Reviews for Refactoring HTML: Improving the Design of Existing Web Applications (Addison-Wesley Signature)

1. Pretty good summary of ways to improve HTML

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, July 12th, 2009

   There's nothing very wrong with this -- it's just a bit uninspiring.
   
   I'm not sure who the intended audience is. Seasoned coders have heard it all before; beginners will get bored.
   
   A lot of the content feels redundant. Each of the refactorings is given the same motivation/trade-offs/mechanics format, which means that even a simple refactoring like 'Replace i with em or CSS' takes three pages or more. There's also a long appendix explaining regular expressions, and a lot of introductory padding.
   
   I'd say some of the author's suggestions are pretty contentious, too:
   - his repeated use of inline CSS in refactorings
   - the suggestion that contact forms should be replaced with mailto links
   - his strange ideas for hiding email adresses.
   
   There *is* some interesting stuff here -- the Tools chapter is especially good -- and I have great respect for the author in other contexts.
   
   But as an expensive hardback, this isn't really worth it.