---
title: "HTML5: Up and Running"
date: "2010-11-05T13:30:59Z"
categories:
  - coding
wp_id: 2551
description: 'I found Mark Pilgrim’s HTML5: Up and Running to be the best introduction to features like canvas, video, and storage. It intelligently covers history and feature detection using Modernizr, complemented by tools like HTML5 Boilerplate.'
keywords: [html5, mark pilgrim, modernizr, html5 boilerplate, canvas, web development]
---

![](http://covers.oreilly.com/images/9780596806026/cat.gif) [HTML5: Up and Running](http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596806026/) is the book version of Mark Pilgrim’s comprehensive introduction to HTML5 at [DiveIntoHTML5.org](http://diveintohtml5.org/). Whether you buy the book or read it online, it’s the best introduction to the topic you’ll find.

Mark begins with the history of HTML5 (using email archaeology, as he calls it). You’d never guess that many of the problems we have with XHTML, MIME types, etc. have roots in discussions over 20 years ago. From then on, he moves into feature detection (which uses the [Modernizr](http://www.modernizr.com/) library), new tags, canvas, video, geo-location, storage, offline web apps, new form features and microdata. Each chapter can be read independently – so if you’re planning to use this as a reference, you may be better of reading the links kept up-to-date at [DiveIntoHTML5.org](http://diveintohtml5.org/). If you’re interesting in learning about the features, it’s a very readable book, terse, simple, and above all, delightfully intelligent.

Incidentally, if you’re starting off on a new HTML5 project, you’re probably best off using [HTML5BoilerPlate.com](http://html5boilerplate.com/). It’s very [actively maintained](http://github.com/paulirish/html5-boilerplate/commits/master), and contains some really nifty tricks you can learn like the [protocol-relative URL](http://paulirish.com/2010/the-protocol-relative-url/).

Disclosure: I’m writing this post as part of [O’Reilly’s blogger review program](http://oreilly.com/bloggers/). While I’m not getting paid to review books, I sure am getting to read them for free.