“One awesome book for the intermediate web developer.”

Stampede has recently adopted the Great Book Reward policy for our wonderful team and we have chosen Handcrafted CSS as Syazwan’s first book reward. Syazwan is the front-end developer at Stampede.

Handcrafted CSS by Dan Cederholm and Ethan Marcotte is one awesome book for the intermediate web developer. This book focuses on how to develop bulletproof web design (also another amazing title by Dan Cederholm) but doing it far better by using CSS3.

Dan wrote everything inside this book based on CSS3 though it can easily merge with CSS5 in the future. He also covers ways to enriching web design using uncommon CSS3 properties and most importantly, how to render high-degree of style-consistency on every browser including IE6. In other words, Handcrafted CSS provides several ways to write CSS towards the same end result. There are 7 chapters in total, all covering CSS3 markups commonly used during web development with accompanying images for better details.

Chapter 1 covers a variety of styling the list element, particularly the <ul> element. Really simple modifications like font size adjustment, longer menu, floating, hovering treatment and positioning can lead to better, more usable listing style. This chapter also includes notes on how to change links into table and vice-versa.

Chapter 2 is all about “Rounded Corners”, deservedly so. It explains the handy property of border-radius on WebKit family browser (e.g Firefox and Safari). This method solves the problem of using of four extra <div> through the use of only one flexible rounded-corner box. With border-radius property, we can easily style flexible rounded input box – a frequent nightmare for many web developers. For me, I’m juts happy this method won’t screw other element and doesn’t require anything else besides CSS. The only downside is that it doesn’t work on IE7 and IE6, where all those sexy rounded corners and only shown as square, uninteresting boxes. I’ve also learned that twitter uses border-radius method.

RGBA is the main focus in Chapter 3. RGB stands for Red Green Blue – the color model that you can combine to create multitude hues – while RGBA stands for Red Green Blue and Alpha. This chapter will explain why there is an “alpha” value in RGB. In this chapter, Dan also show us how how to optimize color usage using CSS.

Chapter 4 covers text-shadow and box-shadow properties, again stuffs that are widely use by developers around the globe. Similar to “border-radius”, it eliminates the need to use any background image for the drop shadow effect. This means user can now easily change text and elements with drop-shadow on the fly.

Chapter 5 combines floating, stylesheet grouping, css framework and css reset. There are ways to tackle float, or known as “problem trigger”. The book suggests two solutions – clearing the float container and using single declaration for each element (will need long list css). It also shows the ways to to quarantine IE hacks and patches into developer’s own stylesheet. This chapter also discusses the two most popular frameworks at present: Blueprint and 960 Grid System. They are different but aims for the same objective – to make developers’ lives easier. The part about CSS reset covers essential things that you need to do to neutralize default css property values.

Chapter 6, The Fluid Grid is contributed by Ethan Marcotte and it elaborates more on the Grid System Framework. How to implement? What’s the problem expected to occur? Which browser doesn’t work? What is the solution? You’ll find pretty much everything about grid here.

Chapter 7 is dedicated to the details in web design craftsmanship. It discusses how typography can influence your design and gives valuable examples on how to make things more exciting for flash-like sliding animation using jQuery. Shifting backgrounds, collapsing/hiding image and the use of sliding bars are all new ways to sizzle up your web presence.

All in all, I have thoroughly enjoyed Handcrafted CSS. If you’re a front-end web developer or designer looking to harness CSS3 in your work, this book is a great start for you.

Handcrafted CSS: More Bulletproof Web Design
By Dan Cederholm and Ethan Marcotte

“Don’t tell all. Keep something back.”

Shaza Hakim’s earliest memory of books was when her dad took her to her first book fair on his hip Scrambler bike. It was a noisy piece of metal but it was yellow and she loved it. Shaza is the Creative Lead at Stampede.

Where others have gadgets and tutorials to help them get better with design, I have books. The Elements of Style has a permanent place among the few books I have on my desk. In more occasions than I can remember, I have found in it my very own personal guide in design.

Do not explain too much.

It is seldom advisable to tell all. Be sparing, for instance, in the use of adverbs after “he said”, “she replied” and the like: “he said consolingly”; “she replied grumblingly.” Let the conversation itself disclose the speaker’s manner or condition. Dialogue heavily weighted is cluttery and annoying. Inexperienced writers not only overwork their adverbs but load their attributes with explanatory verbs: “he consoled,” “she congratulated”. They do this, apparently in the belief that the word said is always in need of support, or because they have been told to do so by experts in the art of bad writing.
p.109, The Elements of Style by Strunk and White

The same goes for design. Don’t tell all. Keep something back. Let the design speaks for itself without the need to anticipate interpretations. And don’t do things because you have been told to do so by the experts in the art of bad design.

Good design does not need a supporting story.

Going through the book, I scribbled my own notes of interesting and important excerpts that I can share with others. Nothing is more important than what I found on Page 395. It reads a transcript of the speech given by Severn Suzuki, then a 12-year-old, who stood in front of the delegations of 1992 Rio de Janeiro’s Earth Summit.

Severn Suzuki is now an environmental activist, speaker, television host and author.

If You Don’t Know How To Fix It, Stop Breaking It!

“Hello, I’m Severn Suzuki speaking for E.C.O. – The Environmental Children’s Organisation.We are a group of twelve and thirteen-year-olds from Canada trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg and me. We raised all the money ourselves to come six thousand miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future.Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the stock market. I am here to speak for all generations to come.

I am here to speak on behalf of the starving children around the world whose cries go unheard.

I am here to speak for the countless animals dying across this planet because they have nowhere left to go. We cannot afford to be not heard.

I am afraid to go out in the sun now because of the holes in the ozone. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don’t know what chemicals are in it.

I used to go fishing in Vancouver with my dad until just a few years ago we found the fish full of cancers. And now we hear about animals and plants going extinct every day — vanishing forever.

In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals, jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterfilies, but now I wonder if they will even exist for my children to see.

Did you have to worry about these little things when you were my age?

All this is happening before our eyes and yet we act as if we have all the time we want and all the solutions. I’m only a child and I don’t have all the solutions, but I want you to realise, neither do you!

1. You don’t know how to fix the holes in our ozone layer.
2. You don’t know how to bring salmon back up a dead stream.
3. You don’t know how to bring back an animal now extinct.
4. And you can’t bring back forests that once grew where there is now desert.

If you don’t know how to fix it, please stop breaking it!

Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people, organisers, reporters or poiticians – but really you are mothers and fathers, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles – and all of you are somebody’s child.

I’m only a child yet I know we are all part of a family, five billion strong, in fact, 30 million species strong and we all share the same air, water and soil — borders and governments will never change that.

I’m only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act as one single world towards one single goal.

In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell the world how I feel.

In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away, buy and throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to lose some of our wealth, afraid to share.

In Canada, we live the privileged life, with plenty of food, water and shelter — we have watches, bicycles, computers and television sets.

Two days ago here in Brazil, we were shocked when we spent some time with some children living on the streets. And this is what one child told us: “I wish I was rich and if I were, I would give all the street children food, clothes, medicine, shelter and love and affection.”

If a child on the street who has nothing, is willing to share, why are we who have everyting still so greedy?

I can’t stop thinking that these children are my age, that it makes a tremendous difference where you are born, that I could be one of those children living in the Favellas of Rio; I could be a child starving in Somalia; a victim of war in the Middle East or a beggar in India.

I’m only a child yet I know if all the money spent on war was spent on ending poverty and finding environmental answers, what a wonderful place this earth would be!

At school, even in kindergarten, you teach us to behave in the world. You teach us:

1. not to fight with others,
2. to work things out,
3. to respect others,
4. to clean up our mess,
5. not to hurt other creatures,
6. to share – not be greedy.

Then why do you go out and do the things you tell us not to do?

Do not forget why you’re attending these conferences, who you’re doing this for — we are your own children. You are deciding what kind of world we will grow up in. Parents should be able to comfort their children by saying “everyting’s going to be alright” , “we’re doing the best we can” and “it’s not the end of the world”.

But I don’t think you can say that to us anymore. Are we even on your list of priorities? My father always says “You are what you do, not what you say.”

Well, what you do makes me cry at night. You grown ups say you love us. I challenge you, please make your actions reflect your words. Thank you.”