The Little Book of Little Books: HTML and CSS Frameworks, Coding Guidelines, Quality Control

Jens Oliver Meiert

Nov 2021 · np

About this ebook

The Little Book of Little Books consists of three booklets, originally released in 2015 and 2016. They have been lightly updated and edited (with permission and release by the former publisher, O’Reilly).

The Little Book of HTML/CSS Frameworks provides guidance for the development and use of web frameworks. It was written during a time when frameworks were used by linking to their style sheets. While times have changed, it’s the author’s conviction that the principles outlined in the book still hold, and that it provides unique views to the advantage of everyone working with frameworks.

The Little Book of HTML/CSS Coding Guidelines outlines the benefits of coding standards and discusses them on the basis of the Google HTML/CSS Style Guide. It was written during a time when there was little tooling to format code automatically. Back in 2012, the author had revised and published the Google guidelines; many years later, he maintains that the modern frontend developer and their craft still benefit from such standards.

The Little Book of Website Quality Control reviews quality assurance and control and offers a comprehensive collection of tools. It was written during a time when there were few automated testing options, with a focus on web-based manual testing. The author believes this has been one of his weakest books, ponders why he didn’t do better, but likes the idea that, over time, he can make updates that make it a little less shallow.

→ This is the book if you want to travel back in time for a complementary perspective on frameworks, coding guidelines, quality control—and the craft of web development.

About the author

Jens Oliver Meiert is a German engineering leader and author who lives in Galicia, Spain. He’s the architect of various large-scale websites (e.g., for GMX/United Internet, Aperto/IBM iX, and Google), a contributor to web standards (like HTML, CSS, WCAG), and a reviewer and writer for technical publishers (O’Reilly, Frontend Dogma). Jens works with the tension between aspiration and curiosity, between mastering things but also just trying them—which is why he writes about topics other than web development, and also publishes independently. For more about Jens, visit his website, meiert.com.