

Ask HN: As a programmer, what would you be looking for in a HTML & CSS book? - bbx

Hi<p>I&#x27;m starting to write an e-book about HTML &amp; CSS. My intent is to target complete beginners and graphic designers, but also developers who are mostly familiar with back-end technologies (object-oriented programming, server configuration, database manipulation...).<p>If you are such a developer looking to better understand how the front-end works, what exactly would you be willing to learn? Or what is something about CSS that your mind just can&#x27;t grasp?
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laughfactory
Great news. As a member of your target audience I'm excited to be able to
provide so thoughts on what I would find helpful. My main complaint with a lot
of the beginner HTML/CSS books is that they approach the subject from a static
perspective. They seem to assume that I'm only interested in creating a simple
static website when in fact I suspect anyone who's learning HTML/CSS is doing
so implicitly because they want to learn how to ultimately create dynamic
database-backed web apps. A book that approached the topic with that in mind
from the get go would be much appreciated. Also, one of the major topics I
think is overlooked is the PROCESS odd designing and creating a real web app
UI. As a beginner, I'd very much like some insight into how one goes about
creating a web app using HTML/CSS...I.e., what process do you follow when
attempting to realize an idea you have in your head or which you have sketched
out. I would also like extensive coverage of how to use all the standard tools
which are now very common and which attempt to make it easier to develop well-
laid out attractive web apps: twitter bootstrap, foundation 4, CDS
preprocessors, grid layouts, etc. These things are becoming as important as
simply knowing about HTML/CSS. I guess what I'm saying is that we don't
necessarily need another book which teaches basic HTML/CSS (tags, and so
forth), we need a book that closes the gap between such books and the more
advanced topics like HTML5 (I.e., adding JS/jQuery functionality to a web
site). I hope this ramble has been helpful. Thanks for asking for input!

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bbx
Thanks for the insight.

Your comment will probably lead me to write a book _solely_ targeting
programmers, instead of trying to target beginners and graphic designers as
well.

What is it about creating a HTML/CSS web app that is hard to grasp?

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sharmi
One of the issues I face is that simple CSS illustrations demonstrate
interplay of positional effects between one or two items. The same positional
effects give a different effect when in a multilayer container. What is the
general guideline for wire-framing an app?

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LarryMade2
I like examples, how things work, but not a lot of fluff...

Two books permanently on my shelf for CSS and HTML are Stylin' with CSS by
Charles Wyke-Smith, and Visual Quickstart Guide to HTML by Elizabeth Castro.
Both books covered the basics enough to get a grasp of the big picture.

Mainly if I had a question about where X goes where and what Y does, I could
find an direct answer from these books usually with an example if applicable.

There are probably a bunch of common front-end situations you could cover in a
book would be great (AJACX search queries, the basics of responsive design (it
all starts in the CSS) etc.

And another suggestion - avoid using frameworks. You want your book to last,
don't use some framework-du-jour, keep it vanilla and then let the reader
decide what framework would better fit their work later on. If you do use
frameworks - make sure the framework is listed in the title or content info so
folks can decide if that would be useful for them.

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codegeek
To me it is not so much about the syntax of HTML/CSS itself which I can of
course google etc, the biggest challenge is how to put a
sketch/wireframe/concept to HTML/CSS version. How do i create the layout ?
Where do I position a section ? How do I decide if I should create nested rows
vs columns vs what not. These are the things that are so difficult to me as a
programmer who just barely hacks some bootstrap/zurb themes.

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manidoraisamy
layouts. I still can't make head & tail out of it. I found tables easier.

