Zeldman, one of the founders of the Web Standards Project, writes an intelligent and convincing argument for the use of web standards recommending a variety of combinations from XHTML, XML to CSS for different types of website purposes and cases. The book carefully points out flaws in the current model of design and coding, and quickly explains the benefits of creating sites that are forward compatible and pay attention to accessibility. Part 2 and 3 of the book go into great detail about implementation methods of XML and CSS.

What isn’t covered in the book but SHOULD have been, as it would have convinced the non-techy crowd, is how much standards effects the finability, marketability and manageability of a website. Not to mention that clean code always makes search engines happy, which leads to higher ranking websites that are optimized for the web.

I won this book at a recent Steve Krug workshop. I am having a really hard time getting through it. Zeldman is wasting WAY too much ink trying to convince me why web standards are good. That’s pretty much all he says in the first two chapters. I mean, if I bought a book on web standards I am probably not all that hard to convince, now am I? Perhaps I am just hitting the book after its hay day. It is 3 years old now, after all. I think it is going to be too verbose for me. I just want to shout “get to the point!”

So I ordered Dan Cederholm’s brand new (July 2005) book Bulletproof Web Design from Amazon. I had a chance to look through it at said same workshop and I think it is much more my style: short, to the point, broken up into easily skimmable sections. What can I say, I’m addicted to audio books and have no attention span any more. ;)

amusing, informative and a good kick-in-the-arse

This book shows that there’s really no reason to build non standards compliant sites. Now, if only my work would listen…

Reviewing for Digital Web

(borrowing it from SteveD)

(completed 2004/05/09)

If you want to create websites that work in every browser, load quickly, consume less bandwidth and still be visually and functionally attractive, you need this book.

I’m so excited I was given this book for Christmas. I had heard wonderful things about it, and it lived up to my expectations. Fun reading, too!

My bestfriend is CSS.

Excellent book. targetted at those just starting to “get” the whole standards thing, anyone will learn some good things.