suggesting it! I think that there are quite a few authors who have shown that there is a market for the book as well as for an open source "edition" of the book. My favorite from the past was Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing [1] and perhaps more recent is the very complimentary NAND To Tetris [2] I would imagine that the hard part is dealing with the publisher and getting them on board with it as well. Added to my list!…
on ““Code” 2nd Edition Now Available” ↗fwiw, his, 'Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing' is pretty cool.
on “Introduction to AOLserver, Part 1 (1999)” ↗TiVo The Commodore 64 Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing. Particularly the part where I learned what an RDBMS was.
on “Ask YC: What's on your "Holy Shit" list?” ↗That link is to Philip and Alex's Guide to Web Publishing. I'd looked at a lot of pages on that site before a while ago, but didn't read that book, thinking maybe it's out of date and not worth reading. Boy I was wrong, it's gold. Looking at it just now, I…
on “Who Says Tcl Rules?” ↗