Upgrade Your HTML (the Booklet)
Post from November 4, 2019 (↻ December 9, 2022), filed under Web Development (feed).
I’ve written a very short book on improving HTML code: Upgrade Your HTML.
Upgrade Your HTML is about one thing: Picking examples of HTML in the wild, and explaining how to make that code better. Kindly. Constructively. Thoroughly, as finding a balance between detail and brevity permits. For all web developers, though the less you’ve looked at HTML optimization so far, the more you may take out of the booklet.
Format and Price | Ebook (EPUB and PDF), $7.99 |
---|---|
Kindle ebook (free app for Android and iOS), $7.99 | |
Preview | Select chapters (PDF, 207 KB) |
Length | 27 pages (PDF) |
Sellers | Amazon |
Apple Books | |
Kobo | |
Google Play Books | |
Leanpub | |
Gumroad | |
SitePoint | |
Latest Version | 1.4.14 (2022) |
Good tricks to achieve
[…]better HTML.
…say readers at SitePoint.
This book is part of a series: Explore Upgrade Your HTML at Amazon, Kobo, Google Play Books, and Leanpub.
Description
HTML is super-popular. Everyone can write HTML. Or can they? In the spirit that everything can be tweaked and optimized, Upgrade Your HTML is a first light book in a playful series to review and improve real-life examples of HTML.
Not shyly but always constructively does Jens Oliver Meiert, someone who has written a lot of HTML and who makes his own life difficult so that he can write even more HTML, go through ten samples to ponder and upgrade the respective markup.
If you’re a web developer, you know HTML. Check out and follow Upgrade Your HTML to nod (or shake your head) exploring old and new problems surrounding uses of the beloved HyperText Markup Language.
→ This is the book if you enjoy the intricacies of working with HTML.
The outline:
- Acknowledgments
- Intro
- Respect the
title
Attribute- Stop Escaping
&
- Think Through Your Markup
- Don’t Double Boolean Attributes
- If It Can Be Done Using an HTTP Header, Use an HTTP Header
- Avoid
data
Images- Don’t Use the Classic “clearfix”
- Be Clear About Attribute Functions
- Question Your Frontend Code
- Add Meaning, Prune Meaninglessness
- Outro
- Feedback
- About the Author
- About Upgrade Your HTML
EPUB and PDF, with updates, at Leanpub.
❧ I’m immensely grateful for all the help from Kevin Khaw, who reviewed the booklet on technical accuracy, Merci Niebres, who greatly contributed to improving its tone, and Gabriele Kretzschmar for overall editing.
Enjoy the first edition of: Upgrade Your HTML!
About Me

I’m Jens, and I’m an engineering lead and author. I’ve worked as a technical lead for Google, I’m close to W3C and WHATWG, and I write and review books for O’Reilly. I love trying things, sometimes including philosophy, art, and adventure. Here on meiert.com I share some of my views and experiences.
If you have a question or suggestion about what I write, please leave a comment (if available) or a message. Thank you!
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