HTML5 and CSS3: Develop with Tomorrow's Standards Today (Pragmatic Programmers) [Paperback]

Brian P. Hogan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 14, 2011 | ISBN-10: 1934356689 | ISBN-13: 978-1934356685 | Edition: 1

HTML5 and CSS3 are the future of web development, but you don't have to wait to start using them. Even though the specification is still in development, many modern browsers and mobile devices already support HTML5 and CSS3. This book gets you up to speed on the new HTML5 elements and CSS3 features you can use right now, and backwards compatible solutions ensure that you don't leave users of older browsers behind.

This book gets you started working with many useful new features of HTML5 and CSS3 right away. Gone are the days of adding additional markup just to style a button differently or stripe tables. You'll learn to use HTML5's new markup to create better structure for your content and better interfaces for your forms, resulting in cleaner, easier-to-read code that can be understood by both humans and programs.

You'll find out how to embed audio, video, and vector graphics into your pages without using Flash. You'll see how web sockets, client-side storage, offline caching, and cross-document messaging can ease the pain of modern web development. And you'll discover how simple CSS3 makes it to style sections of your page. Throughout the book, you'll learn how to compensate for situations where your users can't take advantage of HTML5 and CSS3 yet, developing solutions that are backwards compatible and accessible.

You'll find what you need quickly with this book's modular structure, and get hands-on with a tutorial project for each new HTML5 and CSS3 feature covered. "Falling Back" sections show you how to create solutions for older browsers, and "The Future" sections at the end of each chapter get you excited about the possibilities when HTML5 and CSS3 reach widespread adoption. Get ready for the future---in fact, it's here already.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brian Hogan has been developing web sites professionally since 1995 as a freelancer and consultant. He currently builds web applications using Ruby, jQuery, HTML 5, and CSS 3. He enjoys teaching and writing about technology, particularly web design and development. He is also an advocate of accessibility for the disabled, particularly as it pertains to the visually impaired. When not experimenting with web-based languages and technology, he's... well, who are we kidding? He's always hacking on something.

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: Pragmatic Bookshelf; 1 edition (January 14, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1934356689
• ISBN-13: 978-1934356685
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 0.6 x 9.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #390,533 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Maintains the High Quality I Expected in a Pragmagic Bookshelf Text January 22, 2011

By Andrew D. Lindeman

Format:Paperback

You can learn the basic new features of HTML5 and CSS3 from a lot of freely available resources. However, this book is invaluable because it goes beyond simply laying out how to use the new features and syntax, focusing more on how to practically use them to better a user's experience on your website. It doesn't simply subscribe mindlessly to the hype surrounding HTML5.

Even more importantly, each feature has a "Falling Back" section that describes how to implement the feature outside of HTML5/CSS3 on browsers that do not yet support it (usually using JavaScript) or how to otherwise best gracefully degrade.

Highly recommended.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hype free, content rich, good fallback coverage. Good to have on hand January 27, 2011

By Scott Stewart

Format:Paperback

I've been following right along with HTML5 and CSS3 evolution, and am already using it today. Regardless, I still found this book an enjoyable, hype free read on the topics. Good content and samples, nice fallback suggestions. Its a good resource to have on hand.

48 of 65 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Wasn't the Right Book For Me / Book Kind of Expects You to Know JavaScript, jQuery etc April 30, 2011

By Gromster Graphics

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book wasn't quite what I was expecting. I now wish I had purchased a different book about HTML 5.

If you are a computer programmer or an advanced back-end web developer, I guess this book might be four or five star quality.

However, for web designers (who are more into "front end" designing, not behind-the-scenes scripting) and for graphic designers who dabble in web page design/ web graphics, I can't rate this above a two out of five.

I thought the book would be longer or more in-depth than it is, but most sections in the book are quite short.

I also agree with another reviewer that the book is, aside from one or two humorous spots, quite dull (the author is friendly and does have a good sense of humor, but most of the book doesn't reflect this). Because of the dullness, I almost didn't finish reading it.

Before purchasing any book from Amazon, I first read the product description thoroughly, and I also read the customer reviews, both negative and positive.

If there is a "search inside this book" option available, I look at that too.

I don't have a lot of money to spend, so I have to be sure the book I'm getting will meet my needs. Based on what I saw of this book on Amazon, this looked like it would be good for me.

I do not recall the advertising / description for this book on Amazon (as of April 2011, or before then) stating that one would get the most usage from the book if one has an education in computer programming, jQuery, servers, or JavaScript.

Yet on pages xv-xvi, we are told, "This book is aimed primarily at web developers who have a good understanding of HTML and CSS... I also assume that you have a basic understanding of JavaScript and jQuery, which we will be using to implement many of our fallback solutions..."

I have no training in JavaScript, jQuery, and so forth, so most of the book was foreign to me.

If I had known the book was geared towards those who are experts at Java Script, jQuery, and servers, I would have gone with a different book.

If you've never worked in vector software before, you might find the discussion on Bezier curves in chapter 11, page 217, confusing.

If you're a graphic designer or a web designer (especially a web designer who never took scripting or programming classes), I don't think you'll get much use from this book.

I found some of the content confusing and could not understand it.

Some of the CSS 3 information in this book was okay, but other CSS 3 books currently for sale have a lot more information than this one, and have tutorials and links to additional material.