Customer Reviews

HTML5 Guidelines for Web Developers

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As an experienced web developer who was self taught on HTML 4, I had unfounded reservation about HTML5 in general. Maybe it was the fact that the standard was changing and that I had to learn something new from scratch. Thankfully this was not the case.

After reading HTML5 > Guidelines for Web Developers by Forster and Oggl, I was confident in my ability to design evolving HTML 5 compliant sites.

The writing style is concise and easy to read. The topics covered, are not necessarily meant to be followed in order. One can skip and read about a certain subject.

The first chapter is brief and in my opinion doesn't really add value to book. The book really starts at Chapter 2, "Structure and Semantics for Documents." One of the biggest change is that HTML5 is the fact that one no longer has to create div sections with classes name footer, header, etc. Now one can use <header> and <footer> to name a few.

Another great chapter is Chapter 3, "Intelligent Forms." The authors do a good example on how to use the different elements as well as handling validation. New data types are introduced such as url, email, datetime, color, etc. Attributes are introduced as well. Some of the code is minimal but it does help the web developer understand them.

On Chapter 5, "Canvas," the authors spend some time going over what they call, "One of the most interesting and at the same time one of the oldest new HTML5 elements," Canvas. It is presented in a neat and concise manner. Again there is minimal code but it does what it is suppose to do, get the web developer up to speed.

Overall, HTML5 Guidelines for Web Developers is a decent book. By no means is this book the must have all in one book, but it is a great book on getting to know most features of HTML5. I definitely recommend it.

This is a decent introduction to HTML5 for any web developer as the title states, it is definitely not aimed for anyone who is not technical in any way. As mentioned by another reviewer, the inclusion of the examples showing you how everything talked about can actually be used, is a great help.

I've written a lengthy review at: [...]

After an uninteresting itroduction (do we really care about all the meetings that lead to HTML5?), the book finally starts with why I got it - all the new features! Starting with semantics, the new form input elements and audio/video, the book contains a very lengthy chapter on the new canvas; 71 of the 290 pages are dedicated to this subject. This is caused by all the images, code snippets and, well, many features of the canvas. It's quite an impressive and overwhelming chapter.

After that lengthy chapter you get the complete opposite in the SVG and MathML chapter. There are just 5 pages, and they don't really cover much, stating that these topics require books of their own. This chapter could and should have been omitted.

Next are some more interesting chapters about geolocation, web / offline storage, web sockets, web workers and microdata, to end with a catch-all chapter with all the remaining stuff the authors wanted to mention. Although there are nice features in it, but the chapter feels incoherent.

All in all it's a good book that describes quite a bit of new features. Just don't expect a full reference of what HTML5 does and does not have. Also, be prepared to read a lot of JavaScript. If you don't know it, several chapters are going to be hard to understand.

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for writing this review on behalf of JavaRanch. This review has previously been posted on JavaRanch.com.

The last time I relearned HTML was in the HTML 4.01 Transitional days, so I was excited to get my hands on some information to help me play with HTML 5. Let me first say that this book assumes that you have some frame of reference for HTML and is probably better suited for someone with a little familiarity, rather than a complete noob. With that in mind, I thought the book did a great job of covering not only the things that have fallen away from HTML, but the new things in HTML 5 as well. There are *plenty* of examples posted throughout the book to help not only keep you interested, but provide practical code snippets for you to use s well. I think the topic itself is fascinating and this book has quickly become a dog-eared reference for my exploration. In fact, the only real negative that I found is there is a lot of javascript in the book, which probably deserves it's own book, or at lest it's own chapter. Either way, I feel this book is well worth the price. It certainly has come in handy for me!

HTML5 Guidelines for Web Developers

HTML5 is the next standard in Web Design. It is a big jump from HTML 4.

This book is designed for the developer in mind, not the beginner.
It still could have used a more in depth explanation of some areas.
Some readers may be frustrated as they do not understand what is being refereed too.
As others have stated, it is not a how to, but a real reference guide.
It covers each new element and explains how to utilize the new function. It also covers why they made the decision to use properties of the element.
The examples are clear and easy to replicate and as always will give you new ideas of what you can do with development.
I welcome this book on my desk shelf where I keep my main reference material.

Overall I thought the book was alright, but I definitely wasn't impressed. The book has far too much focus on what might happen when HTML5 is near completion, not enough on what is useful across platforms TODAY. The authors do have some worthwhile examples - particularly those dealing with forms, canvas or web sockets.

I think what bugs me the most about the book is that I didn't see any actual "guidelines" for HTML5. The title doesn't really fit what I see on the pages.

The book is a curious and fast read (less than 300 pages, lots of pictures) but I don't think I can really recommend someone spend the $34.99 sticker price. I hope the authors publish a revised copy as more browsers implement HTML5 features - the book could be far more valuable in a year or two.

It's not a quick reference book, and it's not a thorough "bible" of HTML5. It's a good overview for anyone looking to better understand what that new features of HTML5 are and how you can benefit from and implement them.

The authors discuss the topics in detail enough for the reader to walk away educated on what's new in HTML5, and eager to further research and implement these new HTML5 features on your own.

As the other reviewers have said the book is a decent start for anyone looking to get an overview of HTML5, which is all I was looking for based on the title. At some points the author does dive into some Javascript, so having even a high level understanding of JS will benefit the reader, but it's not required to enjoy the book.

HTML 5 Guidelines is a fine book. It covers the subject matter well enough. I just didn't find anything special about this book. As another reviewer stated "This is a decent introduction to HTML5 ..." and the reader after reading the book will have a much better understanding of HTML 5.

I wondered if the authors had intended the book to be in color and the publisher choose black and white instead. The book has figures that don't really work without colors, such as Figure 5.39 (P. 169) "HSL colors for multicolored spheres animation". The figure is merely two bars with shades of black and white. Another example is Figure 5.29 a series of pictures that show color manipulation. Again the pictures are just shades of black and white. Color in not necessary in a book, but with the subject matter and examples in this book, a lot was lost. It does appear that the Kindle Edition is in color, so I would pick that one over the paperback.

In the end, not sorry that I picked HTML 5 Guidelines and my HTML 5 knowledge did increase from reading this book.