Re: Best way to learn HTML

Ron Rhodes asked:
>
>What books should I buy?
>What theories should I concentrate on first?
>What should be my critical path?

When I first looked at HTML, I found many of the books on the shelves were
of little use.

First of all, many are out of date. HTML is evolving quicker than book
publishers can keep up. That aside, an out-of-date book will still give you
the basics, as long as you are aware that you need to look deeper before you
attempt to sell your skills in the cutting-edge marketplace.

Secondly, I found that many books take the wrong approach to "good" HTML.
You can't trust a book called "Designing A Web Page For Netscape" (or
whatever), which will teach you non-standard "netscapisms" that will
alienate a sizeable percentage of your potential audience.

When I learned HTML 3.2, the only resource I used was the excellent guide by
Arnoud "Galactus" Engelfriet:

    http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/wilbur/

This lists every tag, tells you how it can or can't be used, and (best of
all) gives excellent suggestions for why certain tags should *not* be used.
It isn't an absolute beginners' guide. It does assume that you know the
basics of what a tag is, what the page structure is, and why you are doing
this in the first place... but it sounds like you are at this level already.

I assume he must have a 4.0 version by now... I haven't checked because I
felt confident enough to learn 4.0 directly from the W3C specs...

Hope this helps.


David Meadows
Technical Writer
DNRC Minister for Littorasy
david(at)goldenheroes.softnet.co.uk

"Loneliness is a power that we possess to give or take away forever"
    -- Jon Anderson

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