Best of the best CSS, DHTML, Javascript books

[deadseasquirrel]

I am looking for the absolute best CSS, DHTML, etc. book. I am a beginner, but I like to know things in depth, not necessarily go through example after example of very complex webpages, but I want to know the nitty gritty. I still haven't found a good book that explains why there is so much incompatibility between browsers with css, or a good practical DHTML book. Can people please give me their personal opinions.

[kansel]

Cascading Style Sheets: Separating Content from Presentation (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/159059231X/qid=1081969858/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-9052379-6991929?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) - CSS, explains the box model in a clear way with several layout examples, includes a chapter dedicated to browser incompatibilies with eachother & CSS. This book has 4 authors, and not one of em is Eric Meyer- this gives a fresh perspective since most of the other CSS books are written by Mr. Meyer. Downsides: not much style reference, more of a theory book.

Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0596003161/qid=1081969910/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/104-9052379-6991929?v=glance&s=books&n=507846) (2nd ed. only!) - DHTML, CSS, Javascript, DOM & X/HTML reference, includes a light DHTML library and builds upon it in the first part of the book. Downsides: this book is FAT! It could easily be two separate books, one for read-through and one for reference. It's a shame O'Reilly doesn't put its books on CD.

JavaScript: The Definitive Guide (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0596000480/qid=1081970365/sr=1-1/ref=pd_ka_1/104-9052379-6991929?v=glance&s=books) (4th ed.) - Complete JavaScript reference and a good bit of read-through instruction. I taught myself JavaScript by reading the first 200 pages of the 3rd ed. of this book on a plane! (no computer in front of me). I still keep the 3rd ed. at work. Downsides: see O'Reilly complaint above.

Cascading Style Sheets 2.0 Programmer's Reference (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0072131780/qid=1081970686/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1_xs_stripbooks_i1_xgl14/104-9052379-6991929?v=glance&s=books) and Cascading Style Sheets: The Definitive Guide (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0596005253/qid=1081970759/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1_xs_stripbooks_i1_xgl14/104-9052379-6991929?v=glance&s=books) 2nd ed. - both good CSS reference. The Definitive Guide just arrived on my doorstep a few days ago so I haven't had much of a chance to familiarize myself with it. I use the Programmer's Reference book daily when I can wrestle it away from my boss. Downsides: neither has much info on browser compatibility. The Programmer's Reference has a browser-compat chart but it is very incomplete. Both books feature info on the outline style group but don't mention that no current browser supports outlines (at least I can't get them to work in IE or Firefox).

I use HTML: The Complete Reference (2nd ed.) for plain HTML, but the 2nd ed. is very buggy. The index is off by a dozen pages or so and it doesn't have great info on CSS 1 & 2, DHTML and XML even though it's spine says it does. I believe this book is up to 3rd ed., also there is an HTML & XHTML Complete Reference from the same publisher, as well as HTML & XHTML Definitive Guide from O'Reilly.

This may seem like my library is a bit O'Reilly heavy, but I really do have other books. It's just that I find myself reaching for the O'Reilly ones more often than the Bible or Complete Reference series.

[sharkey182uk]

Try buying Jeffery Zeldmans Book on web standards which contains CSS, accessibility, confilcts between different browsers and much more.

A very good book :thumbsup:

[deadseasquirrel]

Does any of those books explain the difference between a blank entry and a entry that is zero. For example

#mainpage #logoright {
background-image: url(../images/lopedialogo.jpg);
background-repeat: no-repeat;
position: absolute;
height: 50px;
width: 220px;
right: 0px; or just blank
}

[ronaldb66]

What do you mean by "a blank entry"?
If you mean not specifying a property and value at all, yes, Eric Meyer explains this well in his book (Cascading Style Sheets, The Definitive Guide, 2nd edition).
Not specifiying a property explicitly will cause the value for that property either to be the default defined by the user agent, or in case of inheritance, the value inherited from an ascendant. I haven't got the book around, but appearently, inheritance is rather weak and can cause some interesting effects; if you want to be sure a property has a certain value, it's safest to specify it explicitly. Using the "inherit" value, available for certain properties, will force the value of the ascendant property to be inherited.