Web Standards Solutions

William Nichols writes "With a couple of projects coming up that are going to require complete W3C CSS and XHTML validation (with 1 client requiring just a pure CSS layout) I thought it was time to brush up on some CSS knowledge, and maybe learn a new thing or two. I have spent the past week with a newly released book (and one of the smaller CSS books out there), the Web Standards Solutions The Markup and Style Handbook. The author, Dan Cederholm, has now become my right hand man, so to speak." Read on for the rest of Nichols' review. Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook author Dan Vederholm pages 253 publisher Friends of Ed rating 8.5 of 10 reviewer William Nichols ISBN 1590593812 summary A clear reference on designing with XHTML and CSS through a standards based approach

With the title Web Standard Solutions (which we will refer to as WSS from here on), you might expect this to be a book that is going to solve your problems, and without disappointment that is exactly what is does.

WSS takes a problem based approach instead of the commonly used project based approach to teaching you the value of designing to strict standards. I found this approach very refreshing, WSS kept my attention by presenting a problem, and then presenting 3-5 solutions on how to accomplish the task at hand. With each example Dan takes you through several ways to achieve the required result. Each of the methods shown are common patterns that different developers/designers would use, and the pros and cons of each are well articulated.

A lot of you may know Dan from his Simplebits. website. If you frequent Simplebits you will immediately recognize his style in the writing of WSS. Much like the mini quizzes that are used on his blog, this book is really a compilation of the hurdles that you are likely to face when trying to design to strict standards, and the solutions presented will get you over them.

WSS will also help the budding developer realize the business value of designing to standards. Once you start designing with standards, search engine rankings can jump, continued maintenance becomes a breeze, and the accessibility to screen readers (or other requirements) can be elegantly met.

One of my favorite parts of the book is the in-depth techniques used to style lists. WSS shows you how to take a regular non-formatted list and, using CSS, style it in several ways: as a vertical shopping list; without bullets and indenting; with custom bullets; and eventually as a horizontal navigation bar with changing bullets.

This book really stands out when covering the most basic foundations of layout such as paragraphs, lists, headers, titles and the like. The first half of the book really gets into the proper use of the most basic CSS techniques and proper selection of tags for headings, quotations, etc. While the second half of the book requires you to use what you have learned along the way to start building CSS based layouts.

If you are a regular at some of the advanced sites like CSS ZenGarden or A List Apart this book may be a little basic for you. Even still you will probably be able to take some techniques from it that you can use, this book is really more for the designer that is capable but not quite deadly with their CSS knowledge.

Overall I would give Web Standards Solutions the Markup and Style Handbook an 8.5 out of 10. I really think it does a fantastic job at keeping the reader interested in the subject (something that is often very hard to do in technical books) and will definitely be a great business tool for you. A quick read it is, but a valuable reference that has earned a spot next to my keyboard, my 3 bars of caffeinated soap, and the trusty case of bawls.

You can purchase Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.

Comments

re standards

[computerme]

FYI,

Neither S in CSS stands for "Standard". What i mean but that is that do NOT expect CSS to give you a right once play on any browser with the same results.

CSS is great to reduce download speed of pages. To keep all the style in one place. To separate logic from data. But do not think writing a web site in CSS will solve all your browser compatibility problems.And don't fall under the influence of some elitist CSS religion.

The amount of hacks, even by the experts, required to even get close to modern browser compatibility is really hilarious. (ooops i mean painful.)

So get into CSS. Use all the great features in offers, but remember that its not magic bullet.

Yes, i'm sure there are some simple sites that can be pulled off with CSS and look pretty much the same but honestly, when you reduce your site to this level, they ALLL look alike:

-header graphic
-2 or 3 columns
-a sort of anasepctic feel to it.

In the mean time, stick with a combination of CSS AND minimal tables.

Don't believe it? FIne, its not my hair that you will pulling out ;)

Re:re standards

[tokachu(k)]

In the mean time, stick with a combination of CSS AND minimal tables. Don't believe it? FIne, its not my hair that you will pulling out ;)

I don't believe it. Consider the following:
Internet explorer is the dominant browser... (well over 90%) ...and it doesn't support CSS fully. (not much CSS1, and no CSS2) It's incredibly easy to lay out a complex web site without using table hacks when you use CSS and have a dominant browser that fully supports it. The problem is that only browsers based on Mozilla code (Camino, Firefox, Netscape, etc.) have support for these standards. There's nothing wrong with the standards out there currently, but there is something wrong with the people who don't obey them on the application (server) level.

It's a tad cliche, but Internet Explorer is doing more harm than good without all its serious security problems.

Re:Definition of Expected:

[TedTschopp]

And why buy a book when you can read the W3C recommendations/specifications for HTML/XHTML and CSS that are (imo) very understandable and easy to read?

Becuase many times the standards do not tell you elegant solutions which people have used in the past.

Kinda like the difference between English class and Creative Writing classes

Ted Tschopp

Re:Definition of Irony:

[cephyn]

wow i had no idea a changeover would save /. so much on bandwidth costs. the fact that they patently refuse to update the sitecode is mindboggling.

Re:Foolish Projects

[downward dog]

HTML and CSS are something that can be written by any school kid, and you and I both know that your average school kid doesn't know the ins and outs of the CSS and XHTML standards, and probably never will.

Wait -- and you think it is foolish to exclude the average schoolkid from coding large web projects?

Whenever people say that "anyone can learn HTML," I laugh. That's like saying that "anyone can use Photoshop" because anyone can hit ctrl-i to invert an image. Sure, anyone can learn what means, but can anyone create clean, efficient, browser-compatible code that is easy to maintain and intuitive for multiple developers to use? And create it quickly? That is where web standards come in.

Re:Standardisation = Complicating Stuff

[downward dog]

So a web designer would get an error (Error: no closing tag) and would give up and go home? Amazon.com wouldn't be able to find programmers who knew how to write lowercase markup?

Wouldn't you rather have a human being decide how a page should look, rather than having a web browser GUESS what to do with invalid code? That is basically what web browsers have been doing for years. Hmmm, thought Mozilla, no closing </a> tag. Should I end the link at the paragraph break, or let it extend across four table cells to the next link?

Re:Standardisation = Complicating Stuff

[RAMMS EIN]

I hardly think so. There is nothing more difficult about XHTML than HTML.

If you had wanted to build the whole web around XML and CSS, all it would take is for one person to create a Schema and for one person to create a stylesheet, which could then be used by anybody else. This is, in fact, exactly what happened, except that the stylesheet was hardcoded in the browser, and the Schema defined in some standard document.