4 ms·

For me, as an experienced front-end-focussed developer, MDN has been my go-to website for quick spec references. MDN has all I need to know, and I know my way a

For me, as an experienced front-end-focussed developer, MDN has been my go-to website for quick spec references. MDN has all I need to know, and I know my way around. However, I've been in teams where the less-experienced developers went to W3C Schools to see how they should implement some feature. And to be honest, I cannot completely blame them. W3C Schools shows directly what you need to know and how the API you are discovering works. This is mainly because of the playground with possible implementations on top of every specification page. I hope MDN can make their site more appealing for less experience developers without cutting in on the feature-completeness. For those interested: Behold, the W3C Schools hider extension. https://github.com/Spetnik/W3Schools-Hider https://github.com/Spetnik/W3Schools-Hider

marksomnian 9y ago
Your comment excellently demonstrates the problem with them: W3Schools is not related to the W3C in any way. Many beginners see the "W3" and think it's an official resource. This is bad.
- Egidius 9y ago
  I never implied that W3C Schools is related to W3C. But I do agree with you: that's bad. But for me that's a public secret. I don't think that's the main reason why I dislike W3C schools, though. My problem with W3C Schools is that they are not the right away to learn web development in a proper way: https://www.impressivewebs.com/w3schools-ugly-bad-good/ https://www.impressivewebs.com/w3schools-ugly-bad-good/. MDN holds a far greater standard on a whole lot of aspects: following exact W3C specs, being up to date, design, just to name a few obvious ones.
  - rodorgas 9y ago
    Parent thought you believe W3Schools is related to W3C because you keep calling it "W3C Schools" (it's W3Schools).
    - Egidius 9y ago
      aha... right :D
- briandear 9y ago
  Most beginners have no idea what W3C is or why they should care.
ben_jones 9y ago
I've been that less experienced developer, using w3schools would save a minute or two on certain searches. Now I enjoy going to MDN and learning a few extra things on a given topic, or reinforcing an existing understand, via MDN. Sometimes i'll lose 15 minutes crawling a few tangential links - worth.
schnevets 9y ago
W3Schools tends to have a usable piece of example code at the very top of the page, while MDN gives an introduction and broader idea. Compare the display property page at the top of W3Schools vs MDN: W3Schools: https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_display_visibility.asp https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_display_visibility.asp MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Attribute/display https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Attribute/d... Combine this and the higher Google rankings (My usual front-end searches display W3Schools, then StackOverflow, then sometimes JQuery or another library, then MDN), and you can understand where the problem lies.
- pawelk 9y ago
  You should at least compare the docs for the same thing. For the w3schools article on CSS Display [1] the MDN counterpart would be https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/display https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/display and to compare SVG docs on MDN vs w3schools I have a hard time finding an article with similar depth of information. I agree there's a ranking problem, that's why I usually append "MDN" to my front-end related searches. [1] The w3schools article on CSS display is limited to three values (block/inline/none) and doesn't even hint there are more possibilities, the most notable omissions being table and flex. It even has an example of overriding the default display ("channging inline to block and vice versa") that uses an `<li>` which, by default, has `display: list-item`, and still doesn't mention it.

marksomnian 9y ago

Your comment excellently demonstrates the problem with them: W3Schools is not related to the W3C in any way. Many beginners see the "W3" and think it's an official resource. This is bad.

Egidius 9y ago
I never implied that W3C Schools is related to W3C. But I do agree with you: that's bad. But for me that's a public secret. I don't think that's the main reason why I dislike W3C schools, though. My problem with W3C Schools is that they are not the right away to learn web development in a proper way: https://www.impressivewebs.com/w3schools-ugly-bad-good/ https://www.impressivewebs.com/w3schools-ugly-bad-good/. MDN holds a far greater standard on a whole lot of aspects: following exact W3C specs, being up to date, design, just to name a few obvious ones.
- rodorgas 9y ago
  Parent thought you believe W3Schools is related to W3C because you keep calling it "W3C Schools" (it's W3Schools).
  - Egidius 9y ago
    aha... right :D
briandear 9y ago
Most beginners have no idea what W3C is or why they should care.

ben_jones 9y ago

I've been that less experienced developer, using w3schools would save a minute or two on certain searches. Now I enjoy going to MDN and learning a few extra things on a given topic, or reinforcing an existing understand, via MDN. Sometimes i'll lose 15 minutes crawling a few tangential links - worth.

schnevets 9y ago

W3Schools tends to have a usable piece of example code at the very top of the page, while MDN gives an introduction and broader idea. Compare the display property page at the top of W3Schools vs MDN: W3Schools: https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_display_visibility.asp https://www.w3schools.com/css/css_display_visibility.asp MDN: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Attribute/display https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Attribute/d... Combine this and the higher Google rankings (My usual front-end searches display W3Schools, then StackOverflow, then sometimes JQuery or another library, then MDN), and you can understand where the problem lies.

pawelk 9y ago
You should at least compare the docs for the same thing. For the w3schools article on CSS Display [1] the MDN counterpart would be https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/display https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/display and to compare SVG docs on MDN vs w3schools I have a hard time finding an article with similar depth of information. I agree there's a ranking problem, that's why I usually append "MDN" to my front-end related searches. [1] The w3schools article on CSS display is limited to three values (block/inline/none) and doesn't even hint there are more possibilities, the most notable omissions being table and flex. It even has an example of overriding the default display ("channging inline to block and vice versa") that uses an `<li>` which, by default, has `display: list-item`, and still doesn't mention it.