As the weeks go by, I find tons of new developer resources, tools, and things worth looking into.
I wrote a similar roundup of JavaScript resources, so this time I’m covering stuff related to what we commonly call “HTML5” (even though a lot of this stuff could easily fall under a “JavaScript” umbrella too).
The Truth About HTML5
The Truth About HTML5, written by Luke Stevens, looks like an honest and informative book on HTML5. The book isn’t released yet, but you can subscribe to get notified when it’s ready.
I don’t know much about the book itself, and it doesn’t seem to be available through mainstream outlets, but you can read a comment by the author on this Smashing Magazine post that shows that he seems to know his stuff, and this could be a good read for those hoping to get a deeper understanding of various HTML5-related features.
Mobile HTML5 Compatibility Tables
You’ve probably seen many CSS3 and HTML5 compatibility resources that mainly focus on desktop browser support. Mobile HTML5 consists of a chart that is touted as “trying to understand HTML5 compatibility on mobile and tablet browsers”.
Compatibility info covers iPhone, Android, Blackberry, iPad, and more.
Roots WordPress Theme
Roots “is a starting WordPress theme made for developers that’s based on HTML5 Boilerplate, Blueprint CSS (or 960.gs) and Starkers that will help you rapidly create brochure sites and blogs.”
The theme is said to be hNews Microformat ready, produces cleaner WordPress code output, in addition to numerous other features. I’m using HTML5 Reset’s WordPress theme for this site, but Roots looks like another good option to look into.
Polyfilling the HTML5 Gaps
Polyfilling the HTML5 Gaps is a fantastic slideshow by Addy Osmani that was part of his presentation at FITC Toronto’s Spotlight HTML5.
Addy provides some very real-world and practical advice for dealing with browser inconsistencies and even teaches you how to write your own HTML5 polyfills. Can’t say enough about this presentation. I’d love to see a video of his talk, but I’m not sure if one exists.
The Web platform: Browser technologies
The Web platform is a simple site maintained on GitHub by Michael Smith. The page links to the official documentation for a number of HTML5 technologies.
Nothing too fancy here, just a good resource to come back to if you want to see what type of APIs and other features are available to HTML5 developers.
The Latest in HTML5
The Latest in HTML5 by Eric Bidelman is another great presentation from earlier this year, and definitely not for the faint of heart. The presentation covers what Eric calls “Lesser known gems” and “smaller APIs for building more powerful web apps” as well as the Web Audio API.
Additionally, there are some neat little interactions that demonstrate some of the stuff being discussed. Some pretty powerful stuff here — you might have to go through this one two or three times.
Move the Web Forward
Finally, although this is not really an HTML5-focused resource, Move The Web Forward is a very cool new initiative put together by a number of great developers. The site promotes the idea that all of us, no matter our circumstances or skill level, can contribute in some way to moving the web platform forward and making things easier for everyone to develop powerful, cross-browser, and high-performance web sites and apps.
You can read more on the project on Addy Osmani’s Smashing Magazine article. The project website has a whole slew of great suggestions for how developers can be more involved in helping the community and ultimately moving the web forward.
So the truth about HTML5 allows you to send in your email to be notified about its release. That is not a resource.
Thank you, O wise one! May a
<section>tag drop from the sky and bless your family with riches and wisdom! Or maybe a<div>. I can’t figure out which.But seriously, I was supposed to mention that it was an “upcoming” book, but seemed to inadvertently leave that out. I’ve edited the post to mention this. Thanks.
And of course, thanks to Luke for commenting below and letting us know of the book’s status.
Hey, thanks so much for linking to my book “The Truth About HTML5”! Apologies it’s just a small landing page at the moment; but the book is written, edited, and going through production at the moment. I elaborate on the topics I touched on in my Smashing Magazine comments in the book, and will hopefully set the record straight about the HTML part of HTML5. Cheers! :)
Just an FYI some of your link’s don’t direct to anywhere.
Otherwise some of these resources are just great, thanks!
Actually there was one link that was wrong, but I don’t see any others.
Thanks for the heads up. :)
HTML5 Doctor is a great resource too. http://html5doctor.com