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Lay off W3Schools

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Re: Lay off W3Schools

#51

Post by kibibyte »

shazow wrote: post #39

w3schools is not the best resource, but 90% of the time, when it shows up as the top result on Google, it tells me exactly what I want to know. Some common examples: - What values does CSS attribute white-space take? #1 result on Google for "css white-space" is http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_text_white-space.asp which has exactly what I need to know. - What members does the Array object in JavaScript have? For th…

I highly recommend http://dochub.io/ over w3schools. Not only does it source MDN, which is much more accurate, but it allows you to instantly search for whatever CSS property or JS function/object you're looking for. (The only thing that I find disadvantageous is that you have to know the name of what you're looking for)

Re: Lay off W3Schools

#52

Post by qubot »

kibibyte wrote: post #51
shazow wrote: post #39

w3schools is not the best resource, but 90% of the time, when it shows up as the top result on Google, it tells me exactly what I want to know. Some common examples: - What values does CSS attribute white-space take? #1 result on Google for "css white-space" is http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_text_white-space.asp which has exactly what I need to know. - What members does the Array object in JavaScript have? For th…

I highly recommend http://dochub.io/ over w3schools. Not only does it source MDN, which is much more accurate, but it allows you to instantly search for whatever CSS property or JS function/object you're looking for. (The only thing that I find disadvantageous is that you have to know the name of what you're looking for)

Oo! I like the system, but beginners wouldn't know what to do there. By that I mean, they would not learn much there without prior knowledge.

Re: Lay off W3Schools

#53

Post by petercooper »

I suspect that sources like W3Schools, the O'Reilly Missing Manual series and DirectXTutorial.com leave out good practices to avoid overwhelming the reader.

This idea is sometimes called Wittgenstein's ladder: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie-to-children - "My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them - as steps - to climb beyond them. He must, so to speak, throw away the ladder after he has climbed up it."

Re: Lay off W3Schools

#54

Post by ctrlfrk »

andrewfelix wrote: post #35
ctrlfrk wrote: post #15

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Except w3school is a road to heaven paved with bad instructions. None the less it is a road, and it's approachable.

Oh no, if you follow the instructions on that site you're going straight to code hell. Yes it is very approachable and enticing, but it's wrong.

Re: Lay off W3Schools

#56

Post by qubot »

petercooper wrote: post #53

I suspect that sources like W3Schools, the O'Reilly Missing Manual series and DirectXTutorial.com leave out good practices to avoid overwhelming the reader. This idea is sometimes called Wittgenstein's ladder: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie-to-children - "My propositions serve as elucidations in the following way: anyone who understands me eventually recognizes them as nonsensical, when he has used them - as steps…

I agree with everything but the last bit. If you throw away the ladder, doesn't that represent forgetting the information that actually helped you?

Re: Lay off W3Schools

#57

Post by qubot »

ctrlfrk wrote: post #54
andrewfelix wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except w3school is a road to heaven paved with bad instructions. None the less it is a road, and it's approachable.

Oh no, if you follow the instructions on that site you're going straight to code hell. Yes it is very approachable and enticing, but it's wrong.

I came out of it just fine. Satan had some good contacts.

Re: Lay off W3Schools

#58

Post by DigitalSea »

Yeah, how dare we as developers criticise a website disseminating wrong information like W3Schools. It's not their fault they get tonnes of Google traffic and have made no effort whatsoever to bring their site inline with other equally great resources.

The first Google result for the query, "div tag" is a W3Schools page. The page then cringefully displays a sample piece of code with an inline style colour attribute that probably would have been acceptable in 2002. Don't get me wrong, as a developer I think W3Schools can serve a purpose, but I've often found myself on a W3Schools reference page and not leaving a single useful piece of information.

It feels like W3Schools hasn't changed since it launched. I'm guessing the software company that runs it has better things to do and doesn't really care whether or not they're miseducating people.

And by the way, I think the author is about 7 years too late on the W3Schools hate train, the article reads like hating W3Schools is a new thing.

Re: Lay off W3Schools

#59

Post by ctrlfrk »

qubot wrote: post #57
ctrlfrk wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh no, if you follow the instructions on that site you're going straight to code hell. Yes it is very approachable and enticing, but it's wrong.

I came out of it just fine. Satan had some good contacts.

That's the problem though, people who have been misled by w3schools often don't even realise it.

Re: Lay off W3Schools

#60

Post by jasonhanley »

kibibyte wrote: post #51
shazow wrote: post #39

w3schools is not the best resource, but 90% of the time, when it shows up as the top result on Google, it tells me exactly what I want to know. Some common examples: - What values does CSS attribute white-space take? #1 result on Google for "css white-space" is http://www.w3schools.com/cssref/pr_text_white-space.asp which has exactly what I need to know. - What members does the Array object in JavaScript have? For th…

I highly recommend http://dochub.io/ over w3schools. Not only does it source MDN, which is much more accurate, but it allows you to instantly search for whatever CSS property or JS function/object you're looking for. (The only thing that I find disadvantageous is that you have to know the name of what you're looking for)

Is there a similar site that is less Firefox-specific?
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