Handcrafted CSS, the latest contribution of Dan Cederholm to the world of Web Design and Development is a fantastic book! To say that I’m a fan of his work is a bit of an understatement. No web designer or developer should be without these books; Bulletproof Web Design, Handcrafted CSS, as well as Designing With Web Standards, and DOM Scripting. These books are fantastic resources, and push web development out of the dark ages of table based layout, css hacks, and duplicating sites for each browser version. But there is a particular philosophy the makes Handcrafted CSS special.
The philosophy of the book is move forward. Not through bleeding edge technologies but adherence and pioneering site development through standards. The way I see it, if web standards have been around long enough for Microsoft to finally adopt – than you have run out of excuses for adopting standards in your work. Validated standards compliant, non-table based layout, semantically driven web development is here, embrace it.
This book goes beyond that though. Handcrafted CSS is the add-on work that builds on the Bulletproof Web Design philosophy: Progressive enhancement. It works like this I’ve given up on pixel perfect cross-browser web development. I can no longer justify doubling my development time by crafting everything twice: once for standards based browsers, and again for IE. It’s expensive and for what benefit? Think about it, besides the direct client and the developer, web site visitors use their browser, a single browser. They are not loading the site and switching back and forth between the two browsers scrutinizing every margin, border and font size.
Yes, the site has to look good everywhere. Yes, it has to work in every browser. No, it does not have to look identical in every browser. Repeat this to yourself over and over until your breathing and heart rate returns to a normal level. I have come to realize that it will never look exactly the same, and the cost of getting it even as close as it is possible is not worth the time.
This is where Handcrafted CSS comes in. As soon as you let go of this old way of thinking an entire new world opens up. Modern, agile, browsers adopt standards early to allow for testing and contributing to the standards ratification process. The more developers exercise this code in their work, the stronger the final standards will be. We can prove out the efficacy of the standard everyday through our work. Additionally we are seeding the internet with millions of reasons to stop using IE all together.
I think that if web surfers knew that their world would be a richer, more beautiful place using standards based browsers, they would stop using IE. Additionally, the more the world swings in the direction of standards, the harder it will be for Microsoft to continue to do business as usual. They will be forced to join the party.
So if you are interested in furthering the standards movement, experience the wonder and awe of CSS3 and the freedoms it provides (not to mention the severe reduction of coding effort), there are three things you should do;
Buy Handcrafted CSS, adopt progressive enhancement as a philosophy, and create beautiful sites that illustrate the joys of letting go of the old ways of building web sites.