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Ask HN: Are there any resources for learning html+css that are actually good?

26 points by newsisan ↗ HN
Definitely inspired by: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2002668

"I've yet to find any good, modern, sources of learning HTML and CSS. "

And then about w3schools which I had the impression was good: "w3schools is the single worst 'developer' site on the entire web."

31 comments

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meadhikari
And then about w3schools which I had the impression was good: "w3schools is the single worst 'developer' site on the entire web."

What made you think that?

I learned html and php through w3school and it was a wonderfull experience.

tstyle
I hate the ads, but otherwise the content was good enough for me to go back every so often
nash
The only issue with w3schools is it is basic. Otherwise it covers a lot of material fairly well. At least it's not wrong, like many other resources.
hackinthebochs
It's terrible because it teaches everything in isolation. You have a section for this tag, a section for this function, on and on. You never get a feel for how all the pieces fit together to build something non-trivial. It's only useful as a reference. And even for that purpose its terrible because the information density is way too low.
malandrew
It's good for a basic reference when you don't want to wade through the W3C spec. It's not good for learning.
newsisan
That was not my opinion, it was from the linked thread at the top.
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mch929
A List Apart and Webmonkey were how I taught myself. I referenced w3schools a few times as well.
csomar
For CSS I would suggest that you get a look at Stylizer (http://www.skybound.ca/).

That won't teach you CSS, but will certainly be more productive than anything you'll read/work with.

mansr
Nothing beats reading the specs.
bearwithclaws
CSS Mastery by Andy Bubb. The best, and only one book/resource you need to become really good with CSS.

For HTML, spend an hour or two with HTMLDOG.com will do the job.

drtse4
I also liked Bulletproof Web Design for all the real world examples, not sure that the techniques shown there are up-to-date though.
kulpreet
If you'd rather watch video tutorials than read something, I'd highly recxomwnd the Lynda.com series 'CSS for Designers' — Although it's a bit dated, it teaches you a lot about web standards and semantics.
AlexMuir
What would an ideal online course look like? I've been thinking about building a wiki-style engine for tutorials etc. I'd like to apply some of the elements from Stack Overflow (badges, rep-based priviledges etc)
mtinkerhess
I taught myself CSS by going through each design on CSS Zen Garden, looking at the source code and poking around with Firebug until I understood why each design worked the way it did.

http://www.csszengarden.com/

malandrew
Dive in HTML5 by Mark Pilgrim

Designing w/ Web Standards, 3rd Edition by Jeff Zeldman - Please note that this book is more about orientation and how to go about learning HTML/CSS than actually coding. Only the last chapter contains a real coding exercise. Either way, it's worth a read.

Most of the best resources on HTML/CSS are the blogs and sites maintained by the main contributors to the standards. Whenever a section of the W3C spec is vague or confusing, go check out the blocks of people like Bruce Lawson, Eric Meyer and Zeldman to help clear up the ambiguities.

zoomzoom
Right click, "view source", use webkit inspector/firebug/etc...
tyrmored
I can see this is sort of tongue-in-cheek, but I really have to agree. I find there's just no better way to do it.

That said, for slightly esoteric techniques like Suckerfish menus, http://htmldog.com/ helps a lot.

signal
1 for Firebug.

I learned by going to the most complex sites I could find and turning things off. Then I changed things, and finally added.

Once you've done that you're too far on your way to need further advice.