This is not the first book published about HTML5, and it certainly won’t be the last. If you search the Amazon site for HTML5 books, this one appears on the second page, preceded by several books published two years earlier. However, HTML5 is a quickly evolving subject, and given that at least one year elapses between the writing of a book and its appearance on the (possibly virtual) shelves, it seems like a good idea to get as recent a book as possible, and, for that reason, this one is a better choice than many others.
This is a medium-sized book that is focused solely on HTML5. Unlike some books on this topic, it does not cover cascading style sheets (CSS) at all, which means that the author can provide a good level of detail on the main topic. You’ll learn a lot from this book if you have no previous HTML5 knowledge. The author does expect the reader to have experience with HTML and JavaScript, and some familiarity with the aims, structure, and basic usage of these two languages for building websites.
In fact, this book is not self-contained, which keeps it from being too lengthy while still offering satisfactory details and plentiful examples. Of course, the author cannot guarantee that the content will be up to date in all cases, and he frequently suggests that readers look for more information on the Internet to clarify specific points. One of the most common topics that the reader should verify is whether some given browser already implements some aspect of the specifications, and whether it implements it correctly. It comes to no surprise that the worst offender for ignoring or misunderstanding the W3C recommendations is Internet Explorer, even in its last version. Most other browsers are implemented with WebKit, which helps ensure their compliance with the standards.
The first part provides a brief 20-page background, which helps the reader properly understand the rest of the book.
The second part, “New HTML Elements,” is 80 pages long and presents what will be most helpful for website authors who simply want to ensure that an existing website conforms to standards. This section introduces semantic tags, forms, and drag-and-drop application programming interfaces (APIs), followed by a description of rich media tags, especially video and audio. After reading this chapter, you will no longer need to embed Flash on your website.
The third part, “Canvas,” is the longest section at 180 pages. It is entirely devoted to the Canvas tag, which is more important for website developers working with mobile devices, as evidenced by references to an app rather than a website. Given that this part deals with a rather fluid subject, and given that the behavior of browsers is difficult to predict, readers may find it useful but also somewhat frustrating. Moreover, this part includes a much larger proportion of JavaScript examples than previous parts did.
The fourth and last part, “HTML5’s JavaScript APIs,” is 110 pages long and entirely devoted to JavaScript, including features such as geolocation, storage options. messaging and web workers, network communication, microdata, and a few other minor points. This part is also devoted primarily to mobile devices.
I found this book easy and pleasant to read. It has been printed in full color, although colors are used with restraint. There are a few small defects: screen shots are generally much too small to show adequate detail; the index is not very easy to browse because the main keyword appears only in the page headers; there’s no glossary for people who don’t know, or have forgotten, the meaning of such terms as DOM, WebKit, app, or API; and the publisher has not provided a website for readers to download examples so they don’t have to type them in by hand.
I recommend this book even for people who are only interested in the first two parts.
More reviews about this item: Amazon, i-Programmer
