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Ask HN: Best books to learn web development?

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Re: Ask HN: Best books to learn web development?

#21

Caveat to most of the answers so far - you can read Javascript books until you're blue in the face, you need to build stuff as much as possible.

> you need to build stuff as much as possible You're absolutely right, that's how you truly learn. I asked for some books to get a more "theoretical" perspective apart from building projects.

Re: Ask HN: Best books to learn web development?

#22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I mostly agree... there's something to be said for a simpler, server-driven stack. HTMX is particularly interesting as a point for server driven integration(s). Many (most) apps are for internalized use at a given company... there's a lot of corporate development and most of these applications can scale perfectly fine with a relatively simple stack backed by a traditional RDBMS. It's usually somewhere between 1…

Sure, nothing wrong with a simple server-side stack. But even then, you probably wouldn't write it (today) by spinning up Microsoft SQL Server on a bare-metal machine so that your sysadmin can maintain its records with MS Access, then writing a bespoke CMS by creating your own prepared SQL statements from scratch, all while making sure your designer knows Frontpage and that you have a WAP version ready to roll out so…

That's fair... I hadn't really taken in the referenced article(s), only wanted to note, that there's still a place for a simpler vertical stack. As to MS-SQL, I don't think I'd recommend it for any purpose where it isn't already entrenched. Same for any commercial SQL based RDBMS (Oracle, DB2, etc) in favor of PostgreSQL or a largely compatible implementation.

Aside: Right now, exploring HTMLX + server-side yew for rendering in rocket (rust), which could be very interesting. Usually do https termination at the platform, or reverse-proxy via Caddy. And I'm a proponent of containerizing all the things (Docker).

Re: Ask HN: Best books to learn web development?

#23

https://www.amazon.com/DOM-Scripting-Design-JavaScript-Docum... 1. If you want to be good at this start with a solid foundation. The compile target of the browser is the DOM (Document Object Model). 2. Read about accessibility: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/ Understanding accessibility will influence why things are done in certain ways and will make clear the difference between presentation and dev…

OOP isn't a problem at all since I already know Java well. Thx for DOM

Re: Ask HN: Best books to learn web development?

#24

You don't need to search SEO spam for that stuff; ChatGPT knows it. I think Vite and React would be a good place to branch out to.

TBH I'm not a huge fan of results given by ChatGPT. I often found several mistakes, not only in programming. When you ask ChatGPT, then to check its answers you must google it anyway, I feel like you waste more time. In addition, I prefer fixing problems by myself. That's why I try not to use 3rd-party libraries so much when I'm learning a new language or framework. When I get familiar with it, I start using them obviously.

Re: Ask HN: Best books to learn web development?

#25

I learned HTML and CSS mainly from MDN, so that's where I suggest you look. As for stuff I use in css most often I can only recommend a few articles and such. Learn how to use Flexbox and CSS Grid though for sure (as those are the two most modern ways to layout an HTML page) as well as CSS Positioning [0] (which is some of the older ways to lay things out). [0]: https://alistapart.com/article/css-positioning-101/ For…

Thanks a lot

Re: Ask HN: Best books to learn web development?

#26
post #5

I remember "JavaScript: The Good Parts" by Douglas Crockford touched some parts in depth. Also "You Don't Know JS Yet" has some depth in it https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS

Crockford's book is very short, but dense in information. I would not recommend it to somebody just learning the language, even though I think Crockford writes and expresses himself very clearly.

You don't know JS series didn't sit well with me. It tries to lead the reader through some a-ha moments, except those are pretty individual. But it might work for someone else.

Re: Ask HN: Best books to learn web development?

#27

https://www.amazon.com/DOM-Scripting-Design-JavaScript-Docum... 1. If you want to be good at this start with a solid foundation. The compile target of the browser is the DOM (Document Object Model). 2. Read about accessibility: https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/ Understanding accessibility will influence why things are done in certain ways and will make clear the difference between presentation and dev…

Not sure I agree with this advice. Most of webdev today is about actively avoiding the DOM. That's not to say you should not know what is below, but the rabbit hole can get deep. Accessibility is something that unfortunately is not high on the list of most people's priorities. You might say that's bad, but knowing it will not help someone learning the ropes to get an app done so they can learn more.

Re: Ask HN: Best books to learn web development?

#29

I learned HTML and CSS mainly from MDN, so that's where I suggest you look. As for stuff I use in css most often I can only recommend a few articles and such. Learn how to use Flexbox and CSS Grid though for sure (as those are the two most modern ways to layout an HTML page) as well as CSS Positioning [0] (which is some of the older ways to lay things out). [0]: https://alistapart.com/article/css-positioning-101/ For…

I'll add The Modern JavaScript Tutorial as an additional reference I like:

https://javascript.info/

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