Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, & technology book reviews, plus social, political, & economic commentary
This fourth edition of Ben Frain’s Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS continues an information flow that has now spanned a decade and helped numerous new and experienced web designers. The book is well written and well illustrated with plenty of code examples to support key topics and instructions. The major principles of responsive … Continue reading Responsive Web Design with HTML5 & CSS, Fourth Edition – #bookreview
The Responsive Web Matthew Carver (Manning – paperback) While devices for viewing websites keep getting smaller–web-enabled watches are a recent example–the challenges get bigger and tougher for website designers and developers. How do you create websites that effectively adjust to the size of the devices where they are being viewed, while also delivering essential information … Continue reading THE RESPONSIVE WEB: A ‘mobile-first’ guide to creating websites effective for all devices – #bookreview
Adobe Edge Animate Using Web Standards to Create Interactive Websites Simon Widjaja (Rocky Nook – paperback, Kindle) Simon Widjaja’s new book is both elegant and practical. It is elegantly structured and illustrated, and it is practical in its approach to showing how to use Adobe Edge Animate. That software package, Widjaja says, “is a multimedia … Continue reading Adobe Edge Animate – Rocky Nook’s elegant new software how-to guide – #webdesign #bookreview
The Modern Web Multi-Device Web Development with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript Peter Gasston (No Starch Press – Kindle, paperback) After a quick first glance, you might look right past this book. You might assume its title, “The Modern Web,” simply introduces some kind of heavily footnoted, academic study of the Internet. Not so, Web breath. … Continue reading The Modern Web: Multi-Device Web Development with HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript – #bookreview
Killer UX Design Jodie Moule (SitePoint – paperback, Kindle) The overused term “killer app” tends to kill my curiosity about books with “killer” in the title. Still, “killer” title aside, Killer UX Design deserves some attention, particularly if you are struggling to create a better user experience (UX) for products, websites, services, processes, or systems. The … Continue reading Killer UX Design – How to create compelling, user-centered interfaces – #bookreview
Adobe Edge Animate: The Missing Manual Chris Grover (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) Chris Grover’s well-written and updated new book shows you how to build animated HTML 5 graphics for the iPhone, the iPad, and the Web, using familiar Adobe features. By the sixth page of the first chapter, you are using the software to begin … Continue reading Adobe Edge Animate: The Missing Manual – #bookreview
Selectors, Specificity, and the Cascade: Applying CSS3 to Documents Eric A. Meyer (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) If you know some basic CSS but wonder how the “cascade” part of Cascading Style Sheets works, here is a useful guide. Actually, this is a 73-page, two-chapter excerpt from the upcoming fourth edition of Eric A. Meyer’s CSS: … Continue reading Specificity, Selectors, and the Cascade: Applying CSS3 to Documents – #bookreview
Head First HTML and CSS, 2nd Edition Elisabeth Robson and Eric Freeman (O’Reilly, paperback) As a techie, I am admittedly a bit mediocre. I do know most of the critical differences between a couch and CouchDB. But I don’t speak fluent JavaScript or Klingon. I seldom eat regular expressions for breakfast. And I never brush my teeth … Continue reading Head First HTML and CSS, 2nd Edition – An effective and entertaining guide now updated for HTML5 – #bookreview
WebGL: Up and Running Tony Parisi (O’Reilly, paperback – Kindle) “WebGL,” Tony Parisi notes, “brings 3D to the browser, providing a JavaScript interface to the graphics hardware on your machine.” Parisi is co-creator of the VRML and X3D languages which have become ISO standards for networked 3D graphics. So he knows a bit about using … Continue reading WebGL: Up and Running – 3D Web graphics for the beginner, with expert guidance – #bookreview
Learning Web Design, 4th Edition Jennifer Niederst Robbins (O’Reilly, paperback) Eager to learn web design, but not sure where to start and what you will need? Need a steady, guiding hand as you try to figure out how build your first web pages? This handsome new edition of Learning Web Design can be your how-to, go-to handbook for a long time, … Continue reading Learning Web Design, 4th Edition – Beginner’s guide updated for HTML5, CSS3 & JavaScript – #bookreview
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