HTML & CSS: The Good Parts: Better Ways to Build Websites That Work

by Ben Henick

HTML and CSS are the workhorses of web design, and using them together to build consistent, reliable web pages requires both skill and knowledge. The task is more difficult if you're relying on outdated, confusing, and unnecessary HTML hacks and workarounds. Author Ben Henick shows you how to avoid those traps by going beyond the standard tips, tricks, and techniques to connect the underlying theory and design of HTML and CSS to your everyday work habits. With this practical book, you'll learn how to work with these tools far more effectively than is standard practice for most web developers. Whether you handcraft individual pages or build templates, HTML & CSS: The Good Parts will help you get the most out of these tools in all aspects of web page design-from layout to typography and to color.

Genres: Programming, Reference, Web, Technical, Computers

350 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2009

About the author

Ben Henick is a freelance web developer and writer whose professional talents are exceeded only by his demonstrated fondness for navelgazing. He lives near Kansas City, though most of his clients haven’t noticed… because the Web is neat that way.

Ben’s opus about Web best practices, HTML & CSS: The Good Parts, was released by O’Reilly Media in February 2010. His writing can also be found at A List Apart and the Opera Web Standards Curriculum.

Reviews

[Chris Seltzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book steals the name from Crockford's excellent JavaScript: The Good Parts. That book is one of the best ever written, while this is simply a very good technical book.

Avoiding comparisons to its namesake, this book teaches the basics of HTML and CSS, which remain relevant even as they have evolved. There, of course, will be a limit to how much any new reader will really take away from the book, especially as modern frameworks abstract away so much of the fundamentals.

But for now, I'd still recommend anyone starting out in web development to flip through this one.

[Anton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Это для новичков либо тех любителей, которым надо систематизировать знания. Опытному программисту лучше что-то более продвинутое, если есть потребность.

[Alessandro Pellizzari · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book's companion website. Questa è la frase che leggerete più spesso in questo libro. Più di "Example", più di "Result screenshot", più di qualsiasi altra cosa. Inoltre tutto il libro è una specie di blog, in cui il tono è spesso "Esiste il modo di fare questo, ma non ve lo dico" o "Per fare questo potete usare tag1, tag2, tag2 o altri" o "Alcuni browser lo supportano, altri no". Tutto è trattato in modo abbastanza fumoso e poco chiaro. Se mi dici che alcuni browser non supportano una tal caratteristica, mi aspetto che mi dici almeno quali, e invece "See this book's companion website", o peggio, nemmeno quello. Chiedere anche un workaround alle mancanze di alcuni browser è fantascienza. I primi 10 capitoli sono quasi completamente inutili. Gli ultimi 2 scontati per chiunque segua un po' lo sviluppo web. Ci sono pochissimi screenshot, pochissimi esempi, pochi consigli pratici in rapporto a quelli talmente generici da essere inutili. Meritava 2 stelle. La terza l'ho data, anche se rimuginandoci sopra parecchio, solo per il capitolo sulla tipografia che è un po' più chiaro e dettagliato degli altri. Se fosse uscito nel 2002-2003 sarebbe potuto essere un discreto compendio di cose da NON fare nei siti web (dà più risalto alle bad e awful parts che alle good parts che danno il titolo al libro), ma nel 2009-2010 tutti gli argomenti del libro sono già stati trattati e in maniera molto più approfondita e chiara da siti come alistapart. Fortunatamente l'ho pagato solo 4 euro sull'Android Market. Non ne vale uno di più.

[Cheryl]

Screams textbook, could not get past 50 pages

[Larry · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, what a terrible book. Completely repetitive of similar work but in a more boring presentation. Doesn't deserve to have the same title styling as "JavaScript: The Good Parts".

[DAdams]

This book was just not at my level. Perhaps now that I've finished the Head First HTML and CSS book it would make more sense, but this was vastly different text and wasn't super helpful for me.