Other Software > Developer's Corner

W3Schools is trouble..?

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Stoic Joker:
So I went out looking for some of the new cutting-edge HTML5 sites to use as examples for an in-house project...And I ran across something quite perplexing.

http://w3fools.com/

Seems they have quite a Bone-to-pick with w3schools.com: W3Schools offers certifications whose value is highly debateable… No employers recognize or respect W3Schools certificates. Unlike Microsoft’s MCP or Cisco’s CCC, W3Schools has absolutely no authority over the technologies for which they claim to provide certification. Unlike CompTIA’s ANSI/ISO accredited certifications, W3Schools has no support from governing standards bodies. W3Schools frequently publishes inaccurate or misleading content. We have collected several examples illustrating this problem below.
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I have used w3schools.com in the past to get past an issue or two, but... After reading through some of their examples it does appear (that I shouldn't be) they have a point ... But I wanted to run it past the crew here to see what you thing of their body-of-evidence.

housetier:
There is a ... "movement", if you will, to promote better JS documentation. I have seen this banner on sites such as thechangelog.com.

So far I have no recollection of receiving wrong information from w3schools. But they have also never been my only source of information. For ze Germans there is the superb and unmatched SELFHTML, which seems a little outdated: SELFHTML: Version 8.1.2 vom 01.03.2007
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Selfhtml has examples for virtually everything, and it's all hyperlinked. For many this is the one-stop reference work.

I tend to use w3schools less and less these days for two reasons: bad press from many opensource sites that employ the banner you see above; and because I do less and less web stuff (and I feel great about it!)

housetier:
Well "many sites" might exaggerate: some sites that I frequent do sport this banner.

Renegade:
Dunno... Some things seem to be nitpicking. e.g.

www.w3schools.com/php/php_mysql_insert.asp
$sql="INSERT INTO Persons (FirstName, LastName, Age)
VALUES
('$_POST[firstname]','$_POST[lastname]','$_POST[age]')";

Yikes. This code exposes an application to trivial SQL injection attacks and should never have been posted. It contravenes every best practice.
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Well, yeah. But it demonstrates the concept. Not that you should use the code, but you should know the concept. Lots of sample code shouldn't be used in production. That's nothing new. Sample code often omits parts that should be in production, but would make the example less readable.

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