Book Review: Web Standards Solutions
This weekend I had a chance to read Dan Cederholm's first foray into the publishing world, Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook, published by Friends of Ed. As someone who's professionally collaborated with Cederholm (disclaimer) and enjoyed his numerous markup pop-quizzes on his blog, I was quite interested to see what he would fill an entire book with. And the answer was...plenty.
Web Standards Solutions is the perfect book for those who are interested in developing standards-compliant web sites, have written a little CSS, have a pretty decent handle on the differences between HTML and XHTML, but have difficulty explaining why one style of markup is semantically, and technically, superior to another.
Cederholm presents numerous real-world HTML markup scenarios that will be familiar to anyone who has read his site over the past year. The purpose? To take developers 'back to school' and demonstrate different ways a simple task -- like a grocery list -- can be marked up in HTML. Simple, right? Technically, yes. There are a myriad of ways a developer could go about constructing one, and technically they all work. But in every scenario, from ordered lists to tables and headers to forms, Cederholm presents both the code and results from each attempt, explains the strengths and weaknesses of each, and summarizes which scenario is best for accessibitlity, presentation, and structural malleability.
It's a particularly useful, and unique, instructional method, for many readers will undoubtedly see pieces of their own markup in Cederholm's examples, and through his guidance will learn the proper way to markup their content. Armed with both the how and the why, any web developer who picks up the book will learn how to create structurally sound, standards-compliant markup, and also be able to explain why it's better.
My favorite parts of Solutions deal with methods for streamlining markup through CSS class inheritance and template structure. It's the type of material anyone involved in programming will savor, for Cederholm clearly demonstrates how to nest, re-use, and simplify style sheets and template structure for lighter, easier-to-maintain results.
The second half of Solutions delves into many of the CSS layout techniques and visual tricks Cederholm used on Simple Bits and client sites like Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. While I found this portion interesting (from a 'walking tour' perspective) it isn't as editorially strong as the beginning chapters. There is lots of useful information about targeting browsers with CSS hacks, image replacement techniques, hiding styles from older browsers, using lists for navigation and rollover-effects, but unless you've never visited A List Apart or read the plethora of free online documentation on these topics, chances are you're not going to learn a whole lot. That said, if you're the type of person who prefers having a physical reference on your desk, instead of hunting and pecking around the web, Solutions fills the bill nicely.
Web Standards Solutions shines brightest when covering the most mundane -- rudimentary, raw markup elements like headers, paragraphs, lists, and so-on. They're the every-day alphabet soup of HTML, and are abused, misused, or underpowered by countless web designers the world over. They're not the sexiest topics (which is why there are countless 'Cookbook' books out there), but they're the very bedrock of web design, and with Cederholm's guidance any web designer can tap into their inherent power.
As a whole, Web Standards Solutions is a quick read, partially because of Cederholm's direct writing-style. He doesn't waste a lot of time with personal stories (something I generally loathe in development books) or flowery content, and instead tackles the everyday nuts and bolts of HTML markup head-on; making it the perfect book for anyone looking for a broader understanding of document structure, with plenty of tips and tricks thrown in for anyone who's late to the party.
