I just found out that HTML is no longer what web designers are using. The going web design markup language is HTML5 and CS5. I have been using your book “Build Your Own Web Site The Right Way”, for the past weeks and I am on chapter 4. Since HTML5 and CS5 is the newest language, is it a waste of time for me to continue with your book that I already have; and do you have a book that teaches HTML5 and CS5?
I purchased Dreamweaver CS3, in 2008 but never learned to use it. I feel that I need to know the foundation of how a web page is built and then use Dreamweaver; and I am aware that dreamweaver has been updated to Dreamweaver6
Hi Linda. HTML5 is currently in development and is not properly ready for real world use. People are really using it experimentally, with a lot of support from JavaScript, because browsers hardly recognize any of it yet. And HTML4 will never be out of date. HTML5 is still HTML, but with some extra elements that you probably don’t need anyway. So don’t worry, the book you have is just fine.
Also, not sure what you mean by “the going web design markup language is … CS5”. What is CS5? That’s something to do with Adobe, but as you noted, they are up to CS6 … but this has nothing to do with code.
If you mean CSS3, well, yes, that’s an extension of CSS2, but that’s also in development and not much of it is supported by browsers yet.
SitePoint does have a book on HTML5 and CSS3, but remember that they are really for experimental use at this stage, apart from small bits that are supported in the newer, more pregressive browsers.
That book is absolutely worthless unless you understand HTML and CSS. There are books out there which use “HTML5” and “CSS3” as a foundation but none I could recommend nor would.
Dreamweaver promotes out of date practices and bad habits. The design editor produces the same crappy code as it ten years ago. Stay away at all costs.
I’m fond of dreamweaver because of the FTP functionality, I have had little success with other programs. Dreamwaever gives me simple “on save and upload” with the remote files I’m working on, and I like that
As Ralph said, it’s quite nice from a code point of view. The design side isn’t the greatest though.
Firstly, HTML 5 is an updated specification that introduces new stuff to HTML, its not like HTML is suddenly obsolete and been replaced with something new; because its not; it’s the same markup language, just extended with lots of new stuff and with updated standards. You’ll find tons of stuff you learn from previous versions is still relevant; most of it in fact.
You also need to consider that relying solely on new HTML 5 markup is somewhat dangerous as while some of it will degrade well, other parts of the specification will not. A lot of the HTML5 specification is still experimental, erratically supported by browsers etc.
There are certain components of HTML 5 that are great now though; such as the form specification updates, they are useful and most (all?) degrade perfectly (you still need to validate though).
The answer to your question, in my opinion is not an either or, but that you should learn both as you’ll need both for the foreseeable future.
