Dan Cederholm’s first book, Web Standards Solutions, was a pretty awful publication.
I don’t understand why this book was praised by so many, because it has been produced so poorly, especially given its publicised function.
The book sets out be be a ‘handbook’ (the cover reads, ‘The Markup and Style Handbook”). So, it must be reasonable to assume it was intended to be referred to every now-and-then. Even the nature of the content, how-tos for various elements of web pages, imply that people are going to come back to it every now and then when they are coding their sites.
So why, Lord, did Mr. Cederholm choose to include ‘incorrect’ examples in his book?
I know what you’re probably thinking: “To show how it’s not done, Fintan!”
That probably was the intention of Dan when he was putting the book together. That, or to pad the book out a lot.
The problem with including examples which aren’t the correct way (or aren’t the best) is that it creates quite a bit of confusion to the reader over what to use and where, exactly, the correct one is. Correct, better solutions aren’t labeled up properly; you have to find them. You even have to determine yourself whether solutions one and two are even right, because sometime the game changes slightly.
If a mathematics text book decided that it would be a good idea to start including some slightly wrong or incorrect methods for solving problems, there would be problems. Big problems. And that’s a text book, not a ‘handbook’ on the subject.
I really, really regret giving into the ‘buzz’ surrounding Web Standards Solutions. It’s actually unusable.
Dan Cederholm might make well-coded websites, but he certainly shouldn’t be let loose in the world of print. His second book, something to do with solving a website’s problems with XHTML and CSS, certainly isn’t going to be bought by me.
What did we learn? Consider your audience and how your website/book/whatever is going to be used, because that should define its design and content. Not properly understanding how what you’re making is going to be used might end up ruining everything for a lot of people (especially me). He should have known this.
Hey, thanks for the heads-up. Like you, I too hate be a unrequested debugger.
Jim
I’m thinking you should go with Designing with Web Standards by Jeffrey Zeldman.
Not a handbook, but brilliantly written for the beginner or novice.
[...] Web Standards Solutions (happily the cheapest price going - this one was a must-list for me!) [...]
I disagree with just about everything you’ve said here.
If you look at the back of the book, the first paragraph reads…
Which is exactly what it does. Each example covered is broken down into three methods. The most common use, a better use and the ideal usage - which is usually what the W3C recommends.
I wouldn’t say this book is targeted to beginners, but established designers/coders who are looking to make the jump to web standards but are not sure of best practises. If an absolute beginner picked it up, I agree that it would probably be a confusing read later on when he gets into the more advanced CSS.
I’ve been building websites for 8 years and made the jump to web standards about 3 years ago - I read it through cover-to-cover and frequently refer back to it. I’ve also picked up Dan’s second book, Bulletproof Web Design - which looks at websites from the accessibility angle. Also a great read and valuable resource/reference guide.
Well I’ve sold it now so good riddens!
I took DanC’s incremental “first, how not to do it” approach as a response to the “same old same old” methods that have plagued so many sites. By acknowledging the commonly accepted wisdom as a baseline, he positioned himself to evolve from point A to point B right along with the reader.
That he chose to approach it this way, for this particular subject, is one of the things I found surprisingly enjoyable. I distinctly recall exclaiming: “What a great way to approach web standards!” Perhaps it was just the right book at the right time. (His new book is even better IMO.)
I can also appreciate that, sometimes, it’s preferable to just dive right in - no backhistory or examples of “how not to do it.” Indeed, with other books I’ve read, the forge-ahead approach serves the subject material extremely well. My favorite case in point: Andrew Koenig and Barbara Moo’s outstanding Accelerated C++.