I'm a programmer at heart, but I've always wanted to understand more about HTML and CSS. Unfortunately, every resource I have tried to learn with I have found lacking. Every book/tutorial I've read focuses on
- Lists of HTML element types
- Lists of CSS attributes
- Hacks for IE compatibility
- Cookbook recipes for common solutions
- Examples of finished web pages
To me, this is like teaching someone C++ by handing them the language specification and some undocumented source code. So now I technically understand how HTML/CSS work, and I can tweak and copy from other designs to make them do what I want but I have absolutely no idea how to translate an idea for a design into code from scratch.
I'm not a professional web designer - I'm an enthusiast who wants to understand the mechanics of these languages. What I really want is to grok web page design. I'm looking for a resource that covers
- How to structure a page semanticly (using HTML5)
- How different CSS attributes interact
- Implementing a design iteratively
- How the layout engine interprets a page
- "Good" code (minimalist, flexible, non-deprecated, etc.)
Like I've hinted at, I'm not really interested in practicality, compatibility, or even graphic design. I want to be able to take an idea for a design and mentally structure it such that I can implement it in code (just like I already can for the design of a program).
Do you know of any resources that could fit my needs?
