HTML5 24-Hour Trainer Book Review

I just finished HTML5 24-hour trainer.

About 85% of the book had nothing to do with HTML5 specifically. Rather, it was about learning basic HTML with some CSS thrown in. If you are complete novice in HTML, this is a good book to get you up and running. If you have coded in HTML for more than a couple of months, the book is of limited value. At the end, around chapter 26, Lowrey starts digging into HTML5 specifically and he presented the new tags well. Chapter 27 is particularly important because of the focus on HTML5 semantics. I think the book should be retitled “Learn HTML and CSS” with a byline of “including HTML5”.

On a side note, how excited are people that code for a living about HTML5? By reemphasizing java script and deemphasizing Flash/Silverlight, the amount of code for a Rich Internet Application will go up dramatically and require many more developer hours. Debugging massive amounts of JavaScript when a couple of lines of C# would have done the trick might seem frustrating, but at least the meter will be running…