Developing with Web Standards [Paperback]

Developing with Web Standards is a lucid and comprehensive guide to building efficient websites now and in the future. It's a terrific reference for experienced coders (as well as being full of tips and techniques they may not know) and the perfect manual for those just getting started. And when I say "manual," I don't mean a dry textbook -- this book is a pleasure to read, from one of the true masters (who also developed a first-rate application for coding CSS). If you are involved in web development, you really should have this book.

Allsopp's book is a bird's eye view of where standards-based web development is at today and where it's likely to go in the near future. He touches on all the important topics with the discerning eye of a master practitioner. There is no fluff in this book.
Highly recommended.
In the day in and day out work of web development - where you get lost in a succession of small problems - it's easy to lose track of the big picture.
John Allsopp gives you the big picture with just enough detail so that you can go and research what it is he's talking about on your own.
This is one of those books you need on your shelf. You'll find yourself referring to it for general guidance over and over again.
And no matter how much you know, I guarantee you'll find out something very, very basic that, for some reason, you just never thought about much and find out you didn't have it quite right.
Developing With Web Standards is here to set you straight.

The book is focused towards people who already understand the underlying principals of web development, so it won't be much use to your aunt who is trying learn how to build that knitting website, or your typical Dreamweaver user. It also won't be the quick reference for developers who need a quick reminder of the detail that is eluding them, and forgot how to use Google.

The first section touches on the roots of standards in web development. This section has the most meat on it and, out of the three hundred ninety pages of the book, it envelopes almost half of them. The section nicely points out the proverbial stone tablets where the standards are written, and includes a great argument as to why anyone should even care about the standards we are learning. If you are just going to buy this book to add it to your impressive library, at least read this section of the book.

The first section also dives into some basic CSS, as well as HTML syntax and techniques that are great refreshers. The chapter on web accessibility is very well detailed and has great explanations as to why it is important to keep accessibility in mind when developing.

Section two drives home the final portions of section one by showing some use cases of cross browsers CSS layouts. And section three is focused on newer technologies like CSS3, embedding media and @font-face.

One of my main irritants is that this book suggests that if there are any questions about the content, one should go to their website to get involved in "the community" of web standards. With that statement I was expecting a forum or something where the book could be discussed. Instead, there are the links he used to reference in his book.

Also I was hoping to see some sort of errata for the flaws that made it into the book. There are a few irregularities that are very basic and should have been corrected before the book went into print. I get that mistakes happen, but once you see those flaws, it makes it difficult to take the book as a solid reference.

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A Webuquerque community member review by Markie Casias