Book Review: HTML5 Boilerplate Web Development

HTML5 Boilerplate
Web Development

This book is packed with a ton of various tips and tricks for the novice or the pro. Even with 13 years of experience it still taught me a few things that had flown under my radar that I'll be implementing right away. While it does take some leaps regarding expected reader knowledge, there are plenty of links and resources noted to help anyone catch up.

HTML5 Boilerplate is an amazing jump off point for any project and I highly recommend you check it out. I was enamored with it enough with it to create a Drupal theme out of it that we use daily here at the Toad. And now after reading this book, I've got some work to do to fully take advantage of all of the features that HTML5 Boilerplate offers.

It does a great job of starting at the beginning of the code and explaining each piece, while refusing to gloss over the ugly history of some of the features. It thoroughly explains concepts that have been taken for granted or glossed over like doctype, Apache optimization, and project set up and deployment.

It should be noted that the current version has a good amount of typos in both the content and the code samples which will infuriate users trying to type along with the book. For pros this won't be a problem, but beginner may struggle with some of the typos. Just remember to think, not just copy and paste and you should be able to work them out. A thoroughly edited revision would be needed before I could rate the book higher, but it's a great start.