Customer Reviews

CSS Detective Guide: Tricks for solving tough CSS mysteries, ePub, The

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Great, just what the world needs - another book about CSS"

Is what some people *might* think upon learning that there's another CSS resource on the shelves to buy. Heck, I thought the exact same thing when I was approached about writing a book a few years ago, I really wondered if there was a need for what I was about to produce. Turns out there's plenty of space in the market for technical books still, and yet there are still too many coming out that cover the same ground, oftentimes the only differentiating marks being the production (colour photos, yay!). But *this* book really is something different.

If you want a how-to guide on writing CSS, there are numerous choices out there, ranging from the beginner to the kind of people who get CSS but want to refine it into a real art; you got it covered. But all of these books guide you through the steps required to create your masterpieces and try to avoid covering the potential mistakes that can crop up. But the reality as a web developer is that you *will* hit upon problems, and sometimes they can be real head-scratchers to fix. If you've been in the web game for a few years, some of the solutions will come to you magically out of the ether, based on a hunch, a cumulation of years of 'bodging it to work in IE6', but for a newcomer this can be a bit daunting. What Denise has done here is write a book that's never existed (perhaps surprising that it's not been done before) and approached it in a fun way.

In the first chapter, the author covers a lot of the basics of HTML and CSS, explaining concepts such as doctypes, validation, elements and attributes and so on. While there's nothing wrong with this chapter, it did strike me as somewhat superfluous, as my take on it is that this is a book aimed at developers who already know HTML & CSS - or at least enough of it to get themselves into CSS-related scrapes! - and therefore wasn't entirely needed. That said, it's important to make sure that the basics are covered regardless. No point fretting about CSS issues if you've already mangled the HTML. In some ways, you could say that this opening chapter is the book's equivalent to being on a technical support line and being asked "Is the appliance plugged in and switched on?".

The second chapter goes into a bit more depth about CSS files, how to successfully and safely use CSS resets to avoid layout/alignment issues because of browsers' default rendering models. There are also tips about organising your style sheets for readability and maintainability, all of them good, before we dip in to chapter 3 where Denise outlines some techniques for diagnosing problems (e.g. using deliberately ugly CSS styles to highlight problem areas, methods for isolating the source of rendering problems through commenting or selectively cutting out markup/CSS). This is one of the most useful sections of the book (it never ceases to amaze me how some experienced developers still don't have a plan of attack for this kind of thing).

In chapter Denise explains the thorny issue of IE and the broken box model (the source of many a problem in years gone by) and other IE-specific problems (hasLayout, common known bugs). What I particularly liked about this chapter was the summary at the end that detailed all the common issues and what the various methods are to fix them (I was half tempted to cut those pages out of the book and stick on my desk at work!).

And then we're on to the second part of the book where the author presents case studies, showing an original design and how it actually rendered in the browser. The challenge is to work out what the cause of the various rendering problems are, thus reinforcing the learning from earlier chapters. If you get stuck, no worries - Denise explains the causes, how to put them right or how they could have been avoided in the first place.

This is a very fresh approach to the topic of CSS and one that would be more beneficial to people who already have a reasonable level of skill in HTML/CSS but find themselves struggling to address problems when they occur. Instead of calling in the cavalry each time (e.g. asking an older, wiser, more Yoda-like developer with CSS skills up the wazoo), they would do well to have a good read through this book and keep it to hand. My only criticisms would be the first chapter (as mentioned previously, seemed a little unnecessary for an experienced developer) and the examples in the case studies. I'm familiar with the errors that were shown, but each time it felt a little like a perfectly good page would then be deliberately broken to create the case study. So a page would be 95% with a couple of quirks, e.g. in the header, but in my experience the less knowledgeable developer who might be inclined to making the kind of mistakes covered in the book would not have got right to the end without making a shed-load more mistakes and probably needing a lot more help than the CSS Detective could provide. That said, a case study that was basically "This page is hopelessly broken in about 20 different places" wouldn't work either!

Overall, then, a book that I'd recommend and one that easily complements whatever other CSS/HTML books that you may have on your techie book shelf.

If you're tired of the same old boring tech/web books then The CSS Detective is for you. Instead of just dragging through pages of code that put you to sleep, the author has managed to make this book enjoyable to read and packed with useful information. The format of the book is quite different than other CSS books I've looked at - the first half gives you an introduction of CSS...your "detective tools," while the second half is broken into cases that you are walked through solving. There are also a lot of funny quips thrown in through out the book that will make you do a double take now and again. If you want to familiarize yourself with CSS, this is my book recommendation.

I am a beginning web designer but have already had exactly the problems discussed at length in this book. The design verges on too-cute, but is redeemed by the seriously helpful content. Text is clearly written and many CSS problems that plague us all are explained, along with useful solutions. This is a book worth having on hand.

This book would be most helpful for beginners. The cover lists the level as beginning/intermediate, which makes sense, but I think beginners will get the most out of it. It's difficult for a person who already has a strong skill set to remember what the beginner's mind is like. Jacobs is a master at it.

In Part 1 of the book, she takes the reader through a succinct and very clear introduction to HTML and CSS with standards and semantics thrown into the mix. She describes the debugging process and gives all sorts of checklists for troubleshooting both HTML and CSS. One chapter in Part 1, called "The Usual Suspects" takes the reader efficiently through document flow, positioning, the box model, hasLayout, floats, lists, margins, nasties like the Peakaboo bug, font sizing and a list of fixes for the related design issues. The book is worth the price for Part 1 alone.

Part 2 of the book is devoted to chapters with a real world "detective case" about a design problem to solve. Each case starts with a design problem. The problem might be a forgotten bit of code, syntax issues, a float problem, and browser workarounds.

The tips for isolating problems and figuring out why certain bits of HTML or CSS aren't working as expected are helpful checklists. For a beginner who is pulling her hair out because something just won't behave as expected, these lists of how to systematically work through the code in search of the answer are a great resource.

I bought this book and used it to finally figure out where two IE6 bugs in my code (a "collapsed parent of floats" bug and a "double margin float" bug) were coming from. As noted elsewhere, the first half of the book is worth the entire cost. Best practical book on CSS debugging I have seen.

Just when you thought the world had enough books on CSS, here's one with a fantastic gimmick, zesty prose, and plenty of practical value. You'll get maximum satisfaction if you already know the basics of CSS and if you read it by moonlight during a thunderstorm in the drawing room with Miss Scarlett (or, I suppose, alone in front of your computer). Regardless, the author makes an otherwise dreary activity - debugging cranky CSS code - less of a hair-pulling nightmare and more of a follow-the-clues puzzle that *can* be solved. Recommended!

The CSS Detective Guide teaches real-world troubleshooting skills teaching how to track clues and analyze evidence behind CSS mysteries. These mysteries take the form of 'cases' as in a detective story but covering real computer issues, from stubborn browsers to LOL layouts. From layout and coding to coding mysteries that resist resolution, this is a manual any CSS programmer needs.

I don't often write reviews, but to me this book is one of the best presentations of basic CSS and how it does what it does that I have come across, ever.

The trouble shooting tips and techniques are worth the price alone, but the "how and why" of CSS, HTML, and how they dance and sing together I found to be of immense help. And, for some reason it all kind of fell into place for me. Which is something that has eluded me with all the online "tutorials" and other CSS books I have looked into. I do recommend it, highly.

I'm a retired software guy, but new to web programming. I have access to many books on HTML and CSS, and this is one of my favorites. If you've read and studied enough of the other material out there so that you're now writing code and it doesn't work, dis is da book. No program, regardless of language it's written in, works the first time (okay, maybe "hello world"). That's why debugging skills are not only nice to have, they're essential. This author helps develop those skills in the area of HTML/CSS. She has a marvelous (and entertaining) way of blowing away the fog and shining a light on the essence of the topic. I often find myself saying wow, that's the best explanation of that point I've seen yet. You have to study it of course...these books aren't novels...but I get more return on invested effort with this book than with many others. Probably not the only book you'll own on this topic, but it should definitely be in the close-at-hand book rack (the one you can reach without getting up).