Translating Geek Into English

I’m doing a final round of research before I begin writing my forthcoming JavaScript book and I came across some pretty good resources that I thought I’d share. (Actually, this is more of a half-truth, because I’ve already started writing the book and I’ll no doubt continue doing research while writing the book, but this is my last “have I forgotten anything that I should cover?” review.)

I’ve been targeting JavaScript information, so it’s no surprise that Mozilla, keepers of the JavaScript flame, would have wonderful information about the language on their site. This includes the JavaScript reference materials (i.e., all the objects, methods, etc.), a JavaScript primer, and some good articles. But Mozilla’s developers pages also do a great job of discussing HTML and CSS. The Mozilla “Learn How To Make Websites” section is particularly useful, especially for beginning Web developers.

One of the links at Mozilla’s pages took me to the developer’s section of the Opera Web browser’s site. I would recommend reading Opera’s WebPlatform Docs, a series of 51 articles on Web development, from design, to HTML, to Accessibility, on through CSS, and JavaScript. Another 11 articles have been added covering HTML5.

If Mozilla and Opera have good developer resources, it seems only logical that other browsers would, too. What I’ve found, though, at Apple’s (Safari) and Microsoft’s (Internet Explorer) Web sites isn’t on the same level as what Mozilla and Opera offer. In short, the resources at Apple and Microsoft tend to be more specific to their browsers. But check out the references mentioned above, you’ll have more than enough reading to do for some time!