I have a book on HTML but its based on XHTML. Will that hinder me in some way? I want to learn HTML5, is it better to start with HTML5 and the new standards?

Any good IDE's, books or resources, paid or free, that you would personally reccomend a begginner for learning HTML5, Javascript and CSS3?


And a bit off topic, When you buy Unity, does it have life time updates support in the ''contract''? Like, buy it and never have to buy it again if they decide to update it, etc. Didnt read anything like that on the website.
Some engines, have it. Just wondering if Unity does.

HTML5 adds some new tags, that is all. Now XHTML just means that you are writing code that tries to not suck too much, it isn't an actual technology or anything.
HTML4 code will almost always work when parsing a page as 5, since hardly anything got removed (a few useless tags nobody uses).

I don't know why anyone would need a book for HTML, CSS, or JS, as they are very simple by design.
Googling skills are more then enough, especially when most problems come from the crappy browser implementation, which you will easily find answers to on the web.

I find the http://www.w3schools.com/ web site very useful as a reference for all things HTML/CSS/JS.

You may also want to look into jQuery which will solve most cross-browser problems.

"I don't know why anyone would need a book for HTML, CSS, or JS, as they are very simple by design."

Im better with a book on hand, and also they usually provide questions and examples. I dont always have an internet connection, too.
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Thanks for the information.

What about IDE's?

Found one called Aptana Studio 3, by the looks of it, it seems good. But I wouldnt know, being a beginner and all.
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Any more advice would be greatly appreciated! Hopefully I can start very soon.

I don't use an IDE for web dev. I just use Notepad++ and the multitude of browsers I have to test with.

Dreamweaver is pretty good and does auto completion for HTML, CSS and JavaScript, which is good for learning what options are available on each element, attribute, etc.

I also tend to work with code but do it using Coffee Cup HTML Editor ( www.coffeecup.com) which has numerous shortcuts which makes working in the code view much faster than working with Notepad. This is a very highly rated but low cost editor with many more functions than the code view and once bought gives you free upgrades for life. I've been using it for about 12 years. It is frequently compared in reviews with Dreamweaver which costs many times more. To learn HTML and CSS, don't go past the web. I'd use Coffee Cup in combination with www.w3schools.com
and/or www.w3.org/wiki/HTML/Training as well as other www.w3.org facilities such as Unicorn (their Validator) ,their Cheat Sheets and a lot of study, and you should be able to master HTML easily enough. HTML5 is still in draft form and you should read the latest press release at http://www.w3.org/2011/05/html5lc-pr.html.en
In my opinion, you're best not to start by studying your XMTL book. Start from scratch with a current training programme which will take into account the concepts behind the levels that HTML5 has already reached. Same thing with CSS.

PS. Coffee Cup has a very good web authoring book in PDF form although I haven't read the latest version so I'm not sure how up to date it is.

HTML5 adds some new tags, that is all.

Although being entirely accurate, I do not feel that it gives an accurate impression. I experimented with HTML5 by recreating a few pages that I had done in HTML 4.01 and was able to eliminate over half of the images used on the page without any real noticeable visual change. In my opinion, that is a huge benefit. Of course, these alterations are not compatible with IE in any way. The advantage of HTML5, at this time, is mostly dependent on what exactly you are trying to do.

In answer to the actual question at hand, I believe that it is advantageous to learn the new standard since it abbreviates some development while also including basically all of the old standard.

[quote name='wolfscaptain' timestamp='1311350045' post='4838975']
HTML5 adds some new tags, that is all.

Although being entirely accurate, I do not feel that it gives an accurate impression. I experimented with HTML5 by recreating a few pages that I had done in HTML 4.01 and was able to eliminate over half of the images used on the page without any real noticeable visual change. In my opinion, that is a huge benefit. Of course, these alterations are not compatible with IE in any way. The advantage of HTML5, at this time, is mostly dependent on what exactly you are trying to do.

In answer to the actual question at hand, I believe that it is advantageous to learn the new standard since it abbreviates some development while also including basically all of the old standard.
[/quote]

Oh don't get me wrong, the new specs are awesome.
What I meant is that you don't need to search specifically for information on either of 4 or 5.

Then again, I always search according to what I actually need.

As an example, I hated the hash-way to change the address so I just searched for "html change address with no refresh" and tada, html5 has it.

This is why I said that the internet is the best tool - just search diretly for anything you want.