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Google releases free, detailed, HTML/CSS/Javascript encyclopedia by Mark Pilgrim
- redorb 19y agoYou've got to appreciate a company that constantly produces free services that don't particularly generate revenue. I think the best way to describe this is a wiki for everything html/css/javascript ... Hope it grows and gets embraced
- rglullis 19y agoPlease, don't take that as altruism. If Google wants to have the web as the dominant platform, it makes absolute sense to lower as much as possible the barriers of entry to produce Web Applications. It is just like Joel Spolsky said: they are just taking things that are complementary to their revenue-generating offerings and turning into a commodity. Google releasing something like this is no different than having IBM working on Eclipse.
- joseakle 19y agoBarriers to entry seem to be very important on the web. Some believe building walled gardens is better (ebay, facebook´s social graph). Others believe opening the platform is the way to go (free software). While some others take a mixed approach (google, microsoft, amazon). Time will tell, but it seems it´s tilting towards openness.
- Tichy 18y agoIt's not free. Google get's your information in return. Almost every service they have is optimized for gathering information. For example, I bet the first address most users type into Google Earth is their own home address.
- wallflower 19y agoThe DHTML bible still rules
- melvinram 19y agoW3C has had something like this (but not as clean or easy to navigate) for some time now at: http://www.w3schools.com http://www.w3schools.com. I don't the W3C version is editable by others. However, it's still good to see another place we can look for answers if one place doesn't answer it well enough.
- zach 19y agoYou'd think it's the W3C, but that's because they're about the only other organization that uses "W3."
- jraines 19y agoThose aren't actually done by the W3C; and I've heard there are a lot of errors in them. However, I've used them in the past with no complaints for a quick lookup -- learned XPath from there, for example.
- simonw 18y agoThat site has one of the most misleading names on the Web - it has nothing to do with the W3C.
- aschobel 19y agoHoly cow! Google also released their cross-platform Javascript library that they used for GMail and other projects. http://code.google.com/p/doctype/source/browse http://code.google.com/p/doctype/source/browse Awesome.
- simonw 18y agoI haven't seen anything that says that's the library they use for Gmail - I got the impression it was a brand new library produced as part of the Doctype project (partly for educational purposes). Got a link to back that statement up?
- aschobel 18y agoSure, it's in the video interview with Mark Pilgrim http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmUiKaHWjLI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmUiKaHWjLI At 5:28 Mark says: "This is a big part of the encyclopedia and the guide. It is not just having a reference section but having a series of how-to articles and larger case studies. And those articles are primarily based around previously unreleased Google code that we are open sourcing as part of this project. We have a JavaScript library that handles a lot of cross browser compatibility issues which we use in properties like Gmail. If you ever viewed source you've seen the compiled version which isn't terrible readable. As part of this encyclopedia project, we are releasing the original uncompiled version that has the actual comments and real function names and description of things. So that is all open sourced under a OSI approved license." This is so unbelievably cool, why aren't Google or other blogs playing this up more??
- tdavis 19y agoI wonder what the folks over at Sitepoint think about this, having just recently put up a complete CSS reference and working on one for HTML.
- rufo 18y agoRight now I'd be far more inclined to still use SitePoint's, as their reference appears to be much more through, including extensive commentary on cross-browser differences. See http://reference.sitepoint.com/css/background http://reference.sitepoint.com/css/background http://code.google.com/docreader/#p http://code.google.com/docreader/#p(doctype)s(doctype)t(BackgroundCSSProperty) This isn't to say that Google's documentation project won't get better, as it is an open project; but right now it's borderline useless IMHO.
- smhinsey 19y agoWhat's most interesting to me about this is the dependency management code in their javascript library. That's a feature that truly sets it apart from the other mainstream javascript libraries. (I'd love to be corrected on this!)